10 October 1997 Judges impressed – Farmer of the Year competition

Dairying was the category for the 1997 Lincoln University Foundation/Rabobank Farmer of the Year competition.

Entry was open to any South Island dairy farmer or sharemilker and the award recognises excellence in both technical and financial implementation. Within this year's category the Foundation was particularly interested in identifying successful dairy farm conversions and a number of these were represented among the entries.

As in past years the coordinating judge has been Neil Gow of the Department of Farm and Horticultural Management assisted by retired Lincoln senior lecturer Bruce Ryde.

"As Bruce and I have travelled around the country we have been most impressed with this year's entrants," says Mr Gow.

"What we found particularly interesting was that the good operators are achieving around 400kg of milk solids per cow and 1000kg odd per hectare irrespective of herd size. This tells me that not only are the top performers good with their cows but they are attracting and holding quality staff to make all this possible.

"The good operators are making the best use of their resources and maximising farm returns by holding costs at reasonable levels. They are growing grass and efficiently turning it into milk solids. There is much we can learn from them," says Mr Gow.

"One of the best kept secrets in the New Zealand dairy industry is that the records for production per cow and production per hectare are both held by South Island herds."

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand