TARANAKI | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR
and work your way up to sharemilking and you can do that in a short period of time. You don’t have to be from a farming family to achieve this.”
BILINGUAL FAMILY
Diego and Gisela Gomez, with Ignacio and Emma: Slotting easily into New Zealand life.
Learning from the best WORDS BY: ANNE HARDIE PHOTOS BY: ROSS NOLLY
D
iego Gomez came to New Zealand when he was 21 he wanted to experience the best pasture-based dairy industry in
the world. Twelve years later, the former agribusiness lecturer and researcher from Argentina has been named Taranaki’s Dairy Manager of the Year in the Dairy Industry Awards. Last year he was placed third in the competition and this year he was back to win it and he also claimed three merit awards. He knew the theory behind dairy farming back in Argentina, from the wellbeing of the cow and milk quality through to their relationship with profitability, but New Zealand was his chance to put it all into practice and learn from the best. “For pasture-based dairy farming, you come to New Zealand because nobody does it better than New Zealand. Every aspect of dairying is being researched within the industry and you can see all that information because it is made available to us. Not every country is like that. In Argentina, we have been dairy farming longer than New Zealand, but we don’t do 86
it as well as New Zealand and we aren’t as profitable as New Zealand.” His first job was a dairy assistant on a South Island dairy farm. Since then, he has worked in both islands and along the way completed every single AgITO dairy course for the practical skills and environmental knowledge. A four-year stint back in Argentina developing businesses including a bakery and a restaurant convinced him that a dairy career in New Zealand was the way to go. He missed dairy farming and the industry here had career opportunities that were not possible in Argentina. “Here, if you are focused and have a plan for your life, you can start at the bottom
When he returned to New Zealand in 2017, he brought his wife, Gisela, and two children Emma, now seven and Ignacio now four, who had to adapt to a new country and its vastly different culture. That first year was dedicated to settling the family into NZ culture and Diego says their biggest fear was they would not fit in. As it happened, they slotted easily into the NZ way of life, with the kids quickly becoming bilingual and an easy acceptance within the dairy industry. “The dairy industry relies on good people and it doesn’t matter where you come from. If you can bring value to the farm, you are welcome. The best policy in New Zealand is honesty and that makes it a good country to live in. Everyone has to be really honest for you to get ahead.” He now manages 380 cows for the Michael D Burr Trust on its 142ha dairy farm near Stratford, with one other employee on the farm through the year and another employed for the busy calving period. “I think about 400-700 cows is a golden number. It’s easier on people, the cows and the land,” he says. It makes it easier to achieve that “thin line between sustainability and production”. “You are gaining more in the long run from being sustainable than trying to push your system to extremes which is really stressful on people, the land and the animals.” This season, production is on target
DAIRY MANAGER
MERIT AWARDS: I.S Dam Lining Ltd Employee Engagement Award – Kate Thompson BakerTilly Staples Rodway Leadership Award – Kate Thompson Dairy Trust Taranaki Feed Management Award – Diego Raul Gomez Salinas DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Diego Raul Gomez Salinas Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Nick Gadsby MyMilk Power Play Award – Kate Thomson Westpac Personal Planning and Financial Management Award – Diego Raul Gomez Salinas
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2021
