SMASH has been set up to help dairy farmers, particularly those with smaller operations, to run successful businesses. We mainly achieve this by running events throughout New Zealand. These give farmers the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills which will stand them in good stead back on their own farms.
We also want to foster a supportive farming community – we are all in it together! SMASH is run by a group of New Zealand dairy farmers with a passion for the industry and for helping to build a strong and sustainable future for dairy farming. Read more
Our Christmas cakes are all packed up and ready to go to a lucky winner! Today is the last day to enter the draw!
If you and a deserving friend would like a cake make sure you don't miss out. Entering is easy:
* Like our page.
* Tag the friend you would like to get a cake too.
**Multiple entries accepted. Competition closes Friday 6th December. Prize is for two Christmas cakes, one for you and one for your friend (we will need both of the winners' dairy supply numbers). The winner will be picked by a random draw.***
Thanks to Morgans Cakes & portraits for the gorgeous cakes!
Enjoyed today’s event at Adam and Taryn Pearce’s farm in Taranaki. On reflection a farm walk in the midst of a weather storm wasn’t perhaps well considered ... although to be fair we weren’t expecting Adam to drag a sodden rabble to the furtherest paddocks to admire his cows (we were expecting them in the shed paddock Adam!!). Papers on Variable milking (Paul Edwards, Dairynz), deintensification (David Clark, roving scientist) and winter milking trial (Linda Cruikshank, DTT) will be posted on the SMASH page as soon as I dry out!
Don't forget to enter our competition. It closes on Friday!Christmas is coming 🎄! And it is time for our fabulous Christmas cake giveaway! We would like to give you and a dairy farming friend the chance to win a delicious cake. Entering is easy:
* Like our page.
* Tag the friend you would like to get a cake too.
**Multiple entries accepted. Competition closes Friday 6th December. Prize is for two Christmas cakes, one for you and one for your friend (we will need both of the winners' dairy supply numbers). The winner will be picked by a random draw.***
Here's some more pics from our field day near Otorohanga last week. Thanks heaps to the Woodwards for their hospitality! (And yes, those are goats, they are a sideline the Woodwards are building up to diversify their business).
The audience, 2 and 4 legged, is riveted by Nigel McWilliam's (MBS Advisors) presentation in Otorohanga today.
The end of another weekend is nearing, and I am home from open homes and theatre practice. Too early to relax in the chair as Sam is still milking and I get the guilts if I’m relaxing and he is working. I can’t admit to those same guilts affecting me if Bev is working around […]
It’s been a long time between blogs for the Frosties – one daughter has been to the US to be a camp counselor with camp America and is now back, working hard to save for uni next year. One son has finished his degree this week! The other son has been studying with YWAM in […]
Every season there seems to be variations in growth and cow performance that make spring so interesting. I thought that the amount of feed I had going into winter and up to calving would stand me in good stead through spring. Not so! Calving was the fastest it has ever been, and feed demand ramped […]
The month of September rolling around always gives me such a feeling of relief. I guess it’s owing to the fact that this is it, spring is here, the rush is over, and with daylight saving looming it will mean that those long evenings will once again reappear enabling all sorts of outdoor activity. Oh, […]
As I write this on the 30/7/19 I have just over half the herd in. The girls certainly have been keen to go as I had 25% of the herd in by due start date! This has convinced me to push back my start date to the 25th July. This is particularly relevant when it […]
I was aiming to write this blog on the shortest day, but that was on the 22nd of June, and it came and went before I knew it. We are now two weeks past that already! Wow, two weeks past the shortest day, which means only 84 days to go until daylight saving kicks in. […]
The season ended early for me with drying off on the 26th April. The dry summer/autumn encouraged this decision, and I feel it was the right one, with covers now over 2500 two thirds of the way through May. For the record, final figures were 28,759 kg solids, 368 kg per cow, and 1027 kg […]
It’s been a long time coming but finally the rain has arrived, hopefully not too late as we are very short of grass. With a bit of luck we can still see a pretty good finish to this season – we do need some good growing conditions over the next two months to set up […]
My calendar seems in a bit of disarray at the moment as we work ourselves through 2 weeks of days on, days off, days on, days off, causing me to struggle a bit trying to remember what day it is. I do know that it’s ANZAC day today as this is such a well-advertised and […]
Thank you and your committee for your great work re SMASH events. We have gained several life changing ideas from these events.
At SMASH events we met like-minded people doing similar things.
It gave us confidence to know that there are people out there doing the same thing we are doing.
The positive vibe and the feeling of community amongst the farmers here was a highlight.
Can't sleep as am too excited after events!
This was a brilliant day. Refreshing, informative, varied and motivating.
“We have kind of gone off discussion groups because they tend to just look after our little district. Discussion groups are mainly people checking up on what the neighbours are doing whereas SMASH events are different, we get a lot more from them. I wholeheartedly loved it. It is good getting out of the area too.”
The strong working partnership of smaller herd farmers Matt and Sarah-Jane Yates has been a cornerstone to the success of their farming business. Matt started his career drystock farming on the family block, but its sale enabled him to buy his own property.
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