BACKGROUND

Dairy farming has been part of my life for the past twelve years. After leaving school I attended Telford Rural Polytech in South Otago for a year and graduated with a Certificate of Agriculture.

I decided to stay down there to work on a 640 cow dairy farm in between Clydevale and Clinton for a season. It was a great eye opener – they do things differently, especially in the winter. However, home eventually called me back to help my parents on the home farm.

I have worked alongside my dad and followed in his foot steps. During the past few years I have slowly taken over the day-to-day running of the farm while Mum and Dad step back. We have slowly increased cow numbers and changed from a system 1 to a system 5. We employ a full time drive-in milker as we have 2 people milking in our 24aside herringbone shed.