Judging Time For Dairy Awards Entrants

For Immediate Release
9 February 2010

Judging Time For Dairy Awards Entrants

Regional judging is underway in the 2010 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, with the entrants hoping to demonstrate the type of skills, knowledge and leadership needed to impress.

The entrants are competing in the Sharemilker of the Year, Farm Manager of the Year and Dairy Trainee of the Year competitions, run under the auspices of the dairy awards.

National Convenor Chris Keeping says on-farm judging for entrants in the Sharemilker of the Year and Farm Manager of the Year competitions began in late January and will continue throughout February for most entrants.

“The judges spend two hours on farm, so it pays for entrants to plan how they are going to use that time and to prepare well for the visit.

“It’s pretty easy to waste time and to think, after the judges have left, of all the things they should have told or could have showed the judges.”

Mrs Keeping says there are some tips judges have passed on that entrants may find useful to consider before judges visit.

• Read the judging criteria
• Get advice from past entrants about what to expect on the day
• Use your resources (information, data, business and farming professionals etc)
• Be original and unique
• Use all of the two hours
• Do a practice run-through
• Avoid distractions (telephones, children, pets etc).

She says entrants should also be aware that there have been some changes to the way judges evaluate some criteria in the human resource section of both competitions and the financial management section of the farm manager contest.

“We decided there needed to be changes in the human resources section as some of our sharemilker and farm manager entrants manage one or more staff while others have no staff responsibility at all.

“We also looked at the financial section in the farm manager competition as this is another area where there can be a wide variation in what farm managers are responsible for,” Mrs Keeping says.

“Our objective was to make the contests fairer for all entrants and for them not to feel disadvantaged if they did not employ staff or were not directly responsible for the finances of the farm they managed.”

The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are supported by national sponsors Westpac, DairyNZ, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda Motorcycles NZ, LIC, Meridian Energy, Ravensdown and RD1, along with industry partner Agriculture ITO.

There is no on-farm judging for entrants in the Dairy Trainee of the Year competition, where interview judging takes place in February.

The three winners in each of the 12 regional competitions will progress to the national finals being held in Rotorua in May this year. There they will compete for cash and prizes in excess of $100,000.

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