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Winning a Dairy Industry Award vindicated a decision to change farming practices for a King Country couple.

Sophia Clark and Aaron Mills claimed the 2024 Bay of Plenty Share Farmer of the Year title.

They have taken their once-a-day milking programme to a King Country property.

Since June 1 last year, they have been in a 50/50 contract on a 250-ha property near Taumarunui milking 760 cows.

This followed four years in a similar 50/50 arrangement on a 160ha, 540-cow dairy farm at Paengaroa, near Te Puke.

On-farm challenges

Clark said they switched to once-a-day milking in the 2023-24 season as costs were getting “out of control” on-farm.

This included staff expenses, electricity and animal health.

The move to once-a-day milking (OAD) brought them back in line to “normal” in the Bay of Plenty.

“It was just getting outrageous,” Clark said.

The Paengaroa property had a 37-a-side herringbone shed and, due to the layout of the farm, there were some long walks, which extended the milking time.

Clark and Mills also found it challenging to build a good team when milking twice a day, so felt that OAD added appeal and helped with staff recruitment and retention.

“We were competing with jobs like driving forklifts in the [kiwifruit] pack houses, which is a lot easier than milking cows and the shifts can be more appealing,” Clark said.

In their first season of OAD milking, they achieved the production targets they had set for themselves.

A no-brainer move

Bay of Plenty Dairy Trainee of the Year Luke Feisst (left), Share Farmers of the Year Sophia Clark (Aaron Mills absent) and Dairy Manager of the Year George King.

Clark said the move to Taumarunui would hopefully help them achieve their goal of “wanting scale” while not incurring the high cost of farmland in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

Milking in a 44-a-side herringbone shed, they employ two fulltime staff and one part-time staff member.

Clark said milk production through to February was only 6% behind what was achieved on the property last season when the herd was milked twice a day.

An equity partnership on the same farm is being looked at as their next step in dairy farming.

The couple had entered the Dairy Industry Awards previously, but Mills was suffering a back injury so they “didn’t give it a full crack”, Clark said.

“You only get out of it what you put in,” she said.

For the 2024 awards, they “put more effort in”.

“We had a bit more time to devote to the awards,” Clark said.

They took on board feedback from the judges in the first round of the competition and “switched our presentation up”.

Winning was a “massive surprise”, Clark said.

Entering the awards gave the couple an opportunity to benchmark their business, not become complacent about costs and encouraged them to do a “deep dive” into the farm as a whole.

“We see the future of dairying as very exciting,” Clark said.

The couple’s background

Growing up near Whakatāne, Clark studied at Lincoln University, gaining a Bachelor of Commerce in agriculture, majoring in plant production science and agricultural management.

Mills entered university study after finishing secondary school, beginning with veterinary science and then switching to applied science, majoring in agriculture.

After two years, he headed to the United States to drive combine harvesters through the grain season.

Mills grew up in South Taranaki, with his grandparents owning a dairy farm.

“I decided dairy farming was a good option,” he said.

Securing a farm manager’s role near Pātea, Mills said he had a “crash course” in dairy farming.

He moved to Cambridge after two seasons and into a low-order role, which expanded to responsibility for 800 cows.

It was during this time that Mills met Clark, who was living in Ōtorohanga.

Together they embarked on a 50/50 sharemilking role with a 250-cow herd near Matamata, where they spent four seasons before moving to Paengaroa.

Family and future

Clark said they loved the opportunity and enjoyed learning more about farming on rolling, contoured land and a different soil type.

As well as the shift to King Country last year, the couple now have 7-month-old Jane, a sister to 4-year-old Claire.

Clark said they used their family and creating a future for their children as motivators.

“Our vision is ‘enjoying the journey’, which means enjoying our cows and enjoying what we do.”

The winning couple would like to see some older farm owners change their mindset to help retain young people in the industry.

“We were given so much mentorship and assistance into our first herd from a large-scale business and we will be forever grateful,” Clark said.

“I wish I could show young people studying business that dairy is a viable option and sharemilking is a viable framework for building an asset.”

At the 2024 Dairy Industry Awards, Clark and Mills received merit awards for the Bay of Plenty region recognising animal wellbeing, recording and productivity, environmental sustainability, sustainable pasture and business performance.