The dairy shed is a peaceful escape from the bustle of an urgent care clinic for Megan Moore, who regularly changes between overalls and scrubs. She has a hybrid career of caring for cows and caring for people as a nurse for 24 years and a fourth-generation farmer.

“Sometimes I feel like I care more about the cows than human patients,” Moore laughed.

“But I guess I am more emotionally invested in the animals, and the worst they will do is poop on me.”

The farm is on the outskirts of Pironga, between Te Awamutu and Hamilton, and has been in the Lorimer family for a century. This season Moore and husband Gary have gone into partnership with her brother, Scott Lorimer, making it a real family affair.

“Scott used to work at Yashilli at the dairy factory in Pōkeno, but they had some changes last year and he decided to come give farming a crack,” Moore said.

“We are schooling him up to grow into a herd manager role so between him and our other manager, Blake Craw, the day-to-day will be covered and I can step back into more of an overseer role.”

They run two herds as the farm splits nicely from the dairy shed. One herd has the heifers and older cows and the mixed age cows are on the other side with slightly longer walking distances and a few more hills. But the farm is generally flat to rolling.

Typically, the year is split into six-month blocks for Moore. She is dedicated to the farm during the busy period and spends less time nursing; when it quietens down on the farm, she picks up more shifts nursing.

Nurses are in high demand, which allows Moore that flexibility to be involved across both. She has been involved with setting up a new GP clinic in Horotiu, near Hamilton, for a good chunk of the past year, and is also working casually at Angelsea Clinic in Hamilton.

“There is a shortage of nurses so anything is better than nothing when it comes to sharing my time across both.

“Sometimes I’ll even milk in the morning then head into the clinic for a shift.”

Growing up, she loved being on the farm and would come back every summer during her nursing studies in Auckland. Not long after she graduated she went to England where she did a bit of nursing and dabbled in farming.

She also met her Englishman husband Gary who was a builder. After seven years in England she managed to convince him to come back to New Zealand with her in 2009 and get involved in the family farm.

There was a sharemilker on the farm until 2011 and other contract milkers until June 2021, when Megan and Gary took up contract milking the farm themselves.

“Mum and Dad had their herd 30 years before they sold it to the sharemilker, so we had to start again by buying a herd when the sharemilker’s contract finished.”

They are milking 430 cows that are a mix of Jersey and Jersey cross and Moore puts a big emphasis on breeding for quality. She is heading towards more Jersey content but aims for slightly bigger stature and capacity.

“I spend a lot of time picking bulls for AI.

“We even have a couple of contract matings now, we are starting to get the rewards we are aiming for.”

She concentrates on health, getting rid of anything with any issues. They maintain a low bulk tank somatic cell count, between 77 and 115,000, and have a low rate of mastitis. 

The farm had issues with lameness in the past, but she has been focused on reducing problems and her parents invested in significant race maintenance last year to help.

They are also becoming A2A2 and DNA test the calves every year to understand their status.

They operate a System 2 to 3, depending on the season. They have a feed pad but it is only used for certain times of the season. 

Moore’s parents bought a support block part way up Mount Pirongia in Te Pahu about four years ago that her dad manages.

“We run quite a closed herd after the Mycoplasma bovis scare and we had concerns around youngstock management.”

Silage comes back from the support block and they grow maize on the home farm.

Between the farm and nursing, Moore is relatively busy, but she still has time for their children, 11-year-old Nathan and five-year-old Chelsea, who also enjoy the farming lifestyle.

Moore plays a bit of tennis in her spare time, and she, Gary and Nathan are into table tennis. She is involved with the local sports complex in Pirongia, making sure her schedule is never quiet.

Into the future, they will continue to evolve their business dynamic, giving Lorimer a good chance to submerge himself into farming. And Moore looks forward to continuing to improve the herd’s, and her patients’, health and wellbeing.

In Focus Podcast | A new strategy for advocacy

AGMARDT and KPMG have released a report that offers a new way of organising our advocacy networks. Common Ground assesses the positives and negatives of the advocacy groups we have now and sets out a strategy that could improve the collaboration and messaging emanating from the farming world. AGMARDT general manager Lee-Ann Marsh joins Bryan to discuss the report.

The excitement of landing a big fish when out fishing is how Emma Poole describes the reward of landing a healthy calf on the ground from an embryo transfer. 

This is her third season operating an embryo recipient business, where high genetic value embryos are implanted into cows with lower breeding worth.

She said it is a risky, stressful business but it can be really rewarding. The idea came about after buying 150 high genetic merit cows. Some had contracts with LIC and some became part of the Generate programme.

“We are testing the waters and getting to know the cows and processes,” she said. 

“It is tricky to manage and there is a lot of money involved, and it requires intense skills but between my husband Chris and I we seem to be covering the bases well.

“Our priority is the welfare of the surrogate cow and the embryo transfer calf. We wouldn’t be doing it if we couldn’t assure that.”

They rear the calves to 100kg and then send them to their owners. The concept is popular and they are at capacity this year. It is also contributing to minimising the number of bobby calves in the system.

“We rear about 1000 calves each year, mostly beef along with the replacement calves and the embryo transfer calves too,” Emma said.

“The home farm is split calving so we start rearing calves in March and keep going till October, November.”

Emma and Chris are in equity partnership with his parents, John and Anne Poole, on their family farm 10 minutes from Te Awamutu in Pirongia.

They have reduced cow numbers in recent years, from 750 to 620. They focused on reducing the amount of imported feed, growing more maize on the platform and growing crops in the back paddocks to reduce how far the cows have to walk.

They also purchased another farm last year that milks 400 spring calving cows.

Chris oversees both farms with his brother-in-law, Ben Shilt, working on the new block and his father running the support block where all the young stock go. Emma manages the embryo business and they have two young boys, Beau, who is two and a half, and Sullivan, who is three months old.

Emma is a veterinarian by trade, having asked her father so many questions on the farm growing up that he suggested she go find out the how and why of things – so she did.

She didn’t make it into vet school on her first attempt at Massey’s Albany campus, so she moved to Palmerston North to pursue an agricultural degree, which was where she met Chris.

He coaxed her into joining Massey Young Farmers in 2014. She had heard about the organisation and her brother, Tim Dangen, was involved in the Lincoln club.

She entered her first FMG Young Farmer of the Year district final by default; the region had organised one specifically before exams to suit the Massey club, but nobody entered.  Emma was on the club committee at the time and had to step up.

“I remember being super scared on my way there. I was putting myself out there in front of all these people I had just made friends with.”

She soon realised everyone was in the same boat, and enjoyed giving it a crack.

In her final year of university she made it to a regional final, which was a whole new level of competition. She underestimated her workload during the weeks leading into the contest so didn’t prepare as much as she wanted, but still placed second overall.

And she knew she wanted to give it a better shot the following year.

“It was my first year of work after uni so I knew it would be tough, but I also knew I would soon lose a lot of the general knowledge we gained at vet school.”

By this point she had moved to the home farm with Chris and was working for VetOra in Te Awamutu. She won the Waikato Bay of Plenty Young Farmers regional final and competed in the national final in Hawke’s Bay.

She then went on to compete again in 2023 and won the national final title, making her the first woman in contest history to win.

“Being the first female winner bought a lot of media attention, it was quite overwhelming to start with.”

This year, she and Chris, who has also been a grand finalist, have been involved with organising the contest, which was held in Hamilton in July.

“Chris and I have both got a lot out of the contest ourselves so we wanted to give back.”

She has also recently been awarded the Young Veterinarian Award for 2024 by the New Zealand Veterinary Association.

Between having the boys Emma did some veterinary consulting work with Fonterra. Part of her work involved travelling around New Zealand to deliver some emissions roadshows, largely to a veterinary audience.

“It was really insightful as a Fonterra shareholder to work for them.

“I enjoyed being on the inside and it built my confidence around the direction of the business.”

She was able to demonstrate first hand some of the challenges dairy farmers face trying to juggle so many things, and got a lot out of it herself.

“It’s been cool to practice what we preach and show that reprioritising can have an impact and it is achievable.”

Going forward, the focus is driving efficiency within the farming business, spending time together as a family and supporting other young farmers to give the contest a crack.

Running around an indoor netball court in the depths of a Southland winter, Sarah Hopkins can’t imagine going back to playing outdoors. It is one of the many perks she has found moving to the region from Manawatū eight years ago. 

She has embraced the opportunities available, including her role as an associate trustee with the Dairy Women’s Network (DWN).

“When I moved to Invercargill I planned to see heaps of Southland and I said yes to a lot of opportunities at the start,” Hopkins said.

“It’s amazing what opportunities open if you say yes.”

Saying yes is why she moved in the first place, when her current accountancy firm was looking for someone with a rural focus to lead a newly acquired rural division.

She grew up in Feilding, where her parents own a motel and restaurant business. She lived at the motel and did plenty of work around the complex.

“It’s similar to farming, in the aspect that my parents were always working and the work never stops.”

Although she went to Feilding High School, she did not have any experience with agriculture till she graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of Accountancy.

“I sort of fell into rural accounting. I secured a scholarship in Year 13 through an agriculturally focused accounting firm that helped towards my study and provided a job after I finished,” Hopkins explains.

“I learnt a lot about farm accounting and worked on various farming clients.”

And that was what made her attractive to her current accounting firm as she was able to bring that knowledge to Southland.

Her accounting career has advanced significantly, through managing a rural client base as an associate. And she is excited to become a director and shareholder when she buys into the business next year.

She works with a range of clients at all stages of their farming careers, from just starting to exiting through various forms of succession. The knowledge and skills she has developed as a rural accountant will benefit the role with DWN too.

“As trusted advisers to farmers we hear a lot and now I can bring that knowledge to help DWN at a national level.”

She was appointed to the 20-month position in February. It was created to support women with a desire to develop their governance experience and provides a framework and mentoring to develop skills and experience by actively participating in governance with the organisation.

She has been enjoying working with the dairy sector in a different way.

“I’m not there as Sarah the accountant, I am Sarah with an accounting background, and I’m enjoying cementing my thoughts and ideas about the sector and getting a deeper understanding.

“Everyone is facing similar challenges.”

She believes being an accountant is about more than simply crunching numbers.

“It’s about providing comprehensive support to my clients, helping them to achieve their business goals, and offering a listening ear when they need it.

“I look forward to taking these skills into governance with DWN.”

Originally she became involved with DWN through attending their social and educational events, including delivering workshops.

When the associate role came up she thought it looked good and chucked her name in the ring.

The DWN Trust board HR committee recognised Hopkins has strong regional networks and customer focus. And her leadership and team mentoring capabilities were welcome skills to the role. 

When she was appointed the committee chair, Lucy Johnson, emphasised Hopkins’  strong set of values.

“I’m excited by this position and know that I will gain experience, grow my skills, and build confidence.

“I hope that I can give back as much as I receive. I see a future in governance and appreciate the opportunity I’ve been given by DWN,” said Hopkins.

She has played netball since she was young and is involved with the local St Marys Netball Club.

She is also an avid traveller and she and partner Cam like to explore different places each year – though it was a shock landing back in Invercargill after a recent trip around Asia, leaving Singapore at 32degC.

She is looking forward to saying yes to more opportunities and always pushes others to give things a go.

“Great things do happen when you break out of your comfort zone.”

In Focus Podcast: Full Show | 26 July

Bryan attended the Red Meat Sector Conference in Wellington and caught up with Meat Industry Association chair Nathan Guy, who outlined some of the structural shifts in the industry and gave his views on the big challenges sheep and beef farmers are facing at the moment.

Immigration settings are still causing headaches for farmers as calving begins. Federated Farmers dairy chair Richard McIntyre tells Bryan what he’s doing to help improve the process and gives some tips on how farmers can give themselves the best chance of clearing the hurdles.

Neal Wallace joins Bryan to wrap up the Red Meat Sector Conference, which brought together processors, industry groups, stakeholders and farmers. The sector is doing it tough right now and judging by the conference programme, there’s more uncertainty ahead.

With no responsibilities tying him down, Christopher Gerard Vila made a spontaneous decision nearly 17 years ago to move to New Zealand. 

Visiting his sister and brother-in-law, who had relocated from the Philippines to Reporoa to work on a dairy farm, Vila loved the place so much, he decided to make the move himself.

“The visa process wasn’t easy but I persevered and worked my way from 12-month working visas to residency and finally to citizenship,” Vila said.

“I do appreciate the struggle migrants go through to get a visa, I was very lucky.”

Back home he had worked for an international swine and poultry feed company after finishing university. He had studied a Bachelor of Animal Husbandry as well as a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine but the temptation to move to New Zealand to give farming a go was too great.

An agency helped get him started, finding a farm assistant role in Mamaku near Rotorua. After calving he moved to Maxwell Farms in Reporoa where his sister and brother-in-law were.

After two seasons he moved to a 2IC role in Atiamuri between Taupō and Tokoroa.

“I love learning as much as I can, I truly believe farming is more about attitude than skill.

“You’ve got to have patience, and willingness to learn and be willing to do a lot of hard work, it’s not easy but it is rewarding.”

His veterinary knowledge has come in handy dealing with animals, but in order to have his qualification recognised here he would have to go through a tedious and expensive registration process.

He had minimal experience with agriculture before coming to NZ, although back home his family raised pigs.

“We had about nine sows we would breed from, and then raise the piglets to fatten. It is a lot different to dairy farming,” Vila said.

The first time he went home after moving to NZ, he met his wife, Jonah, through a family friend. She initially came to NZ on a visitor visa to see if it could work and once she got things in order she moved over permanently 13 years ago. They got married in Rotorua and now have two children, a daughter Lily, who is six, and a baby boy, Leonzo.

“Jonah complements my farming skills with her knowledge of financials and business stuff,” Vila said.

“We make a great team.”

The couple have been on a farm in Ōhaupō, between Te Awamutu and Hamilton, for 11 years now. It is owned by the JB and BE Turnwald Family Trust and Vila started as a manager for the sharemilker, Mark Turnwald.

Recently, he and Jonah have bought 30% of the sharemilking business with a long-term plan to take over more.

“Mark mainly looks after the tractor work, the dry cows and heifers, and I run the day to day.

“He has been getting me more involved in the business side and I am fortunate to have such great support.”

The farm is 102 hectares, milking 350-360 cows. They also have a lease block nearby where the heifers are run. They operate a System 3 to 4, depending on the season, using in-shed feeding throughout milking, and maize and grass silage in the fringes.

This year they have built a composting barn, which is proving to be a bit of trial and error while determining the best system for the farm.

“We looked at a lot of composting barns before committing to building one, and there was mixed feedback but a lot of people loved them.

“Our farm soil type is peat so it gets really wet and the farm didn’t have a stand-off pad, so rather than sacrificing a paddock we built the barn.

“It’s for animal wellbeing and the long term sustainability of the farm”

Vila plans to use it on hot days and cold winter days to shelter the herd and he is hoping he will get more out of them.

The shed is a 28-a-side herringbone with automatic cup removers and there are two team members alongside Vila working on the farm. 

He has just completed his Level 5 Diploma in AgriBusiness Management through Primary ITO, which he is excited about.

“The study was great, it taught me a lot about the business side of farming.”

And in 2021 he entered the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, winning both the Waikato regional and National title for the Manager category. He said it was an overwhelming experience. He had no idea how well he would do and now he looks forward to entering the share farmer category in the future.

Off farm, he plays basketball at the Waikato Filipino Association and he is an active member of the Freemasons NZ under Waipa Lodge 119 in Te Awamutu. They do a lot of charity work, much like Lions clubs.

“I am very thankful I was able to move to New Zealand, we have set up a great life here and we are loving it.

“I enjoy farming, it’s a great life for me and my family, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

Buying a farm right before the payout crash in 2014 was an experience best described by Jon Pemberton as character building. 

He and wife Birgit had taken the leap from leasing to farm ownership just as the $3.90 low happened and they felt like they were losing a dollar for every milksolid produced.

“It certainly tested our resilience,” Jon said.

“Fortunately we got lucky with a contract from Open Country for a stable milk price, which made a huge difference.

“And instead of buying more cows, we ended up doing about 120 Friesian bull calves for North Island contracts with April delivery, which returned the equivalent of about $5 per kilogram of milksolids when working back from pasture eaten.”

The farm is in Brydone, eastern Southland, milking 370 cows on 139 hectares. They managed to produce 125,000kg of milksolids in that first season, milking 320 cows solely on pasture, but by 2020 they had increased cow numbers and production to 227,000kgMS.

Jon is the fourth generation in his family to be dairy farming and the base of their herd dates back to the late 1940s. He is originally from Canterbury and moved to Southland as a teenager with his parents in 1999. They bought a farm that Jon went on to contract milk and lease before it was sold in 2013.

Jon and Birgit sold most of their original herd to gather funds for their farm purchase. They sent the best cows to Canterbury and kept the rest to begin rebuilding. 

Despite the challenges of their first season, they persevered. Making adjustments in the following season, they culled many older cows, resulting in a notably younger herd.

Growing the business further, they also began leasing a 260ha farm at Menzies Ferry in 2021 milking 780 cows.

The Menzies herd was put together late in the season as they took over the lease in March so there were limited options to find good cows. They ended up with some big Friesians with American genetics that do not seem to fit their system, and they have been mating them to Jersey semen to reduce the size.

“In that first season, we saw these bigger cows took 10% more feed but they produced 20 to 30 less kilograms of milksolids. They were inefficient.

“I’m sure if we turned up the supplementary feed tap they would go really well, but it just doesn’t suit the New Zealand system.

“Our perfect cow is about 510kg in liveweight, producing 580 to 590kg of milksolids efficiently.”

They have in-shed feeding and feed 500kg of pellets and 200kg of palm kernel per cow at each farm.

“We run a basic system. They go into a new break in the afternoon and back into it again in the morning. It’s a 24-hour break and that way we can see if there are any shortages on feed.

“The team are pretty good at checking when they’re getting the cows in, usually they’ll flick me a text to let me know if the cows had enough or not.”

Both farms operate a System 4 to 5 and run identical systems. They treat it as a whole, with all the cows calving at one farm then breaking them up.

“We try to mirror the two farms, so the same feed goes in the same area per cow because the bigger farm is just two herds instead of one, so it’s the same area effectively per herd, per paddock.

“The team transitions between the farms so it keeps it simple and there’s no question about feed, they don’t have to try and gauge it. We run the system so similar, it makes decision making quite easy.”

They start calving on August 1 and he chases a 300-day lactation, usually achieving 290 days.

This season has also had some challenges. They had to cull 90 cows due to staph infections and they are coming off the back of a sexed semen failure that had a huge impact on their calving spread – and both properties suffered from flooding in September.

“Every season has its challenges, sometimes they hit harder than others.”

The next two years are focused on building herd numbers. They have got their six-week in-calf rate to 68%, from 53% after last year’s issues, and are aiming to get back to the mid-70s. 

They took things back to basics this year, with four to five weeks of conventional semen, followed by some Wagyu then on to short gestation for a total of 11.5 weeks’ mating.

After being stung in that first season with a low payout, Jon is always conscious of costs, trying to run a cost-efficient system but without cutting corners.

“We used a few tactics to lift performance. We always strive to hit body condition score targets and it probably helped that all the heifers were together at Menzies, with the 3- to 5-year-olds in a separate herd.

“The older cows are at Brydone where there is less walking.”

He said they also spread their risk by using a good number of bulls.

Using Wagyu was a new concept but they have decided to keep their calf market simple. The local market can be inconsistent and cause challenges with their limited facilities, so they want to keep it easy with a guaranteed market for calves.

“We’re aiming for simplicity to limit surprises.”

Birgit is in charge of calf rearing, and is meticulous. She has also taken on a new role with Open Country Dairies as their Otago Southland Farm Environment Plan Facilitator after they approached her.

It was great timing as their youngest had started school.

They have three children – Beau, 12, Miriam, 11 and Anja, 5.

Jon has extensive involvement in the community. He is the local representative on Environment Southland where he spends two to three days per week in council as part of the 12 councillor team.

“There is a lot going on in the political space at the moment, with a lot of moving parts, but I am really enjoying being a part of it.

“I’m a big advocate for focusing on outcomes and effects. It’s all about compromise – neither side will get their own way, so it is about how we can work together.”

He has played a pivotal role in founding Ag Proud NZ, an initiative aimed at advocating for positive farming practices and increasing awareness about the mental health of rural communities.

The organisation focuses on highlighting the efforts of the agricultural sector and fostering stronger connections between urban and rural communities.

And he actively contributes to the Three Rivers Catchment Group, which aims to keep farmers updated on environmental matters and initiatives within the catchment area.

They are lucky to have a good team on farm that allows them to have so much off-farm activity.

“They’re a cohesive team and work really well together. We respect each other and we are trying to build leadership within the team,” he said.

The medium-term goal is to find the system that works for them. They ultimately do not want to be running two separate farms, but are still undecided on cow numbers and whether they will operate a closed system going forward.

“We don’t want to overcapitalise on dairy. In 15 years it might be a different picture so we want to keep our eye on the bigger picture and be adaptable.”

On average they travel to Europe every five years and are heading to Thailand next summer for a family wedding. They will continue to travel and expose the kids to the world.

But for now Jon is really enjoying governance and Birgit is loving getting stuck into supporting farmers.

To deepen their understanding of sustainable dairy practices, a Spanish delegation of agricultural and retail leaders travelled to New Zealand. 

Led by farmer directors and the CEO of the Spanish co-operative COVAP, along with representatives from Mercadona, a prominent supermarket chain, the group’s mission was to exchange ideas and experiences with NZ processors and farmers.

The tour, facilitated by Alltech, a leading player in sustainability programmes, aimed to provide firsthand insights into sustainable dairy farming practices and their implementation. 

With dairy sustainability forming a cornerstone of COVAP’s branding and market strategy on the Iberian peninsula, the delegation sought to glean valuable lessons from NZ’s dairy industry, known for its efficiency and sustainability.

“COVAP and Mercadona travelling together is a testimony to their strong working relationship. Mercadona recognises that their success depends on the success of their producers,” Alltech sustainability insights manager Nigel Meads said.

“The business model is integral to their sustainability story, and they shared their approach with New Zealand businesses while they were here.”

One of the primary objectives of the visit was to engage directly with NZ dairy farmers to understand how sustainability is achieved on the ground. They visited several dairy farms during their week in NZ and talking with farmers allowed the delegation to witness real-world examples of sustainable practices and explore potential avenues for adaptation in the Spanish context.

The delegation’s discussions with processors and brand owners focused on various aspects of sustainability, including animal welfare, environmental stewardship, and economic viability. These conversations provided invaluable insights into the holistic approach adopted by NZ’s dairy industry towards sustainability, aligning closely with COVAP’s own sustainability objectives.

During their visit they noted the differences in market dynamics between Spain and NZ. Spain primarily focuses on domestic consumption, a lot different to how NZ is geared towards export, with a significant emphasis on value-added products. 

Despite these differences, both countries face similar challenges, including succession planning, regulatory pressures and sustainability concerns.

The delegation also gained a deeper understanding of NZ’s unique dairy model, characterised by its co-operative structure and integrated supply chain. 

The co-operative ethos resonated strongly with COVAP’s own mission, particularly as it operates in a region facing challenges such as water scarcity and limited forage availability.

The visit emphasised how interconnected global dairy markets are, showing that changes in NZ’s dairy sector affect markets worldwide, including Spain. The delegation recognised the importance of staying informed about global trends and best practices to navigate challenges and drive innovation in their home market.

Reflecting on the experience, members of the delegation expressed admiration for NZ’s dairy sector and its commitment to sustainability. They noted the importance of cross-cultural exchange in tackling shared challenges and driving positive change within the agricultural sector.

After a whirlwind week, the delegation returned to Spain armed with newfound insights and inspiration on their path to a more sustainable future for dairy farming.

After spending 18 months chasing snow in Canada, Kristina Illston found herself longing for the rolling green hills of Taihape. Her parents had packed her off after high school to explore the wide world but she knew she always wanted to come back to the farm.

“Mum and Dad always encouraged me to gain some experience outside the farm,” Kristina said.

“So I went to Lincoln to study agricultural science and then worked for Agtrac in the South Island for a while, but snowboarding in Canada was always on the bucket list.”

She jumped on a plane after 18 months with Agtrac and spent her time working on a few ranches and chasing the snow before heading back to the family farm.

Arriving back she pulled on her work boots and got stuck into the farm business with her parents. It took a bit to settle into a rhythm but they found their feet and are enjoying the dynamic.

“Mum has taken a bit of a step back. She’s still involved in planning and decision making but she leaves most of it to Dad and I,” Kristina said.

Her parents, Mark and Lorraine Illston, had taken over the farm from her grandfather in their early 20s. He had it from his father, so it has been in the family for a few generations.

Mark grew up on the farm, which is in Mataroa just out of Taihape, and Lorraine was from Rotorua with Dutch parents who had moved over after the war. 

They had three children, Michael, Tony and Kristina, and while the kids were young they moved the family to England and then the Netherlands, spending five and a half years abroad.

While they were away they had a manager running the farm and Mark would travel back to keep an eye on things.

The farm originally ran Drysdale sheep and Mark and Lorraine started out running ewes for Kelso. It was about 15 years ago they diverged to start their own stud, Minda Hill Genetics.

“Mum and Dad were interested in genetics and could see some opportunities.

“We were having trouble with high scanning percentages, which can be a problem with the snow storms that happen often in Taihape as triplets are highly susceptible to the weather.”

Getting stuck into developing their own animals, they focused on structure primarily. Anything with poor feet or poor confirmation is culled and they always look at any ewes and rams physically before looking at the numbers.

“We’re after a good meaty animal with good growth as well as good reproduction.

“We’ve essentially created a Perendale-looking sheep with a Texel bum and clean, open points. 

“And with the Perendale they’re free moving, which is good for the big hills, they move a lot quicker, which can save a lot of time.”

They get good advice and support from sheep guru Dave Kitney, particularly around structure.

It was around 12 years ago that Mark and Trevor Cook, a well known veterinarian and farm adviser, predicted facial eczema was going to be an issue.They started bringing some Romney in to build some facial eczema tolerance in the flock.

Their testing results have improved substantially over the past 11 years with the majority of rams being tested at 0.6mg/kg, which is a high rate, and not being affected at all.

“It’s great, we are managing to maintain our structure and we are getting good repro and growth while introducing and making great progress with facial eczema tolerance,” Kristina said.

They have been growing their customer base but they do feel the challenges sheep farming has been facing.

“It is a dwindling market. With an increase in forestry and shedding sheep over the past five years, we certainly notice the challenges traditional sheep farming faces.

“But we have a strong base of customers around Gisborne and we are developing some good local relationships.

“The feedback has been great, farmers are pleased with our structure and seeing great scanning results, particularly in two-tooths, and our rams seem to increase scanning and weaning percentages.”

They run 1800 ewes, including the two-tooths, and 600 hoggets as well as 400 ram hoggets. Ram sales happen in early November, and they have around three to four clients visiting each day.

Kristina works with them to identify what they are after and she selects a number of rams that meet their criteria, showcasing at least twice as many as they are after.

“Some buyers will make their decisions just by seeing the rams physically, others will only look at the numbers and some will look at both. Everyone is after something different,” she said.

Kristina is responsible for the data. She is very interested in genetics and breeding and looks after the computer work. Mark looks after the farm strategic decision making, and all three of them discuss things together.

She appreciates having her parents to bounce ideas off and learn from. And they encourage her to get off farm as much as she can, too. She is an avid hiker and enjoys hunting as well as playing squash.

Eventually Kristina would like to take over the farm and she wants to keep raising awareness of the stud and the work they are doing, which will hopefully lead to an increase in ram sales.

In Focus Podcast: Full Show | 10 May

We chat with with Katrina Roberts, who is the new Dairy Woman of the Year. She’s a Waikato vet, working with dairy farmers to not only maintain cow health but also improve the efficiency of their farm systems.

Federated Farmers arable chair David Birkett joins us to talk about the arable industry awards, which are open to nominations now. 

And, senior reporter Hugh Stringleman wraps up the dairy commodity season for us, following this week’s GDT auction.

Tired of watching her colleagues waste time and money on unhealthy snacks during breaks, Amanda Hodgson took matters into her own hands. 

With a deep-rooted understanding of the importance of a well-fed team, stemming from her background in sheep and beef farming, she launched an initiative to ensure her entire crew enjoyed quality smoko and lunch every single day by preparing their meals.

“It doesn’t matter where they are working in the country, they’re on site by 7am, and the boys would go to the bakery and expect a pie and a doughnut to last them all day,” Amanda says.

“But that’s not enough. It’s super important they’re fed well to go the distance, so we started feeding them and now we have a full time cook in the team too.”

They have vegetable gardens on site and at home on their local lifestyle block, and they get a beef animal processed every six months.

Amanda and her husband Matt own and operate Archway Group based in Matamata. They make concrete panels for rural infrastructure, predominantly for effluent systems or silage bunkers. 

They have cultivated a work culture centered on efficiency, communication and continuous improvement. 

Embracing the philosophy that “simple systems attract great people”, they have developed streamlined processes and fostered a tight-knit team dynamic.

About a decade ago, they participated in a local business group that hosted an intensive team day. 

Amanda recalls how they interviewed a diverse range of people related to the business, including customers, suppliers and staff.

“Our customers and suppliers were happy as,” Amanda says.

“But our staff had some valuable feedback.

“They expressed their admiration for Matt and I, but when they arrived on-site, they felt lost and out of the loop with no plans, no pack lists and just were expected to know what we are thinking.

“That feedback was a wake-up call for us – a catalyst for change.”

This realisation prompted Amanda and Matt to re-evaluate their approach and implement systems and processes to ensure clarity and cohesion among their team. 

“We don’t get it right all the time, that’s for sure, but our staff have been around for a while so sometimes it is the small things that count to create a great team culture.

“And it’s never finished – better never stops.”

The efficiencies made a huge difference to their workflow. Jobs that historically took up to 10 weeks to complete are now taking only a few days. 

They engage regularly with a business consultant, Jimmy Conway from Free Flow Partners.

“Jimmy started us on our journey of systems and organisation and now we work with him at least monthly.

“We’ve had people try to tell us we should have a formal board to support our business since it has grown but we like how things work, we are agile and can adapt easily when things need to adjust and change.”

Amanda grew up on a sheep and beef station in the Mahi Peninsula. Her family have been on the same farm for 130 years and her brother and his wife are now running it. She was the youngest of three children and when she went to university she wanted to do something different to her siblings.

“My brother did an agriculture degree at Lincoln and my sister did ag at Massey so I tried to do something different which ended up being environmental science at Otago University.”

After university she went shepherding for 12 months before landing a role at Horizons Regional Council, based in Taumaranui.

“I was involved in the Sustainable Land Use initiative, helping hill country farmers planting and looking after water quality.

“I had good insight coming from the hill country myself and learning about sustainability.”

She met Matt when she was looking at going overseas, but she had a few friends coming back due to the global financial crisis, unable to get jobs, so she decided to stay put.

After Horizons she moved into an area manager role with Fonterra and then onto ASB as a rural banking associate. 

Matt had been a builder the whole way through before they set up Archway Group together just over a decade ago.

“It’s been a great way to use our combined knowledge and skill sets, and we enjoy supporting farmers a lot.”

Another way Amanda supports farmers is through the Dairy Expo, with the inaugural event happening in Matamata in February. The idea evolved from the former Effluent Expo run by Waikato Regional Council pre-covid.

“The Effluent Expo was to support farmers when there was a lot of change in the effluent space, but since the focus has shifted we could see an opportunity for a broader event.

“There are a lot of technologies and other resources farmers are using so we graduated from the effluent expo to the dairy expo and hosted it at the Matamata rugby grounds.”
Amanda is the driving force behind the event. They had over 90 exhibitors and about 1300 farmers through the gates over two days. It received great feedback.

When she is not busy keeping the workshop and team in order or organising industry events, Amanda loves to get out on her horse on the hunt field. She is also a keen runner and likes keeping fit and busy.

Matt likes fishing and they enjoy time with their kids, Annabelle, 11 and Jasper, 8. They are both passionate about preserving the value of local business and being deeply connected to their community, prioritising people over profits. 

This article first appeared in our sister publication, Dairy Farmer.

Improving lameness issues leads to better body condition scores, which in turn enhances reproduction rates among dairy cows.

This allows for more selective culling, resulting in a significant reduction in bulk tank somatic cell count. 

These positive outcomes stemming from a more proactive monitoring system have been incredibly valuable for contract milker Maia McRae.

“When we first got here there were a lot of lame cows,” Maia says.

“But we started using the WelFarm programme with Franklin Vets and they helped us work through the lameness problem, which improved so many other areas too.”

Maia contract milks 320 cows in Hikuwai in the Coromandel. She talks about how the different metrics are all linked and how it’s like getting all the puzzle pieces to fit.

“We’ve got all the information on hand and can look at it as a whole. The collaboration of everything together is what’s most valuable.”

She describes the WelFarm programme as a welfare-focused monitoring system, using data and information like any other farm monitoring tool. WelFarm is specifically designed for the wellbeing of the cows.

“Happy, healthy cows are productive cows, and the only other way we can monitor them is by the vat but that’s pretty retrospective.

“With WelFarm you can use the information to correspond what is happening with how it impacts the vat too.”

She uses it throughout the season with the vet team coming out to do various scores on the herd and then she can use that information to move forward.

“It benchmarks regionally and nationally and we use it as our start and go from there. We can see where we are and where we need to move to.

“And we can look back for planning.

“We can’t ask the cows what they need, you’ve got to try and use all the information you’ve got to figure out the best plan moving forward for them.”

She also acknowledges the significant impact it has had on their relationship with their veterinarian, noting that previously, they would only call the vet when something went wrong. Where now the vet is an integral part of their team, actively helping them to achieve their goals.

“The vets are a bank of knowledge and they are seeing everything first-hand and know what is and isn’t working for different farmers, so it’s great to have them more involved with our herd and proactively rather than just when there’s an issue.

“There’s also the compliance side. We supply Fonterra and need an Animal Wellbeing Plan for our Co-operative Difference, and since we have that better relationship with our vet it helps build our plan.”

Maia suspects there will be more requirements in future around herd health monitoring and reporting so it feels like they are a step ahead already doing a lot of it as well as getting the benefits from doing it.

She thinks the biggest thing preventing other farmers from signing up for WelFarm is the cost, but the way she looks at it is you have got to spend money to make money. 

“To have all of this at your fingertips and have your vets on board, I think it’s a small cost for a big gain long term, it’s an investment.

“We have basically halved our number of mastitis cases and there’s a huge flow-on from that. The savings in antibiotics alone is massive, it easily pays for itself.”

This article first appeared in our sister publication, Dairy Farmer.

Jaspal Singh found it hard to believe that just five people could look after 1000 cows when he started in his first farm assistant role on a dairy farm in Southland.

India-born Singh says he is used to a completely different farming system in his home country.

“I wasn’t sure how five people could look after that many cows. I was certainly nervous but
excited as well.”

He landed the role through a friend he had met while picking kiwifruit on a break from study. He had come to New Zealand to do some postgraduate study in IT, although he had lost interest in the IT industry and was finding it hard to find a job in Auckland.

It was a complete contrast, moving to Mossburn in Southland in June 2015, and he soon worked out how so few people could manage so many cows.

He climbed the ranks, spending two years on that first farm with sharemilker Sam Richards, then following him when he moved to Kurow.

“After a season in Kurow, Sam wanted to move to a smaller farm but by that point we wanted to find somewhere me and my wife Ruby could both work on the farm.”
Ruby is from India too. Her father was a farmer but farmed completely differently to a New Zealand farmer. She had studied commerce at the same university as Jaspal. In 2016 they got married in India and Ruby moved to Mossburn about six months later.

“She tried a few local retail jobs but she was keen to work on the farm too, so when Sam moved on we were fortunate the farm owner offered us both jobs on another one of his farms.”

Jaspal was the 2IC and enjoyed the opportunity but unfortunately the farm was hit with Mycoplasma bovis and they had to cull all of the cows across three farms. It was a sad time.

The next step was a farm manager role in Waimate, South Canterbury, milking 800 cows. Jaspal spent four years there and during this time entered the NZ Dairy Industry Awards. 

“The first time was a big learning experience. I didn’t know how to present, but I wanted to see where I was sitting and what I needed to improve. It was a good eye opener.

“The second time I entered, in 2022, I won the manager title for the Canterbury/North Otago region and then I went on to win the National Manager title.

“It was amazing. Ruby and I enjoyed the whole experience. It was a great honour and we were in the limelight in India as well.”

After winning industry awards, there were a lot of job opportunities available and Jaspal and Ruby chose to go contract milking in Culverden, North Canterbury. But with it being such an isolated area, they struggled to find staff.

“I advertised a role for 45 days and didn’t get a single applicant!” Jaspal says.

“The immigration system was tricky but we worked out how to make it work so we recruited some of our family from back home.”

His younger brother, cousin and brother-in-law now all work on the farm with Jaspal.

“It was completely new for them and the first few months were challenging, having to teach them, but I taught them about the importance of things and now they’re all doing very well.

“It was an investment for me and the return was worth it!”

It is a complete family affair, with Ruby rearing the calves and occasionally milking. She also does a bit of work for LIC in herd testing.
They have two sons now too. Ryan is four and a half, and Angus was born last June,

They enjoy the farming lifestyle with their family. The ultimate goal is farm ownership but they will work towards 50:50 first. They have a plan and are working towards their target.

Jaspal promotes the dairy sector as a great career option. He recommends people go and do a bit of work on a farm first to test the different lifestyle.

“Farming is full of adventures, there is lots to love and it’s a great experience,” he says.

This article first appeared in our sister publication, Dairy Farmer.

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