Anne-Marie Wells champions onfarm discussion groups

MILKING PLATFORM OTAGO

Hosting the Taieri discussion group: three hours of professional development.

Anne-Marie Wells reminds us that discussion groups can be a great way to learn new techniques while getting to know your neighbours.

Our farm recently hosted the DairyNZ discussion group for our local area, the Taieri. At the end of the meeting, I watched farmers chatting and thought one of the most important parts of the whole event is that chance to connect with your farming neighbours.

The dairy industry is quite unique because we are not in competition with each other. If our neighbour produces more milk than us, it will not negatively impact our business. Equally, if our neighbour is interested in our in-shed feeding system, we are more than happy to share what we know about it.

Discussion groups offer a chance for farmers to head off-farm, take a closer look at someone else’s farm, find out how other farms in their area are performing, and hear the latest thinking on a focus topic.

Justifying time away from the farm can be difficult, especially if you take your whole team along. There are always jobs to be done, so it becomes a matter of how you regard discussion groups. Is it three hours where you could be doing other things? Or is it three hours of professional development for you all? Professional development may sound over the top, but sharing information and ideas is valuable to our learning, even if our learning is that we are on the right track.

Offering up your farm for review is another example of how you view it. Are you opening yourself up to criticism? Or is it a chance to get advice from a group of people who know the industry well? To host the group, all we did was make sure the cows were close by – our DairyNZ consulting officer took care of everything else. The group, which included farmers and rural professionals, discussed our cow condition, crops and pasture. We had a focus on mating results as these were just in and the consulting officer ensures discussions are respectful and keep to time.

Every farm sharing their key data is a great way to benchmark how you are doing in relation to others in the area. It can be reassuring to find you are not the only one with a higher cow infertility rate than usual. It can also be useful to ask the person who is making good progress what they think is making a difference.

At the discussion group, we hear the latest views from DairyNZ, which is especially useful in these times of regulation introduction and change. An advantage of information from DairyNZ is that it is not being promoted with an agenda of selling a service or support, it is based on science and has the goal of industry progression while benefiting all dairy farmers.

The discussion group provides a way to meet and talk with your peers, keep up to date with information and connect with people in the area. It is an opportunity to tap into the knowledge of more experienced farmers or a chance to give forward by sharing knowledge. If nothing else, one of the rural suppliers is there with the barbeque, so you know you are going to get a good feed.