\u201cWe thought about it last winter but only got around to entering on the last night,\u201d Glenn said.<\/p>\n
Summer prep<\/p>\n
Preparation over the summer included collating farm records and developing a presentation focusing on key areas of their operation \u2013 financial planning, staff (including themselves), environmental space, simplifying systems, herd improvement, and the new position on June 1.<\/p>\n
These factors were part of a two-hour-long interview with judges at the Waikato final of the Dairy Industry Awards.<\/p>\n
On-farm aspects were also covered by the judges, including pasture and livestock management, dairy hygiene and health and safety.<\/p>\n
Despite having no practice going into the regional final, the couple thought they \u201cdid all right\u201d through the process.<\/p>\n
Merit awards were announced first at the awards dinner, held at the Sir Don Rowlands Events Centre in Cambridge.<\/p>\n
The van Heuvens claimed the Ecolab Total Farm Hygiene & Innovation Award, Federated Farmers Leadership Award, Honda Farm Safety, Health & Biosecurity Award and Bluegrass Contracting Environmental Sustainability Award.<\/p>\n
Once third and then second placegetters were announced in the Share Farmer of the Year category, the couple thought the moment might be lost.<\/p>\n
Winning the grand prize was a \u201cnice surprise\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith feedback from the judges on your own journey, just entering is a valuable experience even if you don\u2019t win,\u201d Georgie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou challenge yourself. We highly recommend it.\u201d<\/p>\n
They now go on to the national final at Rotorua in May.<\/p>\n
Preparation for this will be based on feedback from the Waikato judges, plus some \u201cfine-tuning of other things\u201d.<\/p>\n
New challenge<\/p>\n
In the meantime, they are busy with calving, along with the prospect of the June move.<\/p>\n
On the 103-hectare Tower Rd property, the van Heuvens milk 405 cows in a 30-a-side herringbone shed.<\/p>\n
Two staff members are employed on the farm, which is changing owners on June 1.<\/p>\n
The 240-hectare Horahora Rd property has 450 cows, milked in a 54-bale rotary shed, plus young stock.<\/p>\n
Glenn, 37, and Georgie, 36, had been talking to the co-owners for two years about entering into an equity partnership.<\/p>\n
The Karapiro block is in rolling country, with native planting undertaken on parts featuring hills and wetlands. <\/p>\n
They will have two staff, one full-time and another part-time, through the Growing Future Farmers programme.<\/p>\n
In the future, the van Heuvens \u201cplan to grow\u201d through other potential opportunities with the equity partnership and eventually full farm ownership.<\/p>\n
From a farming family in Matamata, Glenn attended Hinuera Primary and Matamata College.<\/p>\n
Beginnings<\/p>\n
Georgie hails from Wairarapa, growing up on her parents\u2019 sheep and beef farm at Masterton, which they sold 15 years ago.<\/p>\n
She attended Bideford Primary and St Matthew\u2019s Collegiate School for Girls.<\/p>\n
The pair met at Massey University when studying for a Bachelor of Applied Science degree, majoring in Agriculture, with Georgie adding a second major of Property Valuation and Management and a Postgraduate Diploma in Agribusiness.<\/p>\n
Glenn worked on a Matamata farm for two years before heading overseas for a year, where he drove tractors on an English farm.<\/p>\n
On his return to New Zealand, he worked for a few months on a Tokoroa farm before taking up a role managing a property near Matamata for a year.<\/p>\n
He then went contract milking on the 160-hectare family farm for four years, initially milking 360 cows in a 24-a-side herringbone shed.<\/p>\n
Commercial cropping was gradually removed from the block, with the herd size growing to 500, and the shed was changed to a 54-bale rotary.<\/p>\n
After university, Georgie worked for an insurance company in Pukekohe for five years before completing a nine-year stint in banking in Matamata. She is now a rural manager at Rabobank.<\/p>\n
The van Heuvens have three children \u2013 Zara (2 in June), Max, 4, and Harry, 6.<\/p>\n
Georgie is also involved in Meet the Need, a charity organisation that seeks donations of milk, meat, or money from farmers for food banks and similar community groups.<\/p>\n
On the farm, they annually host a Year 10 mathematics class from Matamata College as part of the Secondary School Employer Partnership and have also been involved in the college Gateway (work experience) programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe thought about it last winter but only got around to entering on the last night,\u201d Glenn said.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8414,7123,1137,3029,12026,14934,71,2219,305,2959,16768,111,43,139,9332,69,1118,4753,205,2122,223,165,1524,6027,379],"class_list":{"0":"post-385681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-couple","9":"tag-current","10":"tag-equity","11":"tag-eye","12":"tag-farmer","13":"tag-farming","14":"tag-from","15":"tag-gone","16":"tag-have","17":"tag-high","18":"tag-matamata","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-note","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-of","25":"tag-partnership","26":"tag-role","27":"tag-share","28":"tag-the","29":"tag-their","30":"tag-waikato","31":"tag-win","32":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}