Manawatu Dairy Farm Open Day

Federated Farmers Manawatu/Rangitikei invites families to experience a working dairy farm on Sunday, March 18. Federated Farmers Farm Day gives individuals and families the perfect chance to see how farms work.

“Farm Day is a great chance to see what dairy farmers do and how we do it,” says Andrew Hoggard, Federated Farmers Manawatu/Rangitikei president.

“The 90 hectare dairy farm hosting Farm Day 2012 is at Opiki and is under the management of a sharemilker. The farm itself is only around 30 minutes from either central Palmerston North or Foxton. It is centrally located making it easy for families to experience a day to remember.

“Farm Day is a great way to see the effort that goes into producing the milk people use every day. Each of the 265 cows on the property average around 500 kilograms. That’s equivalent to 1,000 500 gram boxes of cereal.

“Farm Day also showcases sharemilking as one of the industry’s career pathways.

“We’re also keen to show how dairy farmers responsibly manage nutrients and livestock. It can only be a positive for dairy farming that we use opportunities like this to not only explain what we do, but to show people too.

“We want to make the total experience fun for the whole family. We’ll even give people a chance to try farm milk before it’s picked up, processed and packaged.

“There’ll be a lot of fun activities like seeing the kind of equipment we use and what visit to a dairy farm would be complete, without seeing the milking platform.

“We’re all looking forward to Sunday March 18 where a farm owned by John Seymour and sharemilked by Jason Halford will be open to all,” Mr Hoggard concluded.

Federated Farmers Manawatu/Rangitikei Farm Day is taking place on Sunday March 18 between 10am and 3pm at 843 Poplar Road, Opiki. For more information and directions, go to www.farmday.org.nz.

Features of the Manawatu/Rangitikei Farm Day owned by John Seymour and sharemilked by Jason Halford:

§ The milking platform
§ A Fonterra milk tanker
§ A stock truck
§ Nutrient management on dairy farms
§ Jason milking his favourite cows; numbers 245 and 71
§ Farm milk tasting
§ Farm equipment
§ Sharemilking and pathways into farm ownership

For further information:
Andrew Hoggard, Federated Farmers Manawatu/Rangitikei President, 06 328 9677, 027 230 7363