Power play at dairy awards

The change is one of many to the 2016 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards programme, aimed at enabling more people to enter the awards competitions and at ensuring people with similar age, skills, maturity and investment in the industry compete against each other.

National convenor Chris Keeping says other changes include new competition names, entry and judging criteria – like the power play.

"We've introduced the power play to create some fun and to even the playing field – as the dairy manager contest caters for people with a wide range of experience, skills and positions in the industry," Keeping says.

The Dairy Manager of the Year contest takes over from the Farm Manager of the Year competition and is open to all salaried farm workers charged with implementing farm policies and plans, and with some responsibility to meet farm goals.

Entrants may include farm managers, herd managers, 2IC's, farm assistants, and production managers.

"There are a number of people in the industry that have been unable to enter one of our competitions in the past as they were either too old, had been in the industry too long, had equity in the industry, or held a contract that deemed them ineligible. Well, this contest is for them!" Mrs Keeping says.

Dairy Manager competition judges will spend an hour and a half on the entrant's farm. The power play will let the entrants choose from one of five topics to present to judges. Judges will also consider how the entrant contributes to the running of the farm, stock, feed and also their personal attributes, such as training and community involvement.

Other major changes to the 2016 Dairy Awards include the Share Farmer of the Year contest replacing the former Sharemilker of the Year competition. It is now open to all self-employed dairy farmers with up to 50% equity in the business. A change in the entry criteria for the Dairy Trainee of the Year contest restricts entrants to those aged from 18 to 25 years.

"The changes keep pace and maintain relevance in the industry and enable people to have the opportunity to enter the awards and gain the benefits from that," she says.

The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are supported by national sponsors Westpac, DairyNZ, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra Farm Source, Honda Motorcycles, LIC, Meridian Energy, and Ravensdown, along with industry partner Primary ITO.

Entries in the 2016 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards open on October 20. Visit www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz for more information.