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 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.”
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
From 1 October, new livestock movement restrictions will be introduced in parts of Central Otago dealing with infected possums spreading bovine TB to livestock.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
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