Young Country: Jack Daines

1. What is the name of your club, and how long have you been a member?

  My club is Morrinsville-Ngarua Young Farmers and I have been a member for two and a half years.

2. What has been the highlight for you of joining Young Farmers? What are the benefits and experiences that you feel have helped you most?

The highlight for me joining young farmers has been creating friendships with like-minded people who are motivated and inspiring to be around.

The benefits for me are having place to get off farm, go experience new things all while being surrounded by people who can relate to me and my day-to-day life. 

3. How did you become involved in agriculture?

I grew up on a dairy farm for most of my life then moved in to town during my high school years before eventually ending up back on a dairy farm working for my Dad.

4. What is your job now?

Currently I am in my first year of contract milking, it is a flat 44-hectare farm milking 210 cows through a 14 a side herringbone.

I am thankful to the farm owners for taking a chance on a younger farmer as I was 22 when I started here, I haven't been fired yet, so I am doing alright.

 Before this I had only worked for my parents across two farms 330 cows and 380 respectively, I found it a great way to get to know my parents as an adult.

 I was able to learn a lot and take on a lot of responsibilities that have prepared me well for taking on the next step into contract milking.

5. What do you think the future of farming will look like, and what would like to see happening in New Zealand agriculture going forward?

 I think the future of farming will continue to be shaped by technology, streamlining farming processes and making it easier to put emphasis on the minor details thus keeping our cows fatter and happier. 

6. What are your future plans?

In the future hopefully not too far in the future I'd love to own my own herd, being able to go out every day to work with, look after, care for a herd that are mine and are going to stick around with me is a very appealing narrative.

 Also, my  future plan is to travel to the Northern Hemisphere and experience some of the cultures and history that side of the world has to offer, and luckily their summers line up with our dry season.

7. Who has been your biggest inspiration in agriculture, and why?

 My Dad has always been my biggest inspiration in farming as he has always been there and still is there to guide me and stop me making the mistakes he made during his farming career. He has a very calm and trusting way of teaching that has shown me how to be a good farmer and a good boss. 

 Our club has always been a great club with lots of really great people, this year we have an awesome team on the committee who are all really great in their roles and working together to create solutions. People are constantly moving around the country due to the nature of our jobs so no one stays at the club forever, new people are needed to keep the club going. Reaching out to the club and coming along the first time is a terrifying experience, I was once in that position I know the feeling. I try my best to create an environment that makes people feel welcomed so they will come back a second, a third time and so on. The rest of the committee is instrumental in creating events people want to come back to, I got the easy job I just have to talk!

Nomination- Ever since Jack has stood up and taken on the role of New Members Liaison he has just been a gun at it. Since the start of the season we've welcomed 10 new members with Jack making sure they all feel welcomed and part of the club. Besides being amazing at his role he's also been the kind 'uber' driver for one of our members that couldn't drive for a few months which made this member being able to still attend and enjoy our catch ups, events and meetings. He's an overall kind soul and it's great seeing members like him getting amongst it and really make a difference for our club.