Thursday, 15 October 2015 07:00

Dairy women celebrate success, hard work

Written by 
Chief executive Zelda de Villiers. Chief executive Zelda de Villiers.

Dairy Womens Network will hold its annual meeting this week with the theme celebrating success and reward for hard work.

Chief executive Zelda de Villiers says there is plenty to celebrate: higher membership and event numbers, new commercial partners, financial stability and innovative ways of working.

"Looking back at the last 12 months, we have achieved a lot," she says. "It has been a year of growth and change and developing pilots -- in particular with the modified Dairy Modules in place of Dairy Days." The modules have drawn bigger numbers, she says.

"DairyNZ was instrumental in the development and funding of the module concept and we are grateful for their ongoing support."

Some 991 people attended the Dairy Modules in the last financial year, half of them non-DWN members. Membership rose from 5000 to 8100 in that time, and event numbers from 134 to 214.

"We... are committed to offering and facilitating quality connections for our members that make positive differences to their personal lives and businesses," says de Villiers.

"An organisation that connects like-minded, successful people is necessary at the best of times and crucial in the current climate.

"With our commercial partners we have been able to offer a wide range of opportunities for our members to connect, learn and upskill in the business of dairying."

The network signed up commercial partners LIC, Whatever Marketing and FMG during the 2014-2015 financial year. MSD Animal Health and Farmsource increased their support, and "a very generous donation" came from gold partner ASB.

The network has re-established inactive regional groups, recruited new regional convenors and increased the regional group count from 26 to 33.

"We have developed and centralised our database so we have a much better understanding of the demographic and profile of our members.

"Justine Kidd also signed on as our board chair.... She is doing a wonderful job, as are the rest of our dynamic team."

The network held a conference in Invercargill in March, with trade stands and "inspiring" key speakers.

de Villiers says the network is stable financially, its first audit showing it to be on track to keep growing its balance sheet year on year.

Its next conference will be in Hamilton in May, themed 'United to succeed'.

"And upcoming modules 'Taking care of your cash' and 'Step up to safety' are relevant to the climate."

The network has set up a group at Lincoln University for young women entering farming.

More like this

Musical chairs

OPINION: DairyNZ's director elections has seen scientist Jacqueline Rowarth re-elected for another three-year term.

DairyNZ levy to increase?

Retiring chair Jim van der Poel has used his final AGM to announce the intention to increase the DairyNZ farmer levy for the first time in the industry-good body's 17-year history.

Tributes to retiring 'Jim the farmer'

Doing what is right, not what is easy, has been the hallmark of Jim van der Poel's leadership of, and advocacy for, the dairy industry, attendees at the DairyNZ annual general meeting heard last week.

Featured

New ag degrees at Massey

Changing skill demands and new job opportunities in the primary sector have prompted Massey University to create a new degree course and add a significant major into another in 2025.

The show is on!

It was bringing in a new Canterbury A&P Association (CAPA) show board, more in tune with the CAPA general committee, that has ensured that Christchurch will have a show this year, says CAPA general committee president Bryce Murray.

National

'Quite a journey'

Former Synlait chief executive Grant Watson says the past two years have been quite the journey.

DairyNZ levy to increase?

Retiring chair Jim van der Poel has used his final AGM to announce the intention to increase the DairyNZ farmer…

Former Fonterra CEO dies

Former Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings passed away in the Netherlands over the weekend.

Machinery & Products

Milk Sustainability Centre launched

The recently announced Milk Sustainability Centre – a collaboration between global giant John Deere and milking and feed specialists De…

Data connection made easier

New Holland and Case IH are introducing new advancements in their precision technology stack to make farming easier and more…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Feed from farmers

OPINION: The country's dairy farmers will now also have a hand in providing free lunch for schools.

Brighter future

OPINION: The abrupt departure of Synlait chief executive Grant Watson could be a sign that Chinese company Bright Dairy, the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter