26 | nzdairy DAIRY AWARDS » Brian Tucker & Alice Gysbertsen Award winner seeking sharemilking deal Hugh de Lacy Alice (far left) following her first win back in 2014. Winners for 2014 of the Hawkes Bay Wairarapa region: Alice Gysbertsen – Dairy Trainee of the Year, Zoe and Tony Kuriger – Sharemilker-Equity Farmer of the Year and Nick Bertram – Farm Manager of the Year. The largest range of side by sides in the Wairarapa We service and repair all makes and models of ATV's, Side by Sides and Bikes. YOUR THREE SOLID CHOICES Sargent Motorcycles | 388 High St South, Carterton 5713 | sargentmotorcycles.nz A second major award, nine years after her first one, has Alice Gysbertsen on the scout for a 50/50 sharemilking contract of a herd of just 200 cows, if she can find one in these days of ever-bigger herds. Alice won this year’s Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa Dairy Farm Manager of the Year Award, to add to the Dairy Trainee of the Year Award she won back in 2014. And to round off a hugely satisfying awards ceremony this year, she also took out four merit awards, including the one of them that she prized most highly, the Vet Services (Dannevirke) Pasture and Feed Management Award. Her successes have brought her closer to her goal of a sharemilking arrangement, the next step up from her present role as 2IC/manager under her father Bart Gysbertsen, who holds the milking contract for Bryan Tucker’s 308ha 1000-cow farm near Greytown. Bart simultaneously runs a 500ha dry-stock block for Bryan, so there’s plenty of scope for Alice to apply her staff, stock and pasture management skills to the dairy block. “The first time I worked for Dad was last season, and it’s worked out really well: he leaves me to it to do what I do.” Alice has been actively involved with her father in dairy-farming since she was 11 years old, scrambling out of bed at 5am every morning to get out to the milking shed, and cow ownership has been her life-long goal. “Getting up early has always been something I’ve been able to do,” Alice says. “I enjoy it, and even now while we’re dry I still make sure I’m up early.” She has four staff in her charge at the busiest time of the year, and manages livestock, farm and staff under a straight-forward “do it once, do it right” philosophy. “I try to have the whole system working for everybody, not just me,” she says. So why is she aiming at sharemilking just a small herd when she has such proven management skills with staff, livestock and pasture? “I want a herd of that size because I can run it by myself, and I’ll be financially stable in making that step up,” Alice says. “That’s now achievable, and it’s a pretty cool position to be in.” She’s already been mentioned in relation to several equity sharemilking prospects, but says that “200-cow farm jobs at 50/50 are becoming fewer and farther between. “Generally the smaller herds are owner-operated, and a lot of them are run by managers, but there are still opportunities around.” From a 200-cow base, Alice wants to steadily increase her cow ownership to 400, and to be able within the next 10 years to buy her own run-off block. While racking up the awards for work, Alice has not been neglecting the formal side of a dairying education: she’s already completed the Level Three and Level Four segments of her New Zealand Certificate in Primary Industry Production Management under the Primary Industry Training Organisation, and is working on her Level Five.
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