22 minute read
Training and education
by AgriHQ
Exploring a career in ag science
Senior Waikato high school students with a passion for science got a taste of what a career in agricultural science could offer at an interactive workshop hosted by AgResearch, DairyNZ, LIC and the University of Waikato recently.
This was the second annual DairyNZ Year 13 Science Career Day, which aims to educate senior science students about the many and varied career opportunities within New Zealand agriculture.
“We have found a real lack of awareness in both secondary school teachers and students about the science career opportunities within the dairyrelated sector,” event organiser DairyNZ Industry Education Facilitator Susan Stokes says.
“Ensuring that agriculture, such an important driver of the New Zealand economy, has the science talent it needs for continued innovation is vital.
“It has been very pleasing to have had such a fantastic response to this year’s event from students and teachers alike. When a student writes on their feedback form they’d like to do it all again to learn more, you can’t ask for a better response than that.”
Forty students from 16 Waikato secondary schools took part in a variety of agricultural science activities, spanning pasture to plate. Soil assessment, pasture growth, nutrient leaching, artificial breeding, animal productivity and health, as well as meat science, were demonstrated by scientists from AgResearch, DairyNZ, LIC and Waikato University’s Earth Sciences department.
AgResearch food technologist Dr Mustafa Farouk took part in last year’s event and returned this year to introduce this year’s attendees to meat science.
“It was wonderful to talk to such enthusiastic young people about our work,” Farouk says.
“For many of them finding out about the variety of science expertise required by the industry, as well as the different career pathways you could take, was a real eye opener.”
DairyNZ and AgResearch science intern Charlotte Robertson presented her personal journey into a career in science at the event’s afternoon session.
“It was great to see how many of the students came from non-farming backgrounds, yet were still keen to come and explore the opportunities in the dairy sector,” Robertson says.
“Having grown-up a ‘townie’ myself, and ending up in dairy science almost by accident, it shows that you don’t need to grow up on-farm to end up working in the industry.
“Events like this provide students with more of an awareness of what is out there when it comes to making a decision about what to do after they leave school.”
This year’s keynote speaker, Waikato University scientist Dr Megan Balks, talked about her path into a career focused on the science of soils.
“As the world strives to feed a population of nine billion people, agricultural-based science has never been more important,” Balk says.
“A career in this field of science has taken me on a journey filled with adventures that I never dreamed were possible. We hope we have inspired the students with our personal stories, infected them with our passion for this industry and given them an insight into the wide range of options within a career in agricultural science.” n
Year 13 high school students got the opportunity to discover the word of science careers in the dairy and agricultural industries at an interactive workshop hosted by AgResearch, DairyNZ, LIC and the University of Waikato.
Upskilling on the job is key
Learning needs to happen at the right time so knowledge is fresh and able to be used practically in the farm business, Dairy
Training’s manager Hamish Hodgson says.
One course that provides the right skills at the right time is progression management.
“We’ve identified that assistant managers and managers sometimes lack the basic skills that, on a busy farm, some bosses simply don’t have time to teach,”
Hodgson says.
“Our progression management course is about upskilling managers in their current roles; getting up to speed with computers, tools and technologies; and kickstarting financial management skills.”
Hodgson knows about the challenges of farming, having previously managed a dairy farm.
He understands that to get some farmers to engage in courses, you need short courses held at suitable times (eg between milkings) and they must be practical and enjoyable.
“Many of our short courses are three part-days and are about enabling farmers to make good decisions. For some courses we offer both online and in-person options.”
Business by the Numbers is one short course for both new and experienced financial planners.
Farmers learn about farm budgets and can look at their own numbers to investigate future options for big-picture goals, like self-employment, or growing their sharemilking or farming business.
If farmers understand their numbers, they can have confident conversations with their bank, accountant or business partners.
“It’s also important that we offer practical tools and techniques and keep class sizes small so farmers are comfortable.
“It’s about getting in the classroom and giving it a go. We cater for all levels so all farmers can feel welcome. Our tutors are farmers or rural professionals, so in the classroom it’s like having a conversation over the farm gate.”
Writing a business plan might sound daunting, but Dairy Training’s short course Write a Business Plan, steps farmers through the process.
At the end of the short course farmers walk away with a five-year business plan, having clarified what they want to get out of farming and what they need to do to get there.
Dairy Training specialises in short courses, workshops, and full programmes for formal qualifications like the Diploma in Agribusiness Management. n
Dairy Training’s manager Hamish Hodgson says learning needs to be done at the right time so it can be used in a practical setting.
Courses
Business by the Numbers - Inperson (three part-days) or online (7x2-hour sessions) Write a Business Plan - In-person (three part-days) or online (7x2-hour sessions) Progression Management - 9x4-hour workshops
Visit dairytraining.co.nz for more information and register now – you’ve got everything to gain.
Keep up to date with DairyNZ events
DairyNZ offers a range of events for farmers including discussion groups, field days, business progression and other training events. You can keep up to date with the latest events online at dairynz.co.nz/events.
Need Help?
Give us a call on 0800 787 254
www.rural-support.org.nz
Rural people Supporting rural people
Embracing opportunities
By Gerald Piddock
A good attitude, willingness to learn and seizing any opportunity that comes is key to progressing through the dairy industry.
In the space of 10 years, Thomas Chatfield has gone from being a dairy assistant to purchasing a 25% stake on a dairy farm owned in conjunction with his family.
The Bay of Plenty dairy farmer says he was able to make this progression thanks to forging good relationships, the right attitude and embracing opportunities to learn that the dairy industry provides.
A qualified physiotherapist, Chatfield switched careers to dairy farming in 2012 after spending time overseas and then returning and assisting with his thenpartner’s parent’s farm during calving.
“One thing led to another with the busy calving period and we ended up helping out and that turned into a full-time job on a neighbouring farm,”
Chatfield says.
At the time, he felt he had nothing to lose and everything to gain by switching to dairy farming for a season.
“What’s it going to hurt giving this a crack for a year – and that was 10 years ago,” he says.
The decision surprised people, including his parents who saw him leaving a lucrative, stable career.
“There were a few sideways looks,” he says.
“I pretty quickly figured out I was good at it and I really enjoyed it.”
At the end of his first season he entered the trainee section of the Dairy Industry Awards for the Bay of Plenty region, which he won.
It was the national contest that opened his eyes and showed him what was possible career-wise in the industry, including income, self-employment and industry progression, he says.
“While I had taken a big pay cut in my
Thomas Chatfield says his success at the Dairy Awards and the resulting name recognition helped open doors for him to progress in the industry.
first year, the potential was that the sky’s the limit,” he says.
Looking back, he says he was lucky that the farm owner was supportive, patient and willing to share knowledge about the industry with him.
“Having been in the industry for 10 years, there’s not too many people who aren’t willing to share their skills. In terms of an industry, if you’re there willing to put in the hard work there’s someone there willing to teach you,” he says.
What he lacked in experience, he made up for in attitude by arriving at work on time every day and being willing to learn.
“That first year was a really steep learning curve. To be a good farmer, you don’t have to have all the skills, you just have to be willing to show up and go to work and listen and learn,” her says.
As he progressed through, other employers were also happy to give him advice and help him upskill himself.
They were also supportive of him seeking tertiary education through Primary ITO. He also continued his involvement with the Dairy Awards, winning the national farm manager title in 2016.
“That opened a huge amount of doors in terms of name recognition with people who knew more than I did and those opportunities to go away at the Dairy Awards are always really inspiring both as an entrant and afterwards,” he says.
He also devoured all of the industry magazines and publications, asking his employers questions about what he had learned while reading.
Many of his classmates at Primary ITO were at a similar position to himself in terms of where they were in the industry and he was able to discuss different issues within the industry with them, he says.
He also tried to attend as many of the local DairyNZ discussion groups as he could and tried to utilise the knowledge within that organisation as much as possible.
He worked as a farm assistant for one season before shifting to another job where he was 2IC on a 450-cow farm; the season after that, he was managing that farm in his third year of dairying.
He continued in that role for two seasons before shifting to a contract milking position on a 100-cow farm at Te Puke.
He stayed in that role for four seasons before taking this season off as he and wife Vanessa looked at their options.
Vanessa owns a home in Papamoa, which they were able to utilise and live off his savings and income from a lease block.
This was purchased in his final year contracting, with the view of using it as a means to grow their equity to potentially go sharemilking.
He also receives an income from a sharemilking arrangement he has with his former manager on another farm at Waiotahi, near Whakatāne, which is run by a manager.
Instead of sharemilking, the opportunity came up to buy a 360ha (230ha effective) farm in the Kaimai Ranges in conjunction with a family trust consisting of his parents and brother.
They took a quarter stake in equity in the farm with the trust buying the remaining 75%.
He and Vanessa will be shifting onto the farm for the new season as essentially its manager. Their lease block they farm will be utilised as a runoff.
“It ticked all of the boxes,” he says.
Looking back, Chatfield says he cannot emphasise the importance of good relationships – with employers, the Dairy Awards and industry organisations.
“There’s so much help out there if you want to go and find it and it’s up to you to go and find it. The opportunities are there for everyone,” he says. n
Former New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year Thomas Chatfield says attitude and being willing to learn played a big part in enabling him to move from dairy assistant to equity partner in 10 years.
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An accredited effluent management designer should design a system that works for your farm as well as staff, compliance and resources.
Getting effluent right
By Michael Prestidge
Awell-planned effluent management system provides the right foundations for effective effluent management, however, it’s important farm managers and staff have a certain level of training and education to ensure the system continues to operate optimally.
An accredited effluent management designer should develop a system that works for your farming operations, keeping in mind staffing and equipment resources, operational routines, council compliance rules and regulations, as well as any future-proofing measures.
Any equipment chosen for your effluent management system should not only fit in with your operational routines, but should also provide an effective means of managing effluent for the specific needs of the farm. For example, farms with heavier soils are better suited for low pressure applicators.
Having these good foundations is just the beginning. As time moves on, farms grow, staff change, equipment wears and rules and regulations evolve.
As such, there are three key areas of knowledge that will easily give anyone working on farm the ability to effectively manage a dairy effluent system:
Soil management and irrigation practices
It’s advantageous for anyone working in dairy farm effluent management to have a basic knowledge of soil properties and processes and the effect of topography and drainage.
This knowledge, along with an understanding of irrigation practices – when, where and how much to irrigate – helps ensure the right amount of nutrients are being spread for effective fertilisation and council compliance.
Having this basic understanding also allows staff to use helpful tools like nutrient testing kits to make more informed decisions
on where effluent nutrients should be spread and whether or not additional nutrients are required. This can be especially important for farms using feedpads or barn storage where effluent can be more highly concentrated.
A short online course in Soil Management (Agriculture) can be taken through Learning Cloud (course code BAG103) or free resources are available online through the Science Learning Hub and Landcare Research NZ. The DairyNZ website provides a lot of good information and resources for Managing and Operating Effluent Systems, including an effluent management plan poster.
Council compliance
Simply put, remaining compliant is a matter of capturing the effluent, storing it and applying it in a way that won’t cause any issues. A good system will have been designed to adhere to council regulations, including things like storage capacity, proximity to waterways, bridges and underpasses that are often overlooked. However, rules and regulations do change, so it’s important farm managers keep up-to-date with local council regulations and adapt operations where necessary. Information is usually available on council websites.
Equipment use and maintenance
It’s also important to have a good understanding of the effluent equipment being used on-farm, how it operates and how it fits into the overall effluent management plan. Your equipment supplier should provide the initial training and equipment manuals, however, it’s important new staff receive training and a schedule is in place for them to know when and where it should be used.
Having a regular maintenance schedule is always advised to keep equipment in good working order, but it’s also important staff recognise any change in performance early. Thorough training of how the equipment works, and what optimal performance should look like, makes it more likely staff will notice if the equipment isn’t performing as it should. This can be an indication of some kind of maintenance requirement. Breakdowns can be a costly exercise. Early recognition and action of any issues often avoids breakdowns, keeps maintenance costs low and equipment lasting longer.
What you’re not expected to know
There’s tons of information, courses and all sorts of things that can be learnt about all the different aspects of farming – and if you’re keen to learn, that’s great, but there’s some areas requiring specialist knowledge where you can source help from the experts.
With effluent management, farmers are not expected to know about hydraulics or technical information like your friction loss and pipe size to determine the best pump or irrigator for your system. These are everyday challenges and calculations for accredited dairy effluent management designers and equipment specialists who are always happy to help. n
MORE:
Michael Prestidge is a Nevada Effluent management specialist
Why Arthur Wants a Second Slurry Tanker!
Arthur Clapison is a farmer that thinks outside the box and grabs opportunities with both hands...
Sharemilking on a dairy farm in Kaimata, North Taranaki, Arthur is passionate about the use of effluent nutrients. So much so, that in his spare time he helps other local farmers – stirring their ponds and spreading over paddocks.
Arthur’s first effluent equipment investment with Nevada was a TurboStir6000 PTO stirrer. Being a sharemilker he needed a stirrer that was portable so he could take it with him wherever he goes, so in making the most of his investment it makes sense to use it for some contracting work as well.
As an advocate for effluent spreading Arthur’s next investment was to be a slurry tanker to enable him to have an entire effluent management solution not just for himself, but for his contracting clients. Given the TurboStir had been a great success, he headed straight to Nevada to enquire about a slurry tanker.
‘Reliability is key for me. I’m not only using the machine for my own farm, but for my clients. The stirrer’s been great, so I went back for a slurry tanker.’
Arthur’s got a big tractor and a lot of effluent to spread, so a 20,000L tridem slurry tanker was a good fit. The tractor can easily handle the load, and carrying a larger amount makes it more efficient with less trips back to the pond. ADVERTISEMENT
NZ’s Leading Dairy Effluent Management Specialists nevadagroup.co.nz 0800 464 393
A student of the farm
By Tony Benny
A Bay of Plenty dairy farmer credits his rapid journey through the industry to training opportunities and networking.
ATauranga dairy farmer who has gone from strength to strength and risen quickly through the ranks of dairying, says he took every opportunity that’s come his way.
And he says networking through his participation in the Dairy Industry Awards helped a great deal.
Contract milker Reece Cox and wife Natasha milk 700 cows on a 240 hectare block for David and Leslie Jensen.
When he left school at 17 in 2010, Cox had no farming experience but that soon changed when he signed up with a Future Farming cadetship on a sheep and beef farm.
“We learned the basic work skills on a farm and we came out with a Level 2 Work Ready certificate. It was just a good basis of everything, like tractors and fencing and that gave us a good grounding,” Cox recalls.
The cadetship was unpaid so he worked part time on a dairy farm and played rugby in Reporoa and the connections he made there led to a fulltime opportunity.
“About 95% of my team-mates were dairy farmers and that’s basically how I got into the dairy industry. The course I was doing was based in Taupō and so I picked up a job on one of the newer Landcorp dairy conversions there.”
His boss in the new job, Aaron Karaha, became his mentor and showed him what he could achieve with the right training.
“He had good motivation and drive and was in the corporate side. I could see he was doing the training and thought if I was to do the same I could probably be in his position in a few years.”
Cox stayed in the dairy assistant job for two years.
“In that time I entered the Dairy Awards a couple of times and placed
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Natasha and Reece Cox, with their children Cobie and Addison, are contract milkers on a 700-cow farm in Bay of Plenty. In June 2023, they will step up to a sharemilking position.
Reece Cox credits his rapid rise in the dairy industry to training opportunities and networking through the Dairy Industry Awards. Reece checks on his R2 heifers.
second in the Central Plateau for dairy trainee and I got to know how valuable the awards were for networking.
“I continued my training and did my Level 3 ITOs for the dairy side of things and continued with any sort of day courses I could, like body condition scoring workshops that DairyNZ had or discussion groups.”
In 2012 he stepped up to a 2IC role on a Māori trust farm. He carried on with his training and ticked off his Level 4 feeding and pastures qualifications but says much of his learning was on-farm.
“It was quite a big step from a dairy assistant to an 1800 cow 2IC role and I had quite a few staff to delegate as well and the responsibility, mainly around the grass and feeding at that stage.
“I did a lot of on-farm learning plus they pushed us to take a few other courses as well like HR, learning how to manage and work with staff as well as opposed to just being told what to do in your job.”
Four years after first working on a farm, then aged 21, he was offered a manager’s role on a 1200-cow farm owned by the same trust. He stayed in that role for three years, completing his Level 5 production management certificate and starting on a Diploma in Agribusiness with Waikato Institute of Technology.
“I guess it was a big step again because you’re learning more, from the day to day running of the farm to actually the budgets and the financial side of it and having a bit more understanding of taxation and a lot more forward thinking.”
In 2017, the family moved to the contract milking job in Tauranga for the Jensens and a year later won the Bay of Plenty Share Farmer of the Year award.
“We really just wanted to benchmark ourselves against others and set our business up right from the start and structure it from learning what other people are doing and alongside that we wanted to grow our network so we could open up opportunities and fit into the area I guess. The networking was just priceless.”
In June next year the couple will take up a 700-cow sharemilking job with the trust that gave him his first manager’s job.
“Those opportunities don’t come up every day and we know what we’re going into. Having a good reputation is important and making yourself valuable is something I’ve learnt as I’ve progressed, I guess.”
Cox has climbed the career ladder quickly and says taking every training opportunity has been an important factor in his rapid progress.
“Every phase has had its moments where you think that’s really helped me on-farm. From the start, the cadetship gave me a really good all-round skillset which set me up.
“One of the most valuable things has been doing the diploma, being able to understand how a business works but also being able to question our accountant or banker or anyone like that so we’ve actually got an understanding of what they’re doing and not just paying them to do it for you.”
For now he’s enjoying having a break from formal training but he does have his sights set on more opportunities in future.
“I’d like to do the Kellogg leadership course and I’d like to get a better understanding of the ag-science side of things,” he says.
“If I can get a better understanding of plant and soil health, that’ll certainly help our business and the industry as a whole.” n
