Media Release June 26, 2013 1

Young Wyndham farmer takes out top farm business management prize

Southland farmer Murray Kennedy, from Wyndham, has received the 2013 Rabobank Farm Managers Program prize for his project focussed on efficiency and productivity gains, while jointly building his own farming aspirations.

Mr Kennedy, 35, is the manager of ‘Jedburgh’, a 20,000 stock unit property on 3,500 hectares total land area – 1,850 hectares effective, and the balance regenerated bush and scrub, running 11,000 Texel Romney ewes, 3,250 ewe hoggets, 280 breeding cows and 250 calves.

Rabobank CEO New Zealand Ben Russell commended Mr Kennedy for his application of the lessons from the Farm Managers Program across the many facets of his farm business.

“Not just one aspect of the program had been applied, but many strategies were implemented, truly transforming into tangible business results,” Mr Russell said.

“Murray showed us how it wasn’t just about coming back to the farm from the program and doing more, but going back to the farm and doing the right things.”

Receiving the prize at the Rabobank Farm Manager Program graduation dinner held in Melbourne, Mr Kennedy said the overall experience of undertaking the program was extremely rewarding for him personally and for the farm business he manages.

“When I set out to undertake the Farm Managers Program, with the support of the owner of the property I manage, the goal was to make the running of our operation more efficient through better leadership, time management and business strategy,” Mr Kennedy said.

“I learnt that by making a small difference with a whole lot of wee things, that a big difference can be made overall.”

Mr Kennedy received a $2000 cash prize for management project efforts.

In its eighth year, the prestigious Rabobank program continues to offer young farmers, from across New Zealand and Australia and a range of agricultural sectors, the opportunity to develop and enhance their business management skills. Participants take away many new skills and techniques with a commercially-driven perspective on farm management, to gain the ability to put systems and structures in place to manage growth.

Having managed ‘Jedburgh’ for 10 years with the support of his wife Marcia, Mr Kennedy is passionate about farming and focused on delivering results for the long-term “continuous growth” of the business.“I’ve tried to introduce structures across our farm business that support sustainable growth for the future,” he said.

“I’m employed as a manager and I want to be the best manager I can be.”

Mr Kennedy’s Farm Managers Program project had two main focal points – firstly, to extract efficiency gains across the business through ‘miniature projects’, and secondly to build equity for wife and family through capturing new opportunities.

“Continuing on from the initial strategy put in place for the property I manage, the property owner and I introduced a program to manage our lambing percentages much better and make sure we’re not missing the opportunity to rear triplet lambs that may have been culled in the past, while also benefitting he mothers’ condition and future fertility rate,” Mr Kennedy said.

With 11,000 ewes and a targeted annual lambing percentage of 140 per cent, Mr Kennedy has seen around 10 per cent of the progeny born in triplets.

With the goal of maximising survival rates in triplets, it was evident that adopting the third lamb and giving the ewe the chance to raise two rather than three, there were productivity gains made in the lambing process, My Kennedy said.

“Because not all of those triplet lambs can survive – sometimes the mothers can’t support three lambs all at once – we realised we had to take the third lamb and rear it separately, feeding them and helping them grow out to their full potential, therefore increasing productivity overall,” he said.

“That’s made a huge difference by supporting and making use of those triplets, building our numbers, and that’s allowed us to gain some equity ourselves.”

Mr Kennedy believes there are a lot of inefficiencies in the agricultural industry, right through from the “farm gate to the dinner plate”.

“I believe improvements can be made – farmers need to become a collective group and be positive about change,” he said.

“There are opportunities out there and it’s up to us farmers to realise them and go for it.”

Mr Kennedy has strong ambitions to secure a future for himself and his family in the agricultural industry.

“It not easy to build equity, and the goal posts seem to keep moving when you are in the building phase,” Mr Kennedy said.

“With the average age of farmers being 57 years old, and the younger generation having with limited equity, we need to fast-forward pathways in our industry to ensure we’re able taken on sustainable farm ownership – succession planning should be about setting generational goals of sustainability and growth,” he said.

“This is one of the elements that is part of the Rabobank Farm Managers Program and the program is a great tool for the next generation of New Zealand farming.”

ENDS

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