34 | nzdairy DAIRY AWARDS » Will Green Top dairy accolade • from page 33 New Zealand Certified Builders Association CB Construction LTD - New Builds - Additions - Alterations - Farm Buildings Pleased to be associated with Will Green E: john@ruralcoach.co.nz | sarah@ruralcoach.co.nz | www.ruralcoach.co.nz • Business Planning • Farm Team culture and development • Leadership Development. Congratulations Will on your success at the Canterbury/North Otago Dairy Industry Awards WILL GREEN 2022 Dairy Trainee of the Year Peter OConnor; Share Farmer of the Year Will Green and Dairy Manager of the Year Jaspal Singh. He credits the need for self-evaluation, writing reports and doing presentations, including generating budget scenarios clearly identifying pressure points, with giving him a detailed and ongoing grip on how well the business tracks and what needs to be done to make sure it stays that way. “It was a good analysis and review of the whole business for me especially in terms of how durable we could be to milk price uctuations and production uctuations, and especially how low we can get before we start going backwards.” On 1st June this year Will increased his holding to 90% of the herd in exchange for 47% of the cheque and with the clear 12-month goal of getting up to 50/50. With the new contract Will takes on animal health costs for the rst time but he still expects the overall deal to be more pro table for him with, he hopes, more pro t being generated to go towards paying off the increased debt he’s taken on: more reward for the additional risk in other words. It’s not something he’s leaving to chance however with ongoing analysis a recurrent theme. “We did Dairy Base with Dairy NZ, just benchmarking against other dairy farmers in New Zealand, and that was really good because two years ago even though we only had 40% of the herd we were right up there growing equity at the same rate as our benchmark 50/50’s in the South Island, and our drawings were signi cantly lower, so it really highlighted some of the things we were doing really well. As long as we keep our costs down and keep putting money back into the business the accountants and the bank managers are happy,” says Will. The herd is fed on all grazed grass or silage made on farm, with careful attention paid to round lengths and leaf-stage grazing. A combination of spring and autumn feed budgets and a spring rotation planner is backed up with a weekly pasture inspection with the whole team. The 1060 cows go off farm for the winter, they keep 25% replacements, and Will is allowed to grow additional surplus for himself as a pathway to increased equity. “Anything above that 25% replacement is 100% mine. Last year I think I reared 336 heifers, so that’s a big selling point for Dairy Holdings that they allow us to rear surplus stock as surplus income.” As part of his business Will makes sure that both he and all of the staff take the time to enjoy life. On farm that includes making sure everyone fully understands their role and its importance in the overall business. “Knowing why we’re doing something not just what we’re doing,” says Will. Off farm they have a touch team and a ve-aside soccer team that play regularly along with regular communal meals and activities all designed to allow the time for genuine relationships to develop. On the relationship front Will credits his partner Sally Eames and her strategy involving post-it notes with keeping his presentation on track when he did his nal award-winning presentation at the national level earlier this year. He’s a keen advocate for the Awards and everything involved and has been since he attended his rst eld day. “I remember I went to Justin and Melissa Slattery’s Canterbury winners eld day in 2015. I still have the handout from that eld day, and I looked through it for inspiration for my presentation this year,” says Will. And of being the new National Share Farmer of the Year. “It still doesn’t feel real to be honest. It’s just a huge honour, all the other nalists are such cool people with such a passion for the industry it’s really humbling to be selected.”
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