Maintaining profitability and a work-life balance are the goals of this year’s Bay of Plenty - South Waikato regional winners of the Fonterra Westpac Dairy Excellence Farm Business award.

Awakeri couple Alan and Viv Barr, were announced the winners at a function in Awakeri last night. They have won a study trip to North America, one of Fonterra’s key market regions and go forward to compete in the national final in New Plymouth on June 12.

Alan and Viv started in the dairy industry in 1986 when they took up the position of 50/50 sharemilkers for Alan’s parents on the Barr Family Farm. The couple currently own a 130 hectare milking unit and 58 hectares of support land on which they run a 500 cow split calving intensive farming system.

Despite their success, Alan says they still see opportunities where they can fine tune their system.

“Strategies for our business will change in response to industry changes and we need to keep up-to-date with what is happening so we can react appropriately and maintain our standards.

“We also aim to achieve similar levels of production and profit while slowly moving away from the day-to-day management of the farm. Gaining a balance between family and the business is a priority for the future but we also want to give our children a taste of the farm business.”

The judges found the Barr’s were a very well rounded business couple who showed general excellence in all aspects of the judging criteria. They had well defined business and personal goals and a clear focus as to where they wanted their family to be in the future. They achieved a high standard in the financial section by demonstrating a depth of understanding of financial goal setting, planning, implementation and monitoring.

Winners of the RD1 Farm Manager award were Reporoa couple Wayne and Suellen Pamment. The judges found they demonstrated an excellent knowledge and understanding of the property they manage considering the short time they have been there. The couple did not enter the dairy industry until March 2002. The key to their success was their goal setting, financial knowledge and understanding.

Recipient of the Holden Lifetime Achievement award was John Lawrence Murray, who was awarded an M.B.E for ‘Services to Dairying’ in 1992. During his time as Chairman of the Bay of Plenty Herd Improvement Association, John was one of the driving forces behind merging the Herd Improvement Council and the autonomous Herd Improvement Associations throughout New Zealand into a unified organisation of the Livestock Improvement Corporation.

Awards Chairman and Fonterra Director Jim Van der Poel says by promoting and highlighting excellence and innovation, and the exchange of information between entrants and the farming community, the awards help to share best practice across all of Fonterra’s suppliers.

Westpac’s Head of Agri Business Karen Silk says, a key factor evident among successful entrants to the dairy excellence awards such as Alan and Viv, is their clear focus on establishing personal goals and driving their business to meet these goals.

“The goals tend to be focused on either improving lifestyle or financial situation. While the awards offer the opportunity for entrants to benchmark themselves against other participants, more importantly it encourages revisiting or establishing personal goals. They then identify new ways to ensure that their business delivers to these goals, rather than the business delivering an unplanned outcome,” Karen said.

Other Bay of Plenty and South Waikato regional award winners were:

 

LIC Productivity – Bruce and Sharon Rutledge from Opotiki

Pioneer Business Growth – Corrie and Donna Smit from Whakatane

DTS Environmental Integrity – Alan and Viv Barr

Dairy InSight Human Wealth – Corrie and Donna Smit

Ravensdown Quality Management – Not awarded.