Some are migrants to New Zealand, one is a man competing against 11 couples, and one is an equity farm manager competing against 11 sharemilkers.
National convenor Chris Keeping says the 12 regional New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards competitions always discover talented and interesting finalists to contest the national titles.
“This year’s finalists are a high calibre group focused and confident in achieving their goal of owning a stake in the dairy industry.
“They are young, ambitious and growing their businesses at great rates,” Keeping says.
The winners of the New Zealand Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year, New Zealand Farm Manager of the Year and New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year competitions will be announced in Auckland on May 12. They will compete for about $140,000 in cash and prizes.
The 12 finalists in the sharemilker/equity farmer contest will compete for cash and prizes worth about $80,000. Whakatane farmer Bryan Power, DairyNZ consultant Miranda Hunter and Westpac banker Andy Ewen will spend two hours on each finalist’s farm judging them on aspects including hygiene, pasture and financial management, and leadership. Awards trustee and farmer Alister Body will join the judging panel for its final component, an interview.
The finalists are dominated by traditional 50% sharemilkers; nine of the finalists operate with 50% contracts. Central Plateau sharemilker John Butterworth is the only single man, and he is also the youngest in the group at 24 years, although 10 of the finalists are aged less than 35 years.
The oldest finalists, West Coast Top of the South representatives Paul and Debra Magner are the only equity farm managers.
They came into the industry nine years ago after Paul had worked as a geologist and Debra as a rural banker.
The Magners also operate the biggest dairy farm in the finals; the Hokitika property milks 1470 cows and is expanding. Northland representatives Miles Harrison and Lucy Heffernan have the smallest herd – 240 cows.
Heffernan is from Britain, as are the Otago finalists James and Helen Hartshorne and Canterbury North Otago finalist Edna Hawe; Taranaki finalist James Van Den Brand is Australian.
“With such diversity it is going to be interesting to see who comes out on top,” Keeping says.
The Dairy Industry Awards are sponsored by Westpac, DairyNZ, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda Motorcycles NZ, LIC, Meridian Energy, Ravensdown, RD1 and AgITO. www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz
