NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

| 61 nz dairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Grasslands Developing people big part of story Karen Phelps A significant aspect of the Grasslands story is its people. In Canterbury the company has a team of 45 and in Southland a team of 29, which includes supervisory staff, contract milking teams and young-stock management. They are supported by three administration staff based in the company’s Canterbury office. Grasslands’ chief operating office Simon Le Heron says the aim is to retain staff and help them to prepare to move on with the next phase of their careers and lives. A recent development has been the establishment of a senior staff shareholder scheme. Simon says that the scheme helps staff to invest capital in the business to grow their wealth so they can take the next step, whether that is to become a sharemilker, purchase a dairy farm of their own, buy a house or something else. He says that the scheme allows staff to have liquidity to take their funds out once a year so that they can have confidence in their investing outcome. Staff are also put through wealth creation courses to teach them the fundamentals of investing includ- ing time in the market for success, compounding growth and budgeting. “We have a board of directors who want to see our talented people progress. The share scheme gives our staff somewhere to grow their money, have skin in the game and liquidity, which they wouldn’t get in an equity partnership for example. It’s about teaching them the skills to keep on the path and how to set goals to get to where they want to go,” explains Simon. Kirt McConnachie and Shannel Rudkin, who are contract milkers on Grasslands’ dairy 9, milking 1700 cows, are a good example. Both grew up on dairy farms and have progressed their dairy careers, mainly through Grasslands. • to page 62 Together we make the difference find out more at fonterra.com/makethedifference The Co-operative Difference makes Good Together real on farm. It means pulling the best of what we do into five focus areas and making sure they become the strongest possible foundations for our Co-op, not just for today, but well into the future. • Concrete • Fertiliser Spreading - Farm Mapping - GPS Tracking - Varible Rate Spreading • Livestock Cartage • Grain Cartage • Shingle Supplies • Daily Freight Leeston: 03 3248 070 Dunsandel: 03 3254 039 reception@ellesmere.co.nz Grasslands on-farm production committee meeting: Rob Screen, Kirt McConnachie, Greg Roadley, Russ Young and Alistair Rayne.