Herd’s five-minute walk beats sticky slog
Staff can get cows to milking within five minutes in Southland’s chilly winter rather than slog round in a wet swede paddock.
Membership grew 68% in the year to May 31, 2013, she told Dairy News, adding a further 900 members to exceed 4000. It is still growing at a phenomenal rate, sending out six-eight welcome packs each week.
The rate of growth had put pressure on staff and volunteers. The network had planned for growth of 500-1000 over three-five years but had achieved this in less than a couple of years. “We didn’t have the resources in the office to support the membership growth; we only had part-timers.”
Wilson says that issue has now been resolved with the chief executive and office manager roles now fulltime and other key positions and support services in place. An announcement on the new chief executive is expected early in November. Wilson says the appointment to replace Sarah Speight, who resigned as chief executive in April, has taken this long so they could get the right structure in place. They had spent the last six months developing a business strategy.
Wilson, re-elected trust board chairwoman at the annual meeting last week, stepped in as interim chief executive fulltime after Speight resigned, as required by the constitution.
Wilson told the annual meeting that alongside membership growth the year had been exceptionally busy with several highlights including being a key partner in developing the Strategy for Sustainable Dairy Farming, securing a $180,000 grant from the Sustainable Farming Fund to develop Project Pathfinder – the country’s first leadership programme for dairying women, and welcoming Ballance Agri-Nutrients as a major sponsorship partner.
Other highlights included an increase in the number of regional group meetings from 112 to 122, announcing the second Dairy Woman of the Year which was won by Justine Kidd and sponsored by Fonterra Milk Supply, launching a series of workshops on recognising and responding to mental unwellness, and securing funding from DairyNZ for two new roles in the network’s operational team to support its 30 regional groups nationwide.
Changes to the network’s board in the past year included the retirement of trustees Neal Shaw and Sue Lindsay, and the addition of Barbara Kuriger and Hilary Webber, she adds.
