TESTIMONIALS | Dairy Business of the Year

Karapiro farmer, Richard McCullough, talks about why being a part of DBOY has been so valuable to their dairy business, the benefits they're gained from being involved and why all dairy farmers should participate.

Cam Holmes, Chairman and Shareholder of Okaihau Pastoral Holdings Ltd talks to the benefits of being involved with DBOY. As a large group, they find the Farm Performance Reports extremely useful for shareholders and farm managers alike, and this helps with achieving goals and improving on their business results. OPL were the 2019 Supreme Winner of Dairy Business of the Year.

MOBH Farm - Gore, Southland

"We have entered DBOY three times now as the data gained via the Farm Performance Report is invaluable in assisting us make evidence-based decisions for our business. DBOY allows us to benchmark ourselves with other top-end businesses and provides an accurate “warts and all” critique of our business. The report also helps us set KPIs that ensure relevance for our goals. We now have a comprehensive set of data that we use to not only assess performance, but also assist with planning/modelling future strategies"
2018 Supreme Winner

Andrew & Sibylle Sulzberger - Urenui, Taranaki

"The detailed physical and financial analysis and report from DBOY consultants provided us with a better understanding of key performance indicators in our business. The reports reinforced our low cost structure and identified areas that we could tweak to gain even greater efficiencies. The environmental report we received through the DBOY business analysis report highlighted a few things we could fine-tune such as increasing the effluent spreading area and trying to grow more grass with more regrassing, which we have since done. Winning the Regional and Supreme has put us in good stead with our bank, and they have greater confidence in us and see us as a low risk which is really important, especially for any future developments or opportunities that we may want to pursue."
2017 Supreme Winners

David & Sandy Clark - Waimana, Bay of Plenty

"We entered this competition because at the time we were looking at some of the environmental aspects of our business and the negative impact they may have been having on the land. We found from the competition that we run a pretty robust and financially-sustainable system that is able to perform above average, even in less economic years. From the results produced we were able to identify environmental areas we could improve on and this has made us think about our next steps in farming by looking at what we do well, and where there are opportunities for improvement. It has also focused us on what our involvement and continuing path in farming will be in the future".
2017 Regional Winner

Noldy Rust - Te Pahu, West Waikato

"I certainly got something out of it because you get a whole lot of information about your business, and you can see where your strengths and weaknesses are. You can take your info to your consultants and colleagues and discuss your strengths and weaknesses and see where you can improve. Its more in-depth. Information is power! Until you enter something like this you don't really do it in the same depth, but by entering you are committed and you have to go through with it. I collect that data every year anyway so its about seeing trends and making improvements". - 2016 Entrant

Daniel and Julie Morgan - Rahutu, Coastal Taranaki.

"It was of real value. It made us look at our business and benchmark it. It opened our eyes up to the whole equation, comparing ourselves against the norm. It identifies the areas we are good at and reinforced that we were running a pretty robust system, but also identified the areas we could tidy up a bit more. It wasn't a whole lot of work to do the report - just a matter of pulling out the records and pasting the information in. We found it helpful to know how we compared to the others." - 2016 Entrant

John Stewart - Waikato

"This perhaps the biggest value for us – is the analysis of our farm. It gives us a platform from which to discuss the performance of the farm and develop in the future. It is a document that can be made available to all those involved in the farm including advisors, bank manager, sharemilker (he already has one of course). We imagine that where there are multiple owners, this document would be invaluable." 2016 finalist

Anna Kalma - Waikato

"I've entered every year since I started farming. It was more about getting a better handle on my business and where I performed well. The value was very much about benchmarking myself against similar systems and different years. It's helped me drop costs and refine other areas of the business and identifies where I can do better. This is a simple and easy competition to enter."

Anne-Marie and Duncan Wells - Outram, Otago

"There are three main reasons to enter: Firstly, entering is good in the way it makes you look at your business, understanding what you've done and where you've spent your money. Secondly, and of most benefit, was the report giving you in-depth analysis so you can see what you're doing well and where there are opportunities to improve. And thirdly, going to the finals and the workshops, hearing about other farmers from all types of farms, learning what they do and how they do it. The benchmarking opportunity is valuable". 2015 Supreme Winners

Rex and Sharon Butterworth - Walton, Waikato

"Absolutely. Certainly the day after was incredibly rewarding. And getting all the independent and on-going analysis, reinforcing the things that you're doing right and the things that you can improve on. The benchmarking point is by far the biggest part for us, and the increased awareness of what we're doing. It's motivated me a bit more too I admit. It's easy to get in your own world and carry on, but this has been really beneficial to us". 2015 Waikato & Business Resilience Winners

Tim Dawkins - Dipton, Southland

"Worth it? Definitely, just for analysing things. You think you already analyse things but DBOY makes you sit down and go through your business at a higher level, scrutinising what we do in even more detail. It ultimately reinforced what we're doing well and helped us stay on track. The work of Red Sky and Intelact is really valuable. We certainly enjoyed it". 2015 Runner Up, Best People Management, Low Input & Southland Winners

Martin and Linsey Furrer - Canterbury

"Entering was a great experience. There are a lot of good farmers out there so the more that enter the better. The report made us aware of our strengths or weaknesses and gave us indicators to go forward. I encourage other farmers to benchmark themselves because the analysis gave us another perspective of our business. The seminars and workshop were a great way to bounce ideas off other forward-thinking farmers. Everything is laid on the table so we were able to discuss the big picture openly. We think we do some things well but there is always room for improvement." 2014 Supreme Winners

Richard and Nadine McCullough - Karapiro, Waikato

"The main reason we enter is to benchmark ourselves against other farms, which allows us to identify our strong and weak points. The detailed data analysis and presentation is very good. I'd recommend it. Most farms would certainly benefit from it – the more people that enter Dairy Business, the more everyone within the industry benefits."

Ben and Mary-Anne Stock - Hinds, Mid-Canterbury

" The summary of our farm was really valuable. We liked the whole business approach, assessing the environment and human resources as well as the financial analysis. It was good to be benchmarked against the rest of the group. Dairy Business gave us confidence and some clear direction on areas where we could improve things and identified where we need to work on our business going forward."

Donna and Bruce Arnold - Morrinsville, Waikato

"The whole experience of entering and benchmarking against other farmers is definitely worth it. Highlighting options for improving our business is a great advantage as we can always do things better. Dairy Business of the Year is a good event, and the environmental and human resources assessment makes the farm analysis more complete. Meeting like-minded people is a huge benefit and we've made some really good friends along the way."