No regrets choosing cows over boardroom
Winning the 2025 New Zealand Share Farmers of the Year still hasn't sunk in for Thomas and Fiona Langford.
The 2020 Hawkes Bay/Wairarapa Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmer of the Year winners Nick and Rose Bertram are no strangers to success.
In 2014, Nick won the 2014 New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year and was runner-up in the Hawkes Bay/Wairarapa Share Farmer category last year.
He says entering the awards programme has opened many doors and job opportunities.
“Coming from a non-farming background, the awards have been a great opportunity to prove ourselves. We wouldn’t have the job we have now if it wasn’t for the exposure we have had through the NZDIA programme.”
Nick, 33, and Rose, 27, say they enjoy not just being farmers, but also managing their own business.
“We enjoy being in a position to be able to train and grow our staff for the industry,” they say.
“Good people drive profit.”
The Bertrams are 50/50 sharemilkers on Barry and Carol McNeil’s 150ha, 440-cow Woodville property. They won $7,632 in prizes and five merit awards.
The couple are passionate about breeding cows and enjoy managing the different challenges farming presents.
Nick is an enthusiastic advocate for the dairy industry and is Tararua Federated Farmers Sharemilker Representative and is also on the Federated Farmers national executive for Sharemilkers.
Future farming goals for the Bertrams include developing a calf-rearing block on land they have purchased and building their own home in a couple of years.
“We plan to be in a position to buy a farm of 400+ cows within the next seven years.”
Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.
Within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, conservatively valued at $150 billion in farming assets.
Boutique Waikato cheese producer Meyer Cheese is investing in a new $3.5 million facility, designed to boost capacity and enhance the company's sustainability credentials.
OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.
Compensation assistance for farmers impacted by Mycoplama bovis is being wound up.
Selecting the reverse gear quicker than a lovestruck boyfriend who has met the in-laws for the first time, the Coalition Government has confirmed that the proposal to amend Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) charged against farm utes has been canned.
OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its…
OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content…