The awards acted as a litmus test for the dairy industry and over the past few seasons it had faced big weather and financial challenges, New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards board chairwoman Rachel Baker said.
While entries were tracking along well in the share farmer and manager sections, they were particularly low among trainees.
Baker said there had been suggestions, after talks with other industry organisations, that there had been an exit of young people from the dairy industry. Some farm owners had reduced staffing levels to cut costs when the payout fell in the 2015-16 season, while the wettest winter on record had pushed others away from dairy farming.
«I think we are seeing that this year with entry numbers being a bit lower.»
New DairyNZ figures showed a fall in cow numbers by 136,000 and fewer cows meant fewer people needed to milk them.
Baker said it was concerning that workers were leaving the industry. The trainee section was designed for entry level dairy employees who were under 25 years old and had less than three years of dairying experience.
It would also be interesting to know where they had gone if they had left the industry, she said.
«As an industry, we’re all about people and if we don’t have good people running our farms, it’s going to be hard for a business to perform.»
Baker said the dip in trainee entries was evident in all 11 competition regions and regional committees around the country were working hard to contact people who were eligible to urge them to enter.
Last year’s competition had 424 entries across the three competitions. There were 103 entered in the Share Farmer of the Year competition, 170 in the Dairy Manager of the Year competition and 151 vying for the Dairy Trainee of the Year title.
The national winners were Christopher and Siobhan O’Malley for Share Farmer of the Year, Hayley Hoogendyk for Farm Manager of the Year and Clay Paton for Trainee of the Year.
«The winners that we get are really impressive young people and if we take our previous crop of trainee winners regionally and see what they are doing now, they are spring boarding. They are really leveraging off what they have learned and the profile they are getting.»
The competition was a huge opportunity for entrants to learn more about the industry including for trainees new to farming, Baker said.
She was pleased that entries for the share farmer and manager competitions were tracking well, considering many were coming out of a tough few years.
«It»s really good to see, particularly in the share farmer competition. Things have been pretty tough and some of the figures they will be showing is when their business was under the pump.»
These farmers will be able to show what they did to ride through the tough financial times.
Entries close for the awards at midnight on November 30
By: GERALD PIDDOCK
Source: Stuff
Link: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/99274129/dip-in-award-entries-reflects-tough-years-in-dairy-industry
