Bridging the gap with rural New Zealand
OPINION: One thing I keep hearing from rural New Zealanders is the importance of relationships. Strong relationships don’t just happen - they take trust, consistency, and time.
That's something Sarah Watson and DairyNZ Regional Leader Richard Kyte plan to ask dairy farmers attending the 2016 South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) in Invercargill on June 20 to 22.
SIDE is an annual three-day dairy conference organised by farmers for farmers to learn, network, and find inspiration and motivation. The programme combines stimulating presentations with practical workshops on dairy farming and business management.
The pair are presenting a workshop at SIDE, their mission to help farmers hunt down their own time-wasters, be they searching for a lost tool, not being able to finish a task on-time because you're waiting for something, or having to reorder drugs because they're run passed their use-by date.
While these examples are seemingly small, they can add up, its improving time efficiency that makes the day-to-day work easier and less stressful, improves productivity, and ultimately boosts the bottom line.
PeopleMAD owner Ms Watson has been running the Dairy NZ FarmTune programme, and has seen farms save up to half an hour a milking per person each day simply by identifying waste then fine-tuning the process.
She and Mr Kyte plan to give farmers some take home tips on lean thinking to help focus their energy on the things that matter, add value to the business and help the whole team to operate efficiently.
"Everyone will have something they can improve; we're just equipping workshop attendees with the tools needed to objectively look at their systems with their teams to find what their own time issues are."
"There are a lot of things impacting on the business which are outside our control – this is one positive way of taking back some control and hopefully influencing profitability. And the beauty of this way of reviewing day-to-day operations and noticing the waste is that it costs nothing."
SIDE organisers are urging South Island farmers to take time off and attend this year's event, as now, more than ever, is the time to talk, share ideas, and benefit from social interaction with peers.
