What a difference a year makes

“The wave broke and we’ve been thrown off our surfboards and unfortunately, instead of a nice soft landing on a sandy beach, it feels like we’ve been thrown onto the rocks, battered and bruised,” said event organising committee chairman Steve Booker, opening the conference and recalling the previous year’s theme.

“What a difference a year makes.”

Booker noted the two main factors in the crash landing, the commodity cycle and weather, are beyond farmers’ influence so his focus, and that of the conference, was on what can be controlled.

“If it grows, moos, or moves, measure it. You cannot manage what you don’t measure,” he said, a comment echoed several times by speakers throughout the three-day event.

“You’ll hear new information, new ideas, make new friendships and find new motivation to tackle the challenges ahead. Don’t waste the opportunity,” he urged delegates.

Dairy NZ chief executive Tim Mackle described the tough times as “an opportunity to reset our competiveness”.

“Trite as that may sound to you who are going through it, that’s the reality,” he said, introducing SIDE’s opening keynote speaker, Sir Ray Avery.

Avery’s rags-to-riches and global philanthropy story lauded New Zealanders’ ‘can-do’ attitude and told delegates the best inventions come from people like them.

“None of the things I’ve achieved on the world stage would have happened if I hadn’t come to New Zealand.”

He also emphasised the need to plan, particularly in the face of adversity, a theme picked up by fellow SIDE keynote speaker Mike Allsop.

“I build a really strong plan so that when I’m overwhelmed – and I know I will be at some point – I just stick to the plan and take the next step,” said the Everest mountaineer, Air NZ pilot and “triple seven” marathon runner.

Concluding keynote speaker Ed Timmings, of Juggler Health, added a wellbeing perspective to the planning message.

“The best thing is to make sure you have a plan. If you have a plan, you’re going to be okay. If you don’t have a plan, you’re stressed.”

Several of the event’s many workshops focussed on wellbeing, such as one presented by DairyNZ’s Dana Carver who warned that excessive and/or prolonged stress leads to burnout.

“As farmers we focus on the sustainability of our land, machinery, stock and business, but what about our sustainability as people? The pressures of farming are not small,” she noted, before outlining tools to manage stress.

Closing the conference, SIDE chairman Rob Wilson recalled TV3 newsman Mike McRoberts’ keynote address – “we found his industry is more in the cow poo than our own” – and leading lawyer Mai Chen’s presentation on super-diversity which spelled out why dairying needs to adapt to and embrace cultural diversity.

“The pioneering spirit is what keeps the New Zealand dairy industry so strong,” concluded Wilson.