Dairy Trainee Finalists Follow Their Bosses

Dairy Trainee Finalists Follow Their Bosses

One-third of the 12 finalists in the 2010 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year competition are employed by either current or past participants in the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards.

“It’s great that farmers new to the industry are being encouraged by their employers to enter the contest, and in doing so, increase their skills, confidence, networks and have some fun,” Dairy Industry Awards national convenor Chris Keeping says.

As well as the trainee competition, the New Zealand Sharemilker of the Year and New Zealand Farm Manager of the Year contests are included in the awards. The winners of each competition will be announced at a national awards dinner in Rotorua on May 15, and share in a prize pool of about $130,000.

Mrs Keeping says the awards have strongly promoted the ability to enter different competitions within the awards programme as people progress their dairy industry career.

“Having more than one person employed on the same farm entering different competitions within the awards is great for advancing dairy industry careers – as well as for the owners of those farms. Our entrants will be working extra hard to get the best results from those farms. They’ll also be ambitious and keen to learn and transfer ideas into best practice on the farm they work.”

She says the trainee finalists have been whittled down from a record of more than 200 entrants in the competition and comprise a diverse group of people.

The 12 finalists include two women, two teenagers, two men in their early 30’s and two that have entered the contest before. Some have had previous careers, some have travelled and others have gone straight to dairy farming.

“Our oldest finalist is 33-year-old Darrell Rose from the Hawkes Bay Wairarapa region, who joined the dairy industry in 2007 after spending eight years in the New Zealand Police force. Our youngest finalist representing the Auckland Hauraki region, 18-year-old Leon Wynolts, also joined the industry in 2007 and is currently an assistant on a 700-cow farm.”

The dairy trainee finalists can have up to four years dairy farming experience, but not at a management level. They should have also completed or be completing an Agriculture ITO level 4 course, but they can also be nominated from a farm employer without having gained any formal qualification, so long as the employer believes they have obtained equivalent skills and knowledge.

The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are supported by national sponsors Westpac, DairyNZ, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda Motorcycles NZ, LIC, Meridian Energy, Ravensdown and RD1, along with industry partner Agriculture ITO.

The 2010 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year finalists are:
• Auckland Hauraki – Leon Wynolts, 18
• Bay of Plenty – David Kehely, 19
• Canterbury North Otago – Angus Thomas, 24
• Central Plateau – Brady Mitchell, 25
• Hawkes Bay Wairarapa – Darrell Rose, 33
• Manawatu Rangitikei Horowhenua – Amanda Brew, 25
• Northland – Michael Deal, 20
• Otago – Blake Korteweg, 26
• Southland – Adam Coley, 21
• Taranaki – Dougan Butler, 20
• Waikato – Dan Wong, 32
• West Coast Top of the South – Andrea Harvey, 21.

Further information on the finalists can be found at www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz.

ENDS

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