74 | nzdairy New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards » Sona Chosta At the dairy industry awards Miriam picked up more than the national runnerup title. She also took home three merit awards - the Craigmore Farming and Safer Farms Health and Safety Award, the DeLaval Sustainable Pasture Award and the Personal Planning and Financial Management Award. Karen Phelps Runner-up in this year’s New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year awards, Taranaki’s Miriam Lauridsen spends most days thinking about pasture and cows. She milks approximately 385 KiwiCross cows on 137 hectares of coastal volcanic country at Sona Chosta, near New Plymouth. While her job title is pasture, forage and herd manager, in practice, it’s close to a manager’s role, but without formal responsibility for staff. Her focus is on feed and cows. “I’m very passionate about pasture,” she says. “Pasture is a very cheap feed, and when it’s managed right it can be very efficient.” Old lahars run over parts of the farm, meaning some paddocks can’t be topped with a mower. Pasture quality has to be managed with stock instead. Last year’s drought tested that system. Miriam cut numbers, dried heifers off early and used a crop paddock as a sacrifice area to protect the rest of the pasture. The farm runs as a system three, and this season they have added Proliq alongside palm kernel. It’s a cheap feed with high ME (Metabolisable Energy), Miriam says, and it has lifted production. This year, the farm produced approximately 165,000 kilograms of milksolids – 445 kilograms per cow. At the dairy industry awards Miriam picked up more than the national runnerup title. She also took home three merit awards - the Craigmore Farming and Safer Farms Health and Safety Award, the DeLaval Sustainable Pasture Award and the Personal Planning and Financial Management Award. Judges said they were impressed by her personal planning and awareness of her progression in the dairy industry. They also noted her dedication to the team on farm and her ability to communicate. Miriam says entering the awards pushed her to set clearer goals. She met with an accountant, worked through budgets and put firmer targets around her ideas. “You kind of have a rough idea, but you don’t have actual targets,” she says. “The awards made me look at the steps I could be taking.” At 29 she is looking to invest in a rental property and has already gained preapproval from the bank. Miriam grew up as a farm kid. “My parents were dairy farming, but they switched to dry stock when I was probably like five,” she says. “When I finished school, I got a job on one of our neighbour’s farms, relief milking, and I worked for Last year’s drought tested the system my dad during the day to get experience and learn some skills.” A knee injury and surgery then took her out of farming for almost two years. She later returned as a fulltime farm assistant. “I had a lot of the basics...and I feel like I caught on pretty fast,” she says. This is now her third season in her current role. Because her boss, Liam O’Sullivan, also works in town, Miriam handles much of the farm’s dayto-day decision-making, with Liam still closely involved and supporting the operation. “I think it’s been good for me to push myself Specialists in Dairy Efficiency Solutions corkillsystems.co.nz 0800 10 7006 Dairy • Automation • Electrical New address: 12 Oropuriri Road, Waiwhakahio 06 757 5064 • taranaki@thinkwater.co.nz • www.thinkwater.co.nz/taranaki • Water Pumps • Water Treatments • Irrigation Systems • Solar Pumping Systems • Farm Water Design • Rain Water Harvesting PROUDLY SUPPORTING SONA CHOSTA Design, Installation & Servicing of out of my comfort zone and take more responsibility on, while having that support.” Miriam says Liam backs her to take on new ideas and training, including DairyNZ’s Feed for Profit course. If he can’t answer a question himself, he connects her with someone who can, she says.
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