New look for PKW farms

Changes are on the horizon for the Parininihi ki Waitotara farming team, with a shift in how it is structured.

PKW General Manager Ahuwhenua, Shane Miles, says some of the roles in the team have been reassigned, to provide for increased support of its people and to deliver on health and safety, kaitiakitanga, and animal welfare aspirations.

Above image: Shane Miles, General Manager Ahuwhenua

“Making progress in these areas requires more office and administrative support for our people, especially the two business managers, who need to be out on our whenua to be able to talk and engage with our kaimahi,” says Shane.

The business managers are responsible for visiting all 25 farms in the PKW portfolio regularly as the organisation strives to deliver on its farming aspirations.

“At times, there is limited capacity for our business managers to spend time back in the office, and this is where the other two positions – business support manager and farming administrator – come in,” says Shane. “These latter two roles also provide a level of support to our on-farm kaimahi and farming partners involved in the wider farms business.”

“Our business is not just about cows and grass. There are many elements to running a successful agri-business, and ensuring we support our people is just one of them.”

The two new business managers are Roger Landers, who has been with PKW Farms for five years and previously held the Operations Manager role and James Lawn, who has just started work for PKW.

Above image: Roger Landers - Business Manager

"James was an active farmer in Taranaki before he started here so he knows the realities of working a farm and he knows how important it is that we make progress on our kaitiaki, animal welfare and health and safety work,” says Shane.

Above image: James Lawn - Business Manager

Bex Kelbrick, who was previously the Farms Administrator, and who has also spent time as a 2IC out on-farm, has taken on the new role of Business Support Manager. A new Farms Administrator is currently being recruited.

Above image: Bex Kelbrick - Business Support Manager

Another major project the team was preparing for was unpacking a benchmarking report that has been carried out on all farms throughout New Zealand.

PKW Farms is committed to becoming a best-in-class dairy business and there has been a significant amount of mahi done in the past 24 months to find out what changes were needed to deliver on that goal.

With the progress to date and the changes made, PKW Farms is now in a place where benchmarking its farms via external peers will provide the insight needed for further improvements.

“While we have as yet to go through the entire report and associated data, at first glance it looks like we are making the progress we need to be making for the wider benefit of PKW and its owners,” says Shane. “However, there’s always room for improvement so our team is looking forward to seeing the areas we need to concentrate on.”