| 73 nzdairy DAIRY SERVICES » Farm Services Limited Supporting farmers right across the Coast Kim Bowden On any given day, Ross Coleman could be on the road anywhere between Karamea and south of Fox Glacier, helping West Coast dairy farmers maintain, upgrade and troubleshoot milking plants and water and effluent systems that keep their farms operating. It’s the reality of running Farm Services Ltd, the business Ross launched earlier this year. For Ross, the company may be new, but the work is not. He says the business is the culmination of “hard work and heaps of hours at all ends of the day” over the past two decades, building relationships with farmers across the Coast. Many customers followed him to his own venture. “I rang zero of them, which is very humbling,” he says. When NZ Dairy caught up with him, he was filling the ute, buying coffees for his team before another day of travel to see a client. It’s a small crew - “two of us on the road and one in the office” - but one he hopes to grow by finding the right people. Ross says he values the people who work alongside him and believes small gestures of appreciation matter in an industry where the hours can be unpredictable. “We can get water pump calls at night and milking machine breakdowns at 4am,” he says. “You can’t just say, ‘Turn the water off and we’ll be there tomorrow’.” Rather than simply fixing breakdowns, Ross helps farmers improve the performance of their systems. He says well-maintained equipment reduces stress for staff, saves valuable time during busy milking routines and helps ensure cows are milked efficiently and comfortably. Ross’ connection to the dairy industry began long before he started Farm Services Ltd. Raised in a dairy farming family, he milked cows before and after school before moving into a career combining engineering expertise with the hands-on work of sorting milking sheds. He reckons he has worked across virtually every make and model of milking plant operating on the Coast. He says the business holds a large and growing stock of parts and works with farmers to identify critical spare parts for their individual set-ups – having key components on hand can be the Ross Coleman and Nate Croy with the Farm Services Ltd work van. difference between a minor hiccup and a major loss when something fails. Farm Services Ltd also works closely with MilkTechNZ, a dairy technology company focused on milking system performance. Ross says the relationship keeps him connected with new developments in the industry, including systems that allow farmers to monitor aspects of their operations remotely. “The systems...can be tapped into on a phone and all sorts, it’s quite cool,” he says. Although Farm Services Ltd is only months old, Ross has established the company with the long term in mind. He says his goal is to create something that will continue supporting West Coast farmers long after he eventually steps away. “I’ve probably got 20 years left in me, but I’ve set it up for people to buy into,” he says. “I need it to be here for West Coast farmers for yonks to come.” For Ross, the motivation has remained the same throughout his career journey. “I just have a real passion for the industry and to see it perform well, that’s my drive. And making the people in the hard positions out in the field happy one way or another as well.”
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