| 131 nzdairy FMG Young Farmer of the Year Award » Waiau Ag Ltd As well as prepping for the competition’s grand final in New Plymouth this July, he was busy through the late Autumn season drying off some 800 cows. know much about. My goal with that is to try and get 50%, rather than zero and achieve across the board consistency. It would be nice to win, but I’m not too stressed about the result. I’m going to New Plymouth to enjoy the experience.” Thomas grew up on his parents’ Southland sheep and beef farm, Wairaki Station. His parents, Richard and Trudy Slee, also have a dairy farm near Tuatapere in Western Southland, where Thomas is contract milking 1000 cows. Involvement with NZ Young Farmers is something of a family tradition. In fact, Richard is a past grand final champ, having won the FMG Young Farmer of the Year title in 1999. “My parents are my biggest supporters and have been helping keep me motivated and focussed. They’ll definitely be there for me at this year’s grand final event.” After leaving school, Thomas took a gap year off to go shepherding near Queenstown before Vat Wash & Cooler Pumps Reliable, high performance, quality materials, and the widespread Lowara support network make these pumps an ideal selection for your water supply requirements. Lowara C Series • Stainless Steel construction • Delivery up to 31 m3/h • Single and Dual impeller models available • European design guarantees high quality Check out our full range of Lowara Stainless Steel pumps for the perfect pump for your farm. DELIVERING PUMPING SOLUTIONS®since 1908 Ph: 0508 4 BBENG www.brownbros.co.nz 06/26 Supporting WAIAU AG with practical legal advice www.prlaw.co.nz completing a Bachelor of Agricultural Commerce at Lincoln University. He then worked as an agrimanager at the BNZ in Invercargill for several years before starting work on the family dairy farm. “I worked for the contract milkers who were running this farm for around 18 months to get dairy experience, as I had not worked on a dairy farm before. There’s a lot of crossover with sheep and beef – on soils and plants – but learning to manage dairy stock has been a big learning curve. I took over contract milking here this year. I’d always planned to start my own business and go down that path. It has been challenging at times but I’m really enjoying it. I’m now leading my own team – I have three full-time staff at the moment and some casuals for calving and milking.” Looking ahead, Thomas plans to keep growing his business with sharemilking in his sights as the next step up ahead.
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