Jack Taggart won the Aorangi FMG Young Farmers regional on day-to-day dairy instinct and no pressure of expectation, the same conditions he finds himself in heading to the grand final.
Taggart is finishing his second dairy manager role at Coldstream Hinds, south of Ashburton, running 700 cows on a system four on coastal, heavy country. In 10 days he moves to a system four operation between Ashburton and Methven for the coming season, with 1,200 cows and a bigger team to lead.
“At the end of the day, you have just got to grow grass and feed the cows, but how much of that can I pass on to others will be where the real challenge is.”
The first 120 cows have been dried off, with the remaining 400-odd to follow in the coming days, Taggart says. A Salmonella outbreak in spring made for a tough start, so a strong autumn finish counts.
“There’s definitely a lot of people chasing marginal milk with the feed price to payout ratio.
“The growthy autumn and cow conditions are pretty good all around.”
After leaving school, Taggart spent a year shepherding on a sheep and beef stud, with time in engineering, arable farming, and rural professional work along the way. Work with an irrigation technology company ended when a presentation to its head office about the Canterbury dairy market settled the question.
“Halfway through that presentation, I knew that was my calling.”
For the grand final, a weekly coaching session with a coach has covered practical work and quizzing. Preparation includes the business innovation project, which involves analysing a farm scenario with defined debt parameters and a profit and loss history, then making a proposal covering operational, financial, and other factors.
He dominated the practical challenges at the regional contest, which he says came down to the daily reality of managing a dairy farm and carrying no expectation into the competition. Most grand finalists will be at Fieldays, he says, getting among the sponsors ahead of the final.
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