Go-getters needed to get the job done
A Manawatu¯ farmer gets a thrill from seeing his staff succeed and progress, Sonita Chandar reports.
Only a certain type of person need apply for a job on Nigel Taylor’s farm – young, motivated, ambitious and driven to succeed.
Not that he won’t consider others. But he says his experience is that people like this are more likely to be invested in learning.
‘‘You can’t teach a person motivation or that drive that is something that is already in someone,’’ he says.
‘‘If a person is passionate about their job and the industry, you can teach them pretty much anything because they are like sponges and are willing to learn.
He gets a thrill seeing young people succeed in the industry and he has had his fair share of awardwinning staff.
In 2014, he had two topperforming staff – manager Sam Ebbett and trainee Hayley Hoogendyk.
They both entered the Dairy Industry Awards. Ebbett won Manawatu¯ Dairy Manager of the Year title while Hoogendyk was the Dairy Trainee of the Year. Then earlier this year, Hoogendyk won the Manawatu¯ Dairy Manager title and then went on to win the national competition.
‘‘Their wins highlight how good they are but then the cat was out of the bag. The worst thing is that every other bugger wants to employ them too. But it is fantastic that they want to move on and progress – that is the sort of people they are – driven.’’
One thing he has learnt is that nobody is irreplaceable and now has a new young team to help progress.
‘‘I can’t claim any of their success or say it was down to me, but I would like to think I helped them by not holding them back.
‘‘I basically gave them free rein to run the farm their way or implement their own systems, so hopefully this contributed even in a small way to them reaching their potential.’’
His team of two farm assistants and two 2ICS, have started this season and are finding their rhythm.
He hopes they too will implement a system that works for them and the farm business but sees the value in the systems used by Ebbett and Hoogendyk.
He has developed Jobdone, a farm management system that focuses on people, the work they do and how to keep them safe, productive and effective team members. It is a complete manual and record-keeping system for the farm.
It arose from the realisation that he was wasting hours each day working under time pressure feeling the need to check tasks had been completed.
‘‘I was also struggling to prove that we are compliant with everincreasing legislation, not a nice feeling and one of the main things that kept me up at night.’’
New rules have added to farmers workloads in recent years so a solution that was not only efficient but also saved time and he says was a must.
‘‘Whiteboards, the back of an envelope and a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude just don’t cut the mustard these days – everything has to be documented and transparent.
‘‘I guess the idea came about because of all the different things that happen on-farm and all the different records that need to be kept. I wanted a software package that encompassed everything.’’
However two years ago when he went to buy a software package he couldn’t find what he was looking for.
‘‘There wasn’t a single solution that would effectively manage everything.
‘‘I talked to other farmers - 100 farmers in fact from different sizes and types of farming operations and found we all shared similar challenges.’’
He ended up at Icehouse in Auckland, a collaboration between Auckland University Business School and other organisations to help businesses grow and be an incubator for start-ups.
‘‘Under their guidance I was able to put together a plan and design a solution.
‘‘I pitched the idea at the Fonterra Activate Challenge and won. From there we assembled a crack team to build the solution and business structure.
They spent a year developing, testing and trialling the system with farmers to ensure that it met their needs.
The cloud-based system works on smartphones, tablets and computers so all team members can use it.
‘‘It tackles on-farm issues such as health and safety, staff management, work planning and scheduling, time-sheets, communication, collaboration and compliance.
‘‘Through it, I can show my staff a type of farm system or elements of one and compare it to what we are using and see how things measure up.’’
Although it comes with a set of pre-built job templates that have been designed by dairy farmers, the software can be used by large or small farms, or any agricultural business.
He is the fourth generation on the family farm at Ohakea and never thought about doing anything else.
He has watched the farm business grow from 100ha and 240 cows to 275ha over the years. The family also own several other blocks of support land and lease a drystock unit, run about 1000 stock over all properties and employ six full-time staff - four on the dairy unit, a drystock manager, a tractor driver and two part-timers.
Last season, the herd averaged 397kgms to produce 270,000kgms. This season, the target is 300,000kgms.
They run a System 4 and a splitcalving system with 280 cows kept for winter milk supply and 600 calving in the spring.
About 30ha of maize is grown on the support block of which they keep 20ha and about 70ha of grass silage is brought from the support block to the dairy unit.
‘‘We are completely selfsufficient except for 300 tonne of PKE which we buy in.’’
About 2kg of PKE is fed per day per cow to the winter milk cows and then the main herd through winter and again from January to March.
They grow a 25ha kale crop for wintering cows as well as 15ha of fodderbeet.
‘‘We get varying results from the fodderbeet depending on how wet the season is.’’
Last year, they grew 30ha of peas under contract to Mccain and a further 15ha of seed peas. They also have 50ha of forestry.
‘‘We have learnt some good lessons over the past few years with the payout dropping,’’ he says.
‘‘So the peas and trees are part of diversification so our income stream is not limited to the milk payout. This was the first time we grew peas and they yielded really well. They were the only crop that liked the wet summer.’’
The herd is wintered on the support block and they are joined by outside grazers.
‘‘The start of this season was really wet so the demand for grazing was high.
‘‘We normally graze about 550 cows under contract but would have easily got 15 or so more phone calls from farmers looking for grazing.’’ Calving began on August 1 and they rear everything. They keep about 130-140 replacements and sell any surplus heifers as risingtwo-year-olds. All bull calves are reared to 100-150kg and sold through auction.
‘‘Calves are collected as often as needed.
‘‘We are big on meeting and keeping basic animal welfare targets. They are the future of the herd and should be treated well so if it’s cold and wet, we go and get them.’’
Autumn-calving cows are mated to a hereford with all calves being kept and finished for about two years.
‘‘I like the easy nature of the breed. They are quiet, easy to rear and are our biggest market earner when compared to other breeds.’’
Mating for the autumn-calving mob begins on June 15. AI is done for four weeks and then a bull run for another two weeks.
The main herd is mated from October 20 with six weeks of AI then three weeks with the bull.
‘‘Based on their production worth, we put the bottom 20 per cent of the herd to the hereford.
‘‘Although their PW isn’t high, we still get a valuable calf.’’
The heifers are synchronised and mated to a friesian.
‘‘We used to contract-mate about 100 heifers for Fonterra for export to China, which provided an additional income stream.
‘‘Unfortunately, they stopped the contracts for farmers in the Manawatu a couple of years ago.’’
Their six-week in-calf rate is about 65 per cent and their empty rate higher than usual at 14 per cent.
‘‘I think it has gone up because of the wet season – it was hard going.’’
A benefit of winter milking means any empties can be carried over and mated for winter milk.
‘‘They are given a second chance.’’
He eventually hopes to buy the family farm but is mindful of keeping a work-life balance.
‘‘The reality is, the cowshed can be a big handcuff on life if you don’t have the staff, systems or infrastructure in place. Having a good balance is really important.’’
He thinks going once-a-day milking could provide that balance but is not ready to switch yet.
‘‘I haven’t looked into it. I am not brave enough to OAD - but one day, perhaps.’’