Award gives incentive to aim higher
Engineering was Storm Burrows’ dream career but the 2015 Waikato Dairy Industry Awards finalist is glad it never eventuated.
The 19- year- old competed against 27 other entries in this year’s Waikato Dairy Trainee of the Year competition.
Burrows is only just finishing his second full season farming but said he had experience on his side in the competition.
This is the second year he has entered in the trainee of the year category.
The former Putaruru College student’s fulltime farming career began last season down in Wairarapa where his former manager encouraged him to enter.
‘‘I went along, I didn’t make the top six though.
‘‘When I left [Wairarapa], I set a goal to beat where I got before.’’
And a few hours of study and a touch of hard work later, he has accomplished that goal.
Burrows, who is now the 2IC on a Putaruru farm that milks 335 cows at peak, said he can visualise his future in the industry.
‘‘Eventually one day I’d like to own my own farm.’’
He has even paved out the milestones he will need to check off to get there.
But this was not always his career of choice.
‘‘I was actually going to be an engineer. Farming was just around at the time.’’
And it beats being in a office, he said.
Opportunities such as the one he was granted through the Waikato Dairy Industry Awards are great incentives to keep aiming higher, he said.
‘‘You get to meet a lot of people and practice skills you don’t do a lot of on the farm.’’