Rabobank 2022 business management prize awarded to Nicole Saunders

Ms Saunders, who operates a dairy operation with husband Brendan near Maffra, received the award in recognition of the strategic business plan she developed for her enterprise.

This business plan had delivered tangible benefits in farm profitability, business productivity and efficiency, technology adoption and sustainability and helped to transform the operation she had run with her husband Brendan since having moved to Australia from New Zealand five years ago.

Ms Saunders and her husband made the moved to Australia from New Zealand in July 2018, as they believed there were greater opportunities available in the Australian dairy sector.

"We were attracted by the lower land prices in Australia and the opportunity for higher returns," she said.

"At the time we arrived, Australian land prices were approximately a third of the price of land in New Zealand.

"Of course that has changed dramatically in the last five years."

The couple began with a 40/60 percentage split sharefarmers on a 700 cow farm in 2018 and had progressed to a 2022/2023 operation with a forecasted 800,000 kg/MS to be produced, owning 1,500 cows on a mixture of leased and owned land near Maffra.

"We chose to farm in the Macalister irrigation district, in central Gippsland, because of the security of water - we are very well insulated from drought and adverse weather affects," Ms Saunders said.

She participated in Rabobank's farm managers program in 2019 and said that this program was very beneficial at a time of massive expansion within her business and allowed her to utilize new tools and theories in real time.

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The business plan Ms Saunders developed included four goals: increased profit per hectare, production of a high-quality product, improvement the farm team and expansion of the business.

"To increase profit per hectare, we focused on profitable feeding," she said.

"To achieve this, we changed the calving pattern to fully spring calving to ensure a better match to pasture production and ability to optimise the cows' diets to their milk production curve, as well as heavily focusing on a pasture renovation and fertilising plan.

"As a result, we had a 25 per cent increase in production on the previous season."

As a method to build day-to-day focus on achieving an improved quality product, Ms Saunders implemented a bonus system among her farm team.

Employees received a bonus when somatic cell count - an indication of cows' mammary health and milk quality - averages under 150,000.

"Staff have been vital to the growth of our business...our staff are our main focus and they are key to being able to operate at scale," she said.

Ms Saunders' focus on staff development and business progression was considered and clear.

From a business plan perspective, values and culture statements were included into the plan to demonstrate the importance of staff in her business.

From a practical perspective, all staff attended milking courses which resulted in a noticeable improvement in milking skills and knowledge.

"We also introduced work phones, as we were struggling to communicate with employees during work hours as they would not have their phones with them in the shed," she said.

"I also changed our roster system, so everyone's roles are more clearly specified and I introduced a tablet in the dairy shed which is used both for timekeeping and for managing daily tasks, weekly tasks and checklists via an app."

Ms Saunders said the couple's fourth goal - the expansion of their enterprise - had seen the addition of a contracting arm to their operation as well as diversifying into horticulture and tourism with a new 'Berry Dairy' business set to open in October 2023.

The 'Berry Dairy' will be a pick-your-own strawberry operation with an on-farm café.

Long term, Ms Saunders said she hoped to be able to connect the dairy business and the café, by having their own milk being turned into a niche product and the ability to have a full paddock to plate experience.

"I believe the future of agriculture is in ensuring people are connected to the origin of their food and education," she said.

Ms Saunders said through the process of developing her management project, she had created a series of three "management steps" to incorporate into her business.

"The first step is focusing on healthy thinking, to ensure you have a really good mindset," she said.

"in 2019, we were busy establishing a business in a new country during one of the worst droughts - it had been a tough year on my mental health.

"During the (Rabobank farm managers) program, one of the presenters, Dr Tom Mulholland, gave us tools to help recognise thoughts as triggers, and when you have a negative or unhelpful thought, track back in your mind to where this thought comes from, and ask the questions - 'is it justifying your emotion? is there a need for me to be upset?, is this emotion useful to me?'."

Ms Saunders said she also learnt to recognise the value of time and to not waste time on negativity.

"You can't get that time back - I think this idea has changed my thought process significantly.

Also, your business is not going to go anywhere, unless you take the time to look after yourself first."

Creating a business plan was the second step, with the third and final step being the implementation of the plan and goals.

"The third step of implementing our business plan was critical, because a business plan is of zero use if it is just sitting in a drawer," she said.

"Over the years we have continued to make tweaks to the business plan in annual reviews."

Ms Saunders was presented with the Rabobank Business Management Prize by Rabobank general manager, Sustainability and Community, Marc Oostdijk in front of graduates of the 2022 Farm Managers Program and industry leaders at the program's recent graduation dinner in Sydney.