54 | nzdairy The Aztech Buildings Composting Barn is a key pillar to Waka Dairies becoming a leading producer. DAIRY PEOPLE » Waka Dairies Proudly supplyingWaka Dairies with qualitymachinery StrautmannHopkins Importers for over 40 years of Strautmann LoaderWagons, Mixers, Bucket Grabs,Trailers &Muck Spreaders Scan theQR Code to viewour website what is resilience for the business, where’s it all heading, and how are we going to manage it.” The response to those questions was a focus on Food, Energy, Natural Capital, Skills and Culture -each a production line in its own right. “For Waka Dairies, Food is currently primarily about dairy, and we produce enough dairy to feed 38,000 people their daily dairy intake. There’s also little bit of beef. But, it’s about watching markets to see if we need to adjust our focus from dairy - whether that means reducing our dairy herd and doing more beef, or growing some vegetable foods, or different stock foods.” Waka Dairies also wants to be a business that consumes and exports its own Energy, via assets such as windmills, silos, micro-hydro, and biogas, all intertwined to the business. Natural Capital is around Waka Dairies’ composting barn system, utilising that compost back on land to feed crops and maintain / improve soil. This composting barn in Dannevirke was completed by Aztech Buildings. Michael says another part of natural capital is around the reforestation of thirty hectares back to its natural habitat for flora and fauna. Skills is about developing skills on farm and within the industry, and Michael has created and introduced his own on-farm apprenticeship system. The broad framework delivers a career pathway over a ten year period in the Waka Dairies’ business, with that broken down into different learning and apprenticeship systems, each with different fixed term employment contracts. Michael is also on the Muka Tangata (Workforce Development Council) skills review panel. The Culture piece looks both internally and externally, and Michael says while there is huge emphasis on producing the skills within the business, having the right team culture is equally crucial. “The external part looks to the public and industry and with the goal of changing the narrative that as farmers we hold about ourselves.”
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