Interested in sheep dairy?
David Chapman and Kirsty Silvester are offering short on-farm courses to help new entrants get to grips with a sheep milking project. Here’s what they say:
‘We have, over the last five years, built a sheep dairy venture from the ground up. In creating “Wild Bush Cheese” we have, double-handedly bread their sheep, built the milking shed and cheese factory, met all the paper work and regulatory requirements to make cheese, and have marketed and sold our products. In summary, we have first hand experience of every facet of the industry. We are both former educators; Kirsty a rural school principal and David a senior lecturer at Massey University. The two courses below offer the chance to make informed decisions about whether or how to become involved in the industry. If you do want to get into sheep dairying you will be investing a six figure sum at least! We are offering a chance to get a nuts and bolts overview of the industry and its challenges.’
Proposed offering: Saturday March 10 and Sunday March 11, 2018) Saturday and Sunday before the 2018 Sheep Milk NZ Conference.
Course Title: Entering the Industry ( This is a comprehensive two day programme)
Day One: We will provide a planning template detailing the essential parts of the sheep dairy process and how these parts must be coordinated sensibly to achieve success. We will explain how we have responded to the issues that arise, by way of illustration, explaining the decisions and compromises we made. We will also look at alternative ways the challenges can be faced. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion. One of the most serious issues that we will focus on is scale; how big do you want to be?
Day Two: We have two follow-up topics; We will look at the regulatory requirements contained in the Risk Management Plan that is required by the Ministry for Primary Industries and the process of developing and completing the plan.
We will also look at the particular stock management challenges presented in milking sheep. As with all the other matters involved, these have serious implications for both the reputation and profitability of your venture and the industry as a whole.
This course costs $1250 per person, lunch provided both days. Held in Woodville. We am confidant that attending this course will save you thousands of dollars. Registration of interest is required and dates can be negotiated. Preferred date would be the two days prior to the NZ Sheepmilk conference (March 10-11).
David Chapman and Kirsty Silvester
Contact: Email: woodpile@slingshot.co.nz