Waikato farmer Lizzy Wilding is keen to make her farm even more efficient and profitable without a huge financial outlay.
The fourth-generation farmer runs a 470-cow farm in Okoroire, a small farming community that lies between Matamata and Tirau. The Wilding family is a long-time champion of the New Zealand dairy industry – her farm has been in her family for 75 years.
Lizzy began sharemilking for her parents before buying the neighbouring farm. Lizzy says she loves the flexibility that farming allows her. She is able to work outdoors, spend time with her children and help foster their love of farming, and be active in the community.
“I grew up here, was born and bred on this farm. My kids love the farm. Anything I can do to be efficient and profitable while also caring for the environment and keeping this farm, hopefully for another generation, is pretty important,” she says.
Lizzy first heard about the Co-op’s On-Farm Efficiency Service through her local team – Sustainable Dairying Advisor Stephanie Bish recommended Lizzy take advantage of the new service.
The team then met with Lizzy on-farm and talked through her goals and her farm system. They provided a summary report identifying potential next steps and tangible actions Lizzy could take.
“The whole process was collaborative. It wasn’t compliance-driven. It was all about what’s best for your farm, and what you’ve got on-farm. I can’t go and put in a whole lot more infrastructure and I’m pretty constrained by budget and what I can spend. Through the visit we were able to assess what we have here and how to get the most out of it,” she says.
“During the visit we went through different options such as growing maize on-farm versus off-farm and what numbers of cows we wanted to milk. Then we were able to have a look and see what that actually did to those numbers in terms of efficiency, productivity and sustainability. I was actually quite surprised by some of them. It probably was quite reassuring that our plans are on the right track and to see the potential results in more concrete terms.”
“I highly recommend others take advantage of the On-Farm Efficiency Service. We’re all striving for the same thing. We have a team around us – use them.”
