Passion for farming delivers award
James and Debbie Stewart from Dairylands in Manawatu impressed judges and took out the 2024 Fonterra Responsible Dairying Award.
The 2018 Dairy Manager of the Year winner Gerard Boerjan aims for excellence in everything he does.
“He has great experience as a manger of people and a great passion for working with people in a large team environment,” dairy manager head judge Mary Craw says.
“He takes a systems approach to the way he manages the farm and has good systems in place to ensure nothing gets through the gaps.
“Everything is well documented, he covers health and safety to an exceptional level and his financial understanding is of the highest calibre.”
Boerjan (50) has successfully farmed in Portugal and Brazil and is now farm manager for Trevor Hamilton on his 553ha Takapau property. He won $22,600 in cash and prizes and won the DairyNZ Employee Engagement and the Westpac Financial Management and Planning merit awards.
The judges say Boerjan is a stand-alone manager who doesn’t just assume things are getting done; he closely monitors things.
“He regularly reviews the information he gets against onfarm targets.
“He’s always monitoring multiple systems to report back to the farm owners and has good procedures in place to do so.
“Gerard possesses the ability to manage a large, complex business with an absentee owner. Every detail of the farm is closely monitored but there’s a real human touch to it.”
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
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