Road to dairying

Learning acceleration

By Samantha Tennent

Continuing our Road to Dairying series, we catch up with a Southland farmer with a hunger to learn and grow.

Keen for a challenge, George Dodson hunted for an opportunity in Southland to help fast-track his progress in the dairy sector. He successfully landed a managing role on a 550-cow spring calving farm belonging to Fortuna Group this season. An impressive feat for a 20-year-old.

“Southland felt like a bigger challenge and a chance to earn my stripes,” Dodson says.

“And it’s always felt like home so it’s great to be back and I’m excited about securing a role with Fortuna.”

He was originally from Southland where his family were farming, but they left farming and moved to Canterbury when he was 11. He always knew he wanted to be a farmer.

“During school, I would drive tractors and relief milk and work during weekends. I loved everything about it,”

Dodson says.

When he finished school he was a casual farm worker for about nine months before he secured a role as a dairy assistant with Toni Dodunski, who he knew he would learn a lot from.

“I’m always hungry to learn and want to learn from good people. Toni was a great boss and really got me started,”

Dodson says.

He spent two seasons with Dodunski before moving south. There was a connection to the Fortuna group through Dodunski’s father, David. And

Dodson was attracted to the support network available. Fortuna group have farm managers on each farm and supervisors who oversee about five farms each, which was appealing.

“The setup with the supervisors was a big draw card for me, having a mentor while I’m new in my managing journey.

I’m really keen to do the best I can.”

He has also learnt a lot through the

New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards. He entered in his first season with Dodunski after a friend encouraged him to give it a go. He knew his technical knowledge was his weakness but used it as an opportunity to learn from the feedback he got from the judges.

He developed a training programme when he entered the awards again. He was confident in his practical skills but knew he needed to develop his technical knowledge, and committed to reading for at least half an hour every evening.

“I’d be reading stuff online or looking through farming newspapers and magazines,” Dodson says.

“It seemed small but it made a huge difference and I got third place for the Canterbury dairy trainee category.”

He can also see how it helped his farming knowledge in general and benefited his wider skills, and he is looking forward to entering the manager category next time.

“I’ll keep entering every opportunity I can, especially now I’m managing. It’s an opportunity to get feedback on the farm as a whole, what we can improve, not just myself.”

He is also studying towards his Level 4 through Primary ITO and is focused on developing his financial knowledge. He has ambitions of having skin in the game through a dairy business of some sort in the near future.

“I’m not exactly sure what that will look like yet though. If farm ownership isn’t the right fit then I won’t go down that path but I do want to get more involved and will hopefully be contract milking or sharemilking within the next couple of years.”

Meanwhile, his ambitions for his current role centre on his team. There is a 2IC on the farm but limited housing has presented challenges to securing team members. So, familiar with the concept launched by Dodunski, Ag Assist, Dodson suggested using a team of casuals.

“We are lucky to be close to town so we’ve decided to find people who prefer flexible working options,” Dodson says.

“We will set up shifts for relief milking, spraying and other odd jobs that don’t require much decision making.

“It will be a first-in, first-served basis and frees up my 2IC, Liam, and I up to do the rest of the work and focus on the things that make the money: cows and grass.”

Dodson is always striving to improve and has his sights set on getting the Fortuna Group best farm manager title one day.

“I want to keep things improving in all aspects of the farm and for the farm and team to be recognised, not just me.”

Outside of the farm he is involved in the local New Zealand Young Farmers club Thornbury and plays hockey on weekends.

He is a real advocate for the dairy sector and promotes it as a serious option for other young people. And he encourages everyone to take chances and learn from everything they can.

“I always tell people to throw themselves at every opportunity. There are always chances to grow and there aren’t any negatives to growth.” n

George Dodson grew up on the family farm before it was sold. Years later he has returned to his roots and is now managing a 550-cow farm in Southland.