From worst to the best
A poor performing farm has been turned around. Sonita Chandar reports.
The worst kid on the block is now not only the best but also an award winner. Landcorp’s Ruapehu Farm, beside the Manawatu River at Moutoa between Levin and Foxton, recently took the supreme prize at the Dairy Business of the Year Awards.
Managed by Glenn Weitenberg, Ruapehu Farm is a 253ha block milking 870-880 kiwicross cows and is one of nine farms owned by Landcorp at Moutoa in one title but farmed separately. Five to six years ago, it was the lowest -producing dairy farm in the group but is now the top farm.
This is Weitenberg’s third season on Ruapehu Farm. Improvements and management strategies he and others before him have implemented have transformed the farm into a high performing award-winning business.
‘‘Seven years ago it was a poorproducing farm and the worst in the group,’’ he says.
‘‘The farm wasn’t making much money, grass didn’t grow and production was low. The business manager even thought about turning it into a native bush block.’’
Since then, the farm has been regrassed, lime applied and better operating procedures put in place.
Two years ago, Weitenberg and his team entered the Dairy Business of the Year to measure themselves against other farms.
‘‘It was big surprise to be a finalist that year,’’ he says.
‘‘Then we had a great season so decided to enter again this year. We have put in a lot of hard work on the farm to get systems in place and working right, so it is nice to be recognised for all our effort.’’
They also won the Best Manawatu Farm Performance, lowest environmental impact and high input with best financials awards.
Judge Cornelius Williams said the farm won the environment award due to superior nitrogen leaching performance.
‘‘Landcorp Ruapehu also has good infrastructure to control environmental externalities through the season,’’ Williams said.
‘‘This includes a 3500 cubic metres lined pond, recycled greenwater and winter stand off and feed pad areas providing good winter management options. In addition to this, 5ha of natives have been planted on the property.’’
Weitenberg says the effluent management technology is an impressive set-up which prevents ponding on paddocks.
He also says he is particularly proud of what they have achieved as the team is relatively young.
‘‘Our youngest staff member is 17. Our 2IC is in his 40s but is new to the industry,’’ he says.
‘‘So we have achieved some pretty cool results.’’
Winning the Dairy Business of the Year has not only given them recognition, but is also an indication to Weitenberg he is in the right business after all.
Becoming a dairy farmer was an ‘‘unconscious’’ decision for the 26-year-old, who has a passion for the great outdoors.
‘‘I never set out to be dairy farmer,’’ he says.
‘‘It just sort of happened. I didn’t actually want to work with cows but didn’t really know what I wanted to do except work with tractors and outdoors.’’
Tractors played a big part in his youth. If there was tractor-work to be done, he was the first to put his hand up.
The son of immigrant sharemilkers from Holland, Weitenberg was born in Whangarei. In 2000 when he was 10 years old, the family shifted south to Marton, Rangitikei.
He remembers driving tractors on the farm at Whangarei so reckons he was probably about eight or nine when he first took one for a spin.
‘‘I would come home from school and go straight out to top or roll paddocks or apply fertiliser,’’ he says.
‘‘In the holidays I always had a big list of tractor jobs to do so was happy. Mum and dad paid me an hourly rate based on my age, so not sure who won there.’’
He attended Palmerston North Boys High where he excelled in sports and in particular, athletics.
In 2007 he represented New Zealand at the Youth Olympics in Sydney in the 110m hurdles placing seventh.
But with niggling knee and leg injuries athletics fell by the wayside. At the end of Year 12 his parents decided to get out of sharemilking, so he left school to help them on the farm for the final year.
‘‘I still wasn’t convinced dairying was what I wanted to do,’’ he says.
After a year his parents sold the herd and Weitenberg went to work as a barman at a nearby country club where he met Tammi. The couple married in 2014.
He then went to work for Mary Craw and Bernie Hughes as a farm assistant at Hunterville.
‘‘It was a great learning curve,’’ he says.
‘‘I had been doing things dad’s way and now I was on a farm using different techniques. I was exposed to lots of different things, but the biggest was being grass-based so learnt a lot about pasture management.’’
Two seasons later, he secured a manager’s role with James Bull Holdings, also at Hunterville. The role was a huge step up as it was a much larger farm milking 880-900 cows.
‘‘The farm was high-input so again I learnt another system,’’ he says.
‘‘I was working with a team, so being in charge gave me a lot of people-management skills.’’
As a trial on that farm, they milked three times a day during the peak period with good results.
‘‘The herd was big holstein friesians who were pumping the milk out,’’ he says.
In 2014 the couple shifted south to Landcorp’s Ruapehu Farm. Weitenberg is in his third season managing the property while Tammi commutes to Marton each day for work.
‘‘It is a great place to work and live,’’ he says.
‘‘We weren’t sure about shifting here but it is the best move we have made. Being at Ruapehu Farm affords me a great lifestyle and fits in well with our work-life balance. Being on a large farm with a team of five makes it easier to get away and have some downtime.’’
In his first two seasons, Weitenberg worked closely with then-business manager Brian Wilkinson who oversaw all nine farms. Together they analysed Ruapehu, with Wilkinson identifying production dips at certain times of the year.
‘‘Brian said it was all to do with the pasture,’’ Weitenberg says.
‘‘So we came up with a plan to top every paddock before the herd went in. We started topping when the payout was dropping so this was adding a cost and we copped a bit criticism from people, but Brian backed me up and we carried on.’’
Pasture tests showed the topping had given them an increase in metabolic energy and quality, and better three-leaf pasture.
‘‘We harvested an extra two tonnes of grass that season,’’ he says.
‘‘Our production also increased