14 | nzdairy DAIRY AWARDS » Logan and Sian Dawson: Integrity Farms ‘We gave it everything we had’ Russell Fredric The process of preparing their Waikato Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmer of the Year entry was all consuming, but the hard work was far from over for Logan and Sian Dawson. There was an element of disbelief when it was announced at the awards dinner on March 13 they had won the regional award, Logan says. “We were so excited it took a while to sink in that we’d won it. We put so much work into it that it was a huge relief that we had been recognised. We gave it everything we had.” Logan and Sian have five young children and prepared just as earnestly for the national event held in Queenstown on May 11. “We’re really committed to the process, and it’s funny because we’re sitting here now working on our next presentation for the national and we’ve been up past midnight every night for the last five nights doing it. “You’ve got to be in to win, and whether we win or not, we are still going to get out of the process what we put in.” The couple came very close: they were named Share Farmer of the Year runner-up at the nationals held in Queenstown on May 11, as well as receiving merit awards for leadership, and biosecurity, health and safety. The couple are equity partners and 50% share milkers for Jim and Sue van der Poel, farmingtwo dairy units milking a total of 1350 cows through two separate milking sheds on a platform of 333 hectares. One unit, the ‘big farm’ covers 213ha and the other 120ha. The big farm has a 54 bail rotary shed and the small one a 36bails a-side bail herringbone. All the cows have Allflex collars. Raised in Sydney, Sian has her own photography business while Logan has tertiary qualifications in agriculture, production management and agribusiness management. Logan says this season has been really enjoyable and he and Sian have learned a lot out of the decisions they have made and put into practice along the way. He describes the business having robust systems and being financially successful, with the focus on minimising expenses and other metrics getting sharper every year in tandem with their learnings from entering the awards. But that’s not all. “We’ve never spent so much time on why we do what we do and how to relay that to other people which has been a really fresh perspective for us. It’s certainly enhanced the way that we are looking at the future and it’s challenged us on our personal goals as well as our business goals. “We’ve gone back to the drawing board out of some things and sort of thought what do we really want out of life.” The business is a high input system five operation with both separation and synergies. “We’ve trained the herringbone cows to be milked in the rotary [shed], we calved down all our spring calving cows on the big farm and then as the numbers allow we just transfer them back to the herringbone which actually works really well. “The same thing with the gear; we just have one tractor and mixer wagon for both farms and a tractor driver that does all the feeding out across both farms.” The farms run an unconventional and innovative three-times-a-season calving system. The brainchild of Logan, this system grew out of an autumn and spring split calving system, but the decision was made to compact the calving length and split it into three times a year to enable a shorter carry over period, less dried-off days and less bobby calves while maximising milk production. “We finish spring calving by the end of August, a six week calving, and then we do a three week calving the first three weeks of December and then we do another three week calving from mid- February.” This system takes pressure off the calf rearing operation as well as making life easier for staff.” “It’s a nice short, sharp compact calving period so the higher hours, higher pressure work time of the year is for a shorter amount of time and we are achieving a lower ratio kilos of dry matter to kilos of milk solids over a calendar year.” Congratulations Logan & Sian Dawson! WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT DAIRY FARMERS ON THEIR JOURNEYS TO SUCCESS Winner of the Share Farmer of the Year Waikato Dairy Industry Awards Runner-up Share Farmer of the Year NZ Dairy Industry Awards With Farm Medix, we have the tools -m7 u;vou1;v |o 1om|uoѲ l-vࢼࢼvĸ $_; vrrou| |_; ruob7; l-h;v -ѲѲ |_; 7b@;u;m1;ij “ Sian and Logan Dawson (centre) were crowned Waikato Share Farmers of the Year at the Dairy Industry Awards. EXPERIENCE YOU CAN TRUST RESULTS YOU CAN RELY ON milkrus.co.nz 0800 2 MILK R US CONTACT Office@milkrus.co.nz Office: (027) 205 7753
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