52 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Grand Bend Farm / Henderson Farms People, profit & planet Timing is really ideal Kim Newth Karen Phelps A decade after starting his dairy career as a farm assistant at Grandbend - the flagship northern farm of Hopkins Farming Group - Adrian Waugh returned to Grandbend again last season, this time as farm manager. Capping his successful progression journey to date, Adrian has also excelled as a first-time entrant at this year’s Dairy Industry Awards to place third in the 2025 Manawatu Dairy Manager category. Adrian’s passion for farming started in childhood, having grown up with parents who sharemilked in the Waikato and Whanganui. He remembers being at their side in the calf shed as a young child and milking cows from age 10. Through his high school years, he worked as a relief milker. After completing NCEA Level 3, he left to work at the 1000-cow Grandbend farm. Hopkins Farming Group has supported him to develop his career since then in the Apiti area, enabling him to grow new skills at every step. “After two years at Grandbend, I was given an assistant manager role at Apiti Heights, peak milking 700 cows and then in October 2018 I went to manage their Tableflat farm, peak milking around 680 cows. Then last season I returned to Grandbend as manager, peak milking 950-cows. “Hopkins Farming Group’s operations manager, Iain Sinclair-Black, has been a great mentor to me over the years. I’ve also been through professional development - Primary ITO training - and am currently doing a production management course.” This year, with the backing of Hopkins Farming Group, Adrian entered the Dairy Industry Awards for the first time and was pleased to come third in his category. “Going through the judging process put me out of my comfort zone, but I ended up with some very good feedback – both on what I’m doing right and what I can do to further develop and improve as a farm manager. Strong milk prices have provided the perfect backdrop for Steve and Kate Overend’s transition to lower order sharemilking at Summit Farm in Oxford, with the couple describing the timing as ideal for taking their next career step. “We had got to know the farm really well in the prior four years and had built up some equity with off farm investments. We love it here and were ready for more responsibility. It’s pretty exciting,” says Steve. The couple had previously spent a year as manager followed by three years contracting milking for farm owner Cam Henderson. The 221-hectare effective farm milks a herd of 750 Friesian cross cows through a 50 bail rotary shed equipped with automatic cup removers, teat sprayers and Protrack. Automatic backing gates detect cow density and adjust accordingly and the herd has Allflex collars providing comprehensive monitoring and data. The transition has enabled other staff to step up as well. Former second-in-command Bella Archer has moved into a unit manager role, providing her with valuable team leadership experience and allowing Steve to focus on higher-level operational oversight. “She wants to really grow and develop her skills and it’s allowed us to make our system more efficient across the board,” explains Steve. “That’s meant I can take a step back and run things more efficiently behind the scenes.” Steve and Kate are focusing on improvement and efficiencies where they can trialing a different calf feeding system. “This year we are trying an adlib system with the calves where they can drink as much as they want,” says Steve. “It’s daunting when you haven’t tried it before but it’s going extremely well. The system involves 20-25 cows accessing a 200-litre drum fitted with teats, with calves consuming double their normal intake compared to once-daily feeding.” Adrian has a three-fold focus that starts with farming for people. They have also been experimenting with a Nanobubble Agritech irrigation system with drag-line technology. “Instead of dropper lines it has long PVC pipe spaced out every couple of metres that drags along the ground and over the fences eliminating the need to take any fences out,” explains Steve. “It’s new technology and reduces the amount of water we need to apply, especially with the northwest winds Canterbury gets. We’ve installed some more moisture meters to get some good data to find out how to best use it; it’s ongoing learning.” There have also been significant changes to the farm’s wintering programme. After experiencing health issues with fodder beet systems, the operation has embraced bale grazing. “We wanted to refine our transition from winter crop to grass and make it less stressful on the cows and in turn help their rumination levels and ultimately produce more milk at the start of the season by helping them recover quicker and have less health issues. Now this is our second season on a bale grazing system which has worked out well.” The couple achieved 480 kilograms of milk solids per cow last season and are targeting 490-500 kilograms this year. Kate plays a crucial role managing administration and calf rearing while raising their three daughters: Molly, 7, Lillian, 5, and Annabelle, 1. Steve credits the Henderson family for supporting their progression within the business. “We owe a lot to our farm owners who have helped us progress; not everyone gets this opportunity,” says Steve. The move up the dairy ladder coincides with what Steve describes as renewed optimism across the dairy sector. “It’s been good timing for us taking the next step and I think farmers in general are feeling quite positive about the future and it’s got everyone excited. Farmers are out spending money again and it can only be good for the rural communities.” It was a really good experience; I definitely want to enter the awards again in future.” At Grandbend, Adrian has a three-fold focus that starts with farming for people. His goal is to grow and support a talented team, fostering a good work-life balance through a 6/2 roster that switches to a 5/2 roster in calving. His second key focus is on farming for profit by growing as much pasture as possible, while putting out supplement in the shoulder months when needed. Farming for the planet - with a quality herd producing at its best – is the third core priority. “That means improving out herd PW and BW. We use sexed semen over the top quartile of the herd while the bottom quartile gets beef. It’s all about having a higher quality herd and a farm that people want to work on.” Lameness issues have been much reduced over the past year, thanks to investments in race maintenance and installation or rubber matting at the cow shed entrance. Farm efficiency is also being improved with a new underpass system. Halter technology has been working well at Grandbend for the past four seasons now too, with the focus moving forward on monitoring animal health and seeking out ongoing farm improvement. The preferred milking systems partner for Dairy Farmers Ph 0800 577 583 | www.morrisonagri.co.nz Proud to support Henderson Farms Milking Machines Rotary Platforms Engineering Pumping & Plumbing Chemical LiquidNRichUrea Consignment Store 03 312 6792 / www.gbl.ag Protect today. Grow tomorrow. Here at GBL, we deliver precision spraying that protects your paddocks, boosts yields, and keeps your crops thriving, season after season. 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