Training Is Important For The Industry, Trainee of the Year

MEDIA RELEASE

9 July 2012

Training Is Important For The Industry 2012 Dairy Trainee Of The Year Says

This year’s New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year, Nathan Christian, is a believer in up skilling through training and says having qualifications shows potential employers he’s committed to a successful future in the industry.

The 22 year old grew up on a 50 acre dry stock block and decided to pursue dairy farming after finishing high school.

“Out of high school I didn’t get university entrance so I took a gap year and got talking to my employers I was relief milking for at the time I ended up working there as a herd manager and calf rearer so I learnt a lot that year – to make it more productive my boss Greg suggested I do AgITO.”

Nathan then spent three years at Lincoln completing a Bachelor of Commerce in Agriculture and is now working for Ben and Shannon Johnson near Ashburton.

“In my summer holidays at Lincoln I relief milked and got to experience a lot of different farming systems around the country. I’m now a farm assistant but I’m not solely a dairy farm assistant, I do a lot of work on the run off side of things. I’ve done cultivating, tractor work, drenching the young stock, milking – the boss gets me wherever I’m needed, it’s quite a varied role.

“I’m trying to broaden my skill set – to become a successful large scale manager you need to know about more than just milking.”

Nathan decided to enter the Dairy Industry Awards for the second time this year

“My boss on my gap year, Greg Glover, told me about the award and said I should give it a go. I did it that year for participation and decided to enter again this year as I thought I had a bit of a shot at winning. I thought it would help me focus and I’d do okay.”

He thoroughly enjoyed the field trip he went on with the other regional Dairy Trainees of the Year prior to the national finals and says it was a fantastic learning experience. They visited a variety of high performing farms including a bull farm, last year’s Sharemilker/Equity Farmers of the Year and a robotic milking farm. They also did team building and a high ropes course and had talks from industry figures.

“I got a lot of motivation and ideas out of it, including that farm ownership is still a reality. It was a really full on few days.”

Nathan describes the experience of being named the winner at the national finals in Auckland on 12 May as something he is still getting his head around.

“I was pretty excited to win,” he says. “It’s hard to know whether you’re in with a shot or not. I prepared a speech that afternoon and my heart was beating like crazy. I just felt excitement, really, it was a bit surreal.

“But winning individually wasn’t the highlight for me, winning with the other Canterbury finalists was,” he says, referring to the fact that the top three titles were this year taken out by Cantabrians in a clean sweep.

Nathan anticipates that winning the award will help his farming career.

“I think it will – it opens a lot of doors, people know who you are and having it on your CV puts you in another class.”

He believes up skilling through training is important for the industry and can count among his many achievements also completing his National Certificate in Agriculture (Level 4) through AgITO and Stage 1 and 2 of the AgITO Milk Quality programme.

“I support industry training because it shows you’re interested. If you put yourself in the boss’ shoes, they can see an employee is interested in furthering themselves if they’re training – it shows they’re committed.

“If you’re on farm and you’re not going to university, having qualifications behind you and on your CV helps you a lot – you understand more parts of farming, you’re aware of what could go wrong and you see more than what’s happening on just your farm. As you progress you see the business side of things, AgITO’s diploma can help with that.”

Nathan has a clear vision of the future he is working towards.

“I want to have a significant share of a farm by the time I’m 30,” he says. “I’m going overseas to Europe this year to see different farming systems with a mate who’s into dairy farming as well. I’ve taken a season off to have an OE, see the world and learn to appreciate New Zealand more. I’d then like to get a large scale management role and progress to sharemilking.

“Working for good people and learning is as important as earning a lot,” he says.

His advice for other young people hoping to emulate his success is simple.

“Be yourself,” Nathan says. “It’s the easiest thing.”

About AgITO

Agriculture ITO (AgITO) provides leadership in education and training, develops national qualifications, maintains national standards and provides on-going support for their trainees and employers. AgITO training is subsidised by industry and Government. For more information on our qualifications, please visit www.agito.ac.nz.

ENDS

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