14 | nzdairy DAIRY INDUSTRY AWARDS » Isla Pringle and Hayden Smith Couple over the moon to have nailed it Hugh de Lacy Learning to mitigate the negative sides of dairy-farming in the deep south through pasture and environmental risk management has won partners Isla Pringle and Hayden Smith the 2025 Otago/Southland Sharefarmer of the Year title. The couple are 50/50 sharemilkers with their own herd of 450 Friesians on Sarah and Lachie McLeod’s 175ha farm at Mabel Bush, 20km north of Invercargill, producing 225,000 kilograms of milksolids a year, at an average per cow of 495kg/ms. The farm is a mixture of low-lying flats, and rolling to steep hills. The Sharefarmer of the Year Award has come at the end of the couple’s third season with the McLeods, and Isla says they’re “over the moon” to have nailed it. “We’ve worked very hard over the last three years, and it’s been a privilege to showcase our work and get such a reward for it. “After another season here we’ll look around for a longer-term share-milking position with more cows – ultimately we’d like a herd of between 700 and a thousand - then in about five years we should be in a position to consider farm ownership. “We had a lot to learn when we came here: Hayden had no experience of farming on hills so it was a challenge to make the hills more productive. “We identified the different types of topography and soil for different treatments, and shortened the round length to keep on top of the native species.” Isla and Hayden, now in their mid-twenties, met when both were 19 and Isla was working towards her Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in ecology and geography, at the University of Otago – a degree which has since proved highly relevant to the shared management of a challenging farm. Isla works part-time on the farm as relief milker, and also helps in the feeding of the calves, joining Hayden in jointly managing the accounts, while holding down a job with flexible hours with the agricultural engineering and environmental planning consultancy Dairy Green in Invercargill. Her professional expertise has proved highly relevant in keeping the couple up with developments relating especially to greenhouse gases, emissions targets and environment outcomes and compliance. “We’re very pro-active in those respects,” Isla says. Hayden, 25, grew up in Eastern Southland on the dairy farm of his parents, Darnelle andJamese Smith, and worked for them for his first four and a half years out of school. By then he had already distinguished himself on dairying’s competitive ladder by coming third in the Dairying Trainee of the Year title for Otago-Southland in 2019. When Hayden’s parents decided to sell up and move back up north, to Coromandel – they’d originally farmed in the Waikato before joining the migration to Southland - Hayden and Isla bought The Sharefarmer of the Year Award has come at the end of the couple’s third season with the McLeods. “We had a lot to learn when we came here: Hayden had no experience of farming on hills so it was a challenge to make the hills more productive.” 77 CLYDE STREET, INVERCARGILL, PH (03) 214 4254 www.southlandhonda.co.nz SOUTHLAND HONDA For the best Parts, Sales & Service in the south JACKSON CROOKS BUILDING New Zealand Certi ed Builders Association CB LICENSED BUILDING PRACTITIONERS Building confidence FOR ALL YOUR BUILDING NEEDS RENOVATIONS • CONCRETE • RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL • FARM BUILDINGS WINTERING BARNS • RETAINING WALLS Phone Jackson NOW- 027 816 7300 jackson@jacksoncrooksbuilding.co.nz LEGAL We are proud to support Isla Pringle and Hayden Smith Chris Menzies, Partner 270 Great North Road, Winton awlegal.co.nz | 0800 100 151 their 300 mixed-age cows, pumped the herd numbers up to 450 and took up the contract with the McLeod family to share-farm their property . “What we’re striving for is profitability and sustainability within our own share-milking business and for our farm owner,” Isla says.
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