Goals keep them going Goal-setting fuels the fire for a Canterbury farming couple’s ambitions. Tim Fulton reports.
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CANTERBURY sharemilking couple are strong on setting goals and working hard to achieve them and say they can attribute much of their success to their teamwork. Operating as Waterton Agricultural, Glenn and Sarah Jones are 50:50 sharemilkers for Rakaia Incorporation (Hororata) Farm, a hapu-based company based in Mid Canterbury milking 650 cows on the 175ha farm 50km west of Christchurch. The couple see their combined skill set as one of their strengths. “I am in charge of the administration side, accounts, payroll, human resources and health and safety while Glenn is hands-on with the cows, grass and people,” Sarah says. “We’ve built a sustainable business model which has a high staff retention and positive team culture, great pasture utilisation and an excellent herd of cows.” Glenn has always been a methodical goal-setting type. Early in his career he wrote a five-year plan based on becoming a sharemilker in that time. It took him an extra year but he recalls the sweet satisfaction of landing a role. “I had a look at that bit of paper as I was
standing there unloading my cows that first time onto grazing … that was pretty cool.” He still has that sheet of paper as a reminder of the achievement. Glenn says he’s a competitive type and dairy creates the sort of performance benchmarks that get him up in the morning. It is a great industry for information sharing and benchmarking with other like-minded farmers. He is involved with two dairy discussion groups. “I love the feedback we get back from dairying constantly. We can set these goals and parameters so if I can get my feeding right I can see it in the vat the following day. I love seeing my updates from my pick-up every day. That drives me.” In their first season as 50:50 sharemilkers they came third in the 2018 Canterbury/Otago Sharemilker of the Year competition. “As first-year sharemilkers it was a fantastic opportunity to analyse and familiarise ourselves with every aspect of our business and plan for the future,” Sarah said. As young parents they are aware of the importance of getting the people side of their business right and ensuring they have a great team culture. It is something
FARM FACTS n Owners: Rakaia Incorporation Farm n Sharemilkers: Glenn and Sarah Jones n Location: Hororata, Mid-Canterbury n Farm size: 184ha n Cows: 650 Friesian-cross n Production: 2019-20: 277000kg MS, 425kg MS/cow n Target: 2020-21: 285,000kg MS, 440kg MS/cow
they have worked hard towards. And with that comes human resources, administration, health and safety, something Sarah is vigilant about but comes relatively easy to her. As a registered nurse she is well used to following standard operating procedures and keeping meticulous records. “In nursing, records and paperwork have to be true and accurate. Everything has to be recorded and it is the same in
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