New chair for dairy awards trust

Moore won the sharemilker competition in 2009 with husband Chris and the couple is now farming a 71ha 200-cow property at Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty.

"I'm looking forward to working with some great people on the trust and in overseeing our role to ensure the trust's goals are implemented and that there is good communication between the Trust and the NZDIA Executive running the awards programme."

The trust governs the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards and represents the awards owners and dairy industry. The awards operate the New Zealand Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year, New Zealand Farm Manager of the Year and New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year competitions.

The executive is chaired by Southland dairy farmer Matthew Richards and convened by Chris Keeping.

The trust comprises of Moore, who is a Federated Farmers' representative on the trust along with Willy Leferink and Andrew Hoggard, Fonterra director Jim van der Poel, and DairyNZ directors Alister Body and Ben Allomes, also a former New Zealand Sharemilker of the Year winner.

Moore has been on the trust since 2009, after winning the sharemilker competition. She also convened the 2011 Central Plateau Dairy Industry Awards regional competition.

She takes over from 2012 Dairy Woman of the Year, Barbara Kuriger, who started a year-long $25,000 Global Women in Leadership scholarship earlier this month.

"I'm very excited about the leadership programme and I am going to be a sponge and make the most of it," Kuriger says.

"The dairy industry awards have been a big part of my life so I will stay involved in some way, but it was the right time to break the formal connections as we have kids starting to enter and it will be nice to be Mum for a while!"

The trust next meets in Wellington on October 2, when Kuriger will be farewelled.

The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are supported by national sponsors Westpac, DairyNZ, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda Motorcycles NZ, LIC, Meridian Energy, Ravensdown and RD1, along with industry partner AgITO.

Entries for the 2013 awards open in November. Visit www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz for more information or follow the awards on twitter @nzdairyawards.