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DAIRY PEOPLE » Aaron Price
NZ Dairy
Young sharemilker in demand Kelly Deeks When it’s your bank manager calling to tell you to take on a third 50/50 sharemilking job, you must be doing something right. Tahuna sharemilker Aaron Price is 2015 Waikato sharemilker of the year. He was already involved with business partner John Assen in two 50/50 sharemilking positions, before the pair took on the new job on a farm near Morrinsville. Aaron oversees the day-to-day operations at Tahuna with one staff member, while Assen runs the second farm at Taupiri. Aaron’s location sees him the best person to also oversee operations on the third farm, which is managed by a couple. He says it was always the plan to look for a third 50/50 sharemilking position, but he hadn’t expected it to be quite this soon. However with he and John’s fantastic track record with banks, and feeling the current low pay out as merely a blip in the long term success of the dairy industry, he’s not worried. And the partnership, as well as the Dairy Industry Awards, have helped to drive fast expansion. It was Aaron’s fifth year in a row entering the competition, having placed runner up in 2013 and 2014. “I was making progress! And I’m not the sort of person to give up once I’ve got my sights set on something.” He says with a shortage of 50/50 jobs in the Waikato, it will get more and more difficult to secure the positions. “The awards made a huge difference in me getting the Tahuna job and the Morrinsville job. Being interviewed against others it gave me a bit more credibility, that what I do is best practice and I put every bit of effort into it.” Aaron is regional manager for this year’s competition, and has been drumming up entrants, liaising with sponsors, and later will help to organise judging. “We’ve got a good committee in the Waikato, everyone has a particular area to look after which really helps,” he says. The new job on Gavin and Marie Haddon’s farm became available in August. Aaron’s bank manager contacted him about it and he and John jumped at the opportunity. “It was a challenge taking over mid-season, as we couldn’t control the condition score or the calving spread, but basically it was like any other first season, getting the know the farm, getting some systems in place, and being able to maximise what we do after that.” After calving with condition scores sitting at about 3.7 when Aaron took over the farm, and a 12 week calving with about a third of the herd calving in the final month, mating was a challenge and the recent pregnancy test has shown an empty rate of 21%. “We pulled the bulls out on December 28,” Aaron says. “I knew it was going to be a higher empty rate, but we couldn’t have them calving any later so we just had to accept it and make improvements in the future.” Aaron will work on improving the condition score this year by drying the cows off in time and having enough feed to get them to target 5 for calving. He will also buy in in-calf, early calving heifers to make up the extra numbers.
Tahuna farmer and 2015 Waikato Sharemilker of the Year, Aaron Price, has taken on his third sharemilking job.
“It was a challenge taking over mid-season, as we couldn’t control the condition score or the calving spread, but basically it was like any other first season, getting the know the farm, getting some systems in place.”
Aaron Price and wife Sarah.
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