NZ Dairy Winter 2021

34 | nz dairy DAIRY AWARDS » Sumit Kamboj & Manoj Kumar Brothers proud of achievements Virginia Wright 116 Main Street, Pahiatua (06) 376 8829 KEEPING YOU GOING pahiatua@tvg.co.nz | www.tararuavets.co.nz CONGRATULATIONS TO SUMIT KAMBOJ AND MANOJ KUMAR Winners of the Hawkes Bay/Wairarapa Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmer of the Year Award 2021 Tararua Veterinary Services is proud to provide all aspects of animal health care and to be associated with Sumit and Manoj S umit Kamboj and Manoj Kumar came to New Zealand from their village in India when they were 18 and 26 respectively. Sumit did a Diploma of Business Studies in Tauranga while Mamoj studied Horticulture. Given that they’d grown up on a small farm with 10 hectares of cropping and a few cows it’s perhaps not that surprising that in 2011 they both went on to take jobs as farm as- sistants working on a dairy farm in Pahiatua owned by Andrew and Monica Arbuthnott. Over ten years the two brothers worked their way up, through various farm manager and contract milking positions on different combinations of the three farms owned by the Arbuthnotts, until in 2019 things stabilized into their current situation. They’re now both 50/50 share-milkers, with Mamoj milking on the Arbuthnott’s farm where they both began, and Sumit milking on a second farm owned by Geoff Arends and Ester Romp. The farms operate separately but everything runs through the family business they set up in 2016 called Mirok Farm Ltd. “The farms are 20 minutes apart,” says Sumit. “My brother’s on the Arbuthnott’s farm milking 280 cows with one full-time staff and I’m here milking 480 cows with two staff. But we share staff between the farms when required, and we have the same account with Fonterra, and all our expenses go out of the same account so we look at it as 50/50 sharemilking 760 cows through two sheds.” There are clear advantages to working across the two farms which the brothers are making the most of. The smaller 96 hectare farm is a System 4. “So we do a lot of feeding out up there,” says Sumit, “and this year we’ve done 520kgs milk solid aver- age per cow. The other farm is a System 2 with 164 hectares and we did 415kgMS average per cow.” The two different figures are more to do with what happens in winter than anything else however. They winter milk all the empties off both farms, about 100 in total, on the smaller of the two farms where there’s a covered feed pad. “It keeps us go- ing over winter because there’s a good premium for winter milk,” explains Sumit. “They’re only second-time calvers so they’re smaller animals and we can bring them in under cover when it’s wet so we don’t pug the ground and make mud.” Whichever farm they’re working on they back-fence the cows to avoid pugging in the wet regardless. That’s clearly not the only thing the brothers are getting right though, as this year they not only won the Regional Share-Farmer of the Year Award for Wairarapa/Hawkes Bay, they took out the National Award and three merit awards as well. It might have something to do with the fact that on both the farms they’re sharemilking they’ve achieved the best historical production levels. “On this farm here the historical best was 185,000 but this year we’ve done 190,000 kg of milk solids and the same on the other farm: we did 150,000 which had never been done before,” says Sumit. “We went around the farms with the judges, introduced them to the staff, showed them all the systems and how we manage the more difficult things. Plus we showed them our budgets versus actuals for the last five years and the budgets for the next five years.” Sumit’s quick to say how much they owe to the input of their staff and, as he says, the judges must have liked what they saw overall to give them their award, and they’re proud of their achievement. But after ten years their achievements are not limited to farming. Mamoj and his wife Sunita Rani have a five year old daughter Arni, and Sumit is engaged and would have been married by now if it wasn’t for Covid. They’re an integral part of their community in Pahiatua and appreciate the support they’ve had over the years. “Because it was all new to us and all the sup- port we had from the farm owners and the local community is what made it possible,” says Sumit. “So we’re very thankful to them and we’re always there if needed because it’s our time to give back to them.” They’re very careful to keep the cows off the grass when it’s wet, young cows or not, as they have no desire to lose their grass to mud and weeds. “We went around the farms with the judges, introduced them to the staff, showed them all the systems and how we manage the more difficult things. Plus we showed them our budgets versus actuals for the last five years and the budgets for the next five years.” Share Farmers of the Year Sumit Kamboj and Manoj Kumar also took out a raft of merit awards at the NZDIA ceremony in Hamilton in May.