Moore Award Winning Sharemilkers

Don and Jess Moore, who won the 2013 National Sharemilker Equity Farmer of the Year Award say relationships, networking and thinking outside the square are their strengths. Don and Jess are 50/50 sharemilkers for Bruce and Sue Cunningham. They are in their seventh season on the farm, which totals 385ha and has a milking platform of 325ha. This season they are milking 925 cows.

They began as managers on the farm in the 2008/09 year, winning the Southland Farm Manager of the Year award in 2009/10.  They had a year as lower order sharemilkers and then for the past four years have been 50/50. They won the 2013 Southland Sharemilker/Equity Farmers of the Year, going on to win the national title.

Jess, who comes from Governors Bay in Canterbury, has a background in pharmacy work and Don who grew up in Nelson and Marlborough, used to work deep-sea fishing based in Nelson. Jess says she was so green when they first went dairying that she didn’t know cows were milked twice a day.

They have just signed another three year contract with the Cunninghams.

Don says one of their most pivotal points was winning the farm manager of the year competition. “We didn’t know anyone in Southland and we wanted to create an opportunity for our next position, so we entered the competition to get our name out there and to network.”

Jess says it is good to look outside the farm gate. “We always encourage our staff and people we talk to, to remember that every relationship is important and you never know what opportunities you are going to get from different people.”

Don says relationships are about give and take. “If something needs doing on the farm and it might not be in your contract to do it, we go ahead and do it. It is very easy for people to get into a situation where they lose a good opportunity because they are sweating about a niggly thing in their contract without looking at the bigger picture.”

He likes to to ask “Am I better off to take this on the chin, or do I go out and impress the farm owners and therefore gain an opportunity.”

Jess says her grandmother taught her to treat others the way you wish to be treated. “We want to keep a golden reputation and hopefully attract like-minded people into our business, from people milking cows, to our bank managers and mentors with their skills to help us better our business and ourselves.”

She goes on to explain that they started on the farm as managers and have worked their way up. They began by leasing a large number of the cows in herd. “We were 24 and 26, and didn’t have equity for a large farm. The owners said “come to us with an idea”, so we started on the farm with 120 cows and leased the remainder from them.” Over four seasons they have increased their shareholding of the cows to now, where they own the whole herd.

Another example of thinking outside the square is Don putting a Venturi system into the cowshed to re-use 5000 litres of water a day which is used to cool the milk.  They have fenced off waterways and are now starting riparian planting.

Don explains they designed a matrix for the effluent system. This tells their four staff how much effluent they can apply to each paddock at particular soil moisture levels. Effluent is applied through a K-line system to 100ha of the farm and this is a way to maximise the nutrients.

Don says people coming from urban areas to dairying have the ability to look outside the box quite well. “We both have different backgrounds and strengths we have developed in other industries, and we both play our own parts within the business.”

Entering the dairy awards gave the couple “a really awesome opportunity” to have three people come onto the farm and analyse their business.

Jess explains they went to a DairyNZ “Mark and Measure” course where they found their weaknesses were human resources, finance and the environment. “These were areas we felt we needed to improve on. What was quite rewarding was these were the three merit awards we won at the nationals. It really changed our business and these became a massive strength.”

“The awards give you an amazing network of people. You don’t realise how many people you are going to meet just by entering, and the opportunities that come from it.”

Don says they certainly never entered to win. “Every time we started the process it was about getting through to the next level. Feedback from the judges was the really powerful stuff, and our reason for entering.” Don says there’s no hype about the prizes, and the slogan for the awards is “Passion for Progression”.

On 28 March 2015, they are convening the Southland/Otago dairy industry awards. And the next challenge they face is Don’s new full-time role as Southland farm supervisor for Dairy Holdings, which he will do as well as continuing sharemilking. Dairy Holdings has seven dairy farms in Southland along with a wintering block.