Todd Stewart, West Coast Dairy Farm Manager, loves his animals, it’s what gets him out of bed in the morning (as well as a rumbling tummy!). “Seeing my animals well looked after, fed well and generally looking as happy as they can be really motivates me.”
It’s a bit of a change from his days as a tradie in the city, but there’s no looking back on his move in 2018 to farming for Pāmu. Todd says, “I heard great things about the company before I started and wanted to work at a forward-thinking farming business.”
There’s a lot that goes towards managing a successful farm and striving for farming excellence. For Todd that means getting the one percenters right.
“It's making sure I have an accurate account of my pasture growth, which means farm walks and watching farm performance. It means attention to details and keeping tidy records. It means having a strong health and safety culture where all staff feel safe and free to express themselves. To be inclusive. To have great relationships with other staff at Pāmu, working shoulder to shoulder, and also having great relationships outside of the gate. And most of all, getting the team and myself safely home to our family’s.”
With farming come highs and lows – a high for Todd being the effort and camaraderie on display when they needed to cover their silage pits. “I had managers and staff coming from different Pāmu farms, tractor operators, digger operators – everyone working together side by side in trying conditions and timeframes. It was hard dirty work and we loved it!”
Of the four Pāmu values, Todd relates to ‘Genuine’ the most. “It shows through our work by the relationships formed, the response gained from staff and the drive they have when they see our goals are genuine. It’s knowing what we do has purpose – that creates reliability and a sense of purpose.”
When asked what the three things are that Todd loves most about his job he said:
- Seeing his animals as happy and content as they can be.
- The environment he works in.
- The structure and teams he gets to work with at Pāmu.
We all love the idea of living the dream, it can be a hard one to achieve though. For Todd, he’s pretty much there. “What more could you ask for than living on the beautiful West Coast, working with a great team, and seeing my animals happy.” That’s something no one could argue with.
