Mark and Jaime Arnold with their Share Farmer of the Year trophies and children, Parker, 6, and Eva 4. Photo / Paul Taylor
Mark and Jaime Arnold with their Share Farmer of the Year trophies and children, Parker, 6, and Eva 4. Photo / Paul Taylor
Mark Arnold has gone from selling the Daily Telegraph on the streets of Hawke's Bay to winning the top dairy industry award with wife Jaime.
The Dannevirke farmers were named the 2016 Share Farmer of the Year title at the Dairy Industry Awards in Wellington.
"It's very exciting," Mrs Arnold said. said. "It's been a privilege to represent the Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa in this event too. We didn't expect to win, there were such high calibre entrants in the nationals and so we never wrote a winner's speech"
For Mr Arnold, the national win has been overwhelming and emotional.
The Arnolds are 50/50 sharemilking 500 cows for Glengarry Farming owned by Mike and Sherynn Harold and Stuart and Sandra Cordell in Dannevirke. One of the owners of the property, Sandra Cordell, said it was a huge buzz for the couple to bring the winner's trophy to Dannevirke.
"They are so positive and have a great story of resilience during tight times," she said.
Although Mrs Arnold's family are sheep and beef farmers, she trained as a teacher in Palmerston North and her husband's background was in logging.
"We had a house in Napier which we'd renovated and subdivided the section, but we loved the idea of a future in dairy farming, so made the massive commitment to go from two good incomes and set off on our dairying journey," she said.
After a stint in the United States, they returned to New Zealand, to milk 1200 cows near Takapau in 2008.
"We'd cut our income to just a quarter of what we'd been earning as Mark started as a farm assistant on $32,000 while I was teaching and calf rearing," Jaime said.
But the couple agreed they'd made informed decisions on their future and after working for Russell and Karen Phillips as a herd manager, they moved into a lower-order sharemilking position with Glengarry Farming.
"After two years as lower order sharemilkers, the farm owners put a 50/50 sharemilking company together and we purchased a 50 per cent share," Mrs Arnold said. "We were then able to buy the other 50 per cent."
Regarded as having made a rapid rise in the industry, she said it was about proving themselves and drawing on their life skills.
"We are doing over and above our contract because we're committed to this farm and the industry."
The couple have two children, Parker, 6, and Eva 4, and Mark has two other children, Belinda, 21, and Brayden 22, who live in Napier.
Mark and Jaime Arnold among their herd on Armstrong Rd. The Arnolds are the national winners of the Share Farmer of the Year in the dairy industry awards.
"We treat this place as our own," Mark said. "We've been in this house five years and it's home to us and our farm owners have been super supportive. They're good owners who are helping us succeed in this industry."
Being resilient as the payout has slumped from $8.40 a kilogram of milk solids to $3.90kg of milk solids, has meant the couple run a "pretty mean and lean operation,", Mr Arnold said.
"As long as whatever I buy does the job, it doesn't have to be the cheapest," he added.
Mrs Arnold said their time in the industry has confirmed low cost farming is the way to go.
"It's hoof and tooth, with the right stocking rate for the food available. Our operation has a hectare focus and isn't production based."
Mr Arnold has his finger on the pulse of the farm, measuring grass every week and excellent record-keeping gives the couple the tools to make the right decisions.
"We've had to make it happen," Mrs Arnold said. "We've only had eight years to grow our equity and it's still rising.
"And so long as you can have a beer at night and you get to have good cheese, it's good. But it's still all about growing grass and Mark gets the grass so bang on by being determined and proactive. We've no perfect paddocks here and pasture utilisation is key to our profitability."
Family is number one for the Arnolds, but in summer even if they've people over for a barbecue, Mr Arnold will still and go and put on urea if the time is right.
"Yes, it's about the money, but if you enjoy what you do, the money will come and I love it," he said. "For me, the best time of the year is calving.
"They're our future cows and the steps we take then determines our herd."
Mrs Arnold is responsible for the farm's accounting and for calf rearing.
One of the farm owners, Mike Harold, said he and wife Sherynn are proud of the Arnolds' achievements.
The awards were a validation of the Hawke's Bay/Wairarapa dairying region with two winners and a third place in the three categories," he said. Mr Harold also acknowledged the support of the farm staff and the Cordell's for their mentoring skills.
Previous Hawke's Bay Wairarapa managers who went on to win the nationals:
* 2009/10 Carwyn Monteith - Tukituki.
* 2013/14 Nick Bertram - then at Featherston now at Andrew Hardie/Helen Long's in Dannevirke lower order sharemilking.
Prizes:
* As 2016 Share Farmer of the Year, the Arnolds took home $52,000 in prizes and the Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award, the Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award and the Westpac Business Performance Award.
