Awakeri sharemilkers Scott and Charlotte Jones have taken out the top title at the 2011 Bay of Plenty Dairy
Industry Awards.
The 22 per cent sharemilkers won the 2011 Bay of Plenty Sharemilker/Equity Farmers of the Year, also picking up the Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award and Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award.

Dairy Industry Award winners Warren and Jo Lee,
Charlotte and Scott Jones and Aleisha Butler.

Scott and Charlotte are sharemilking 500 cows for Alan and Viv Barr in Awakeri.
It is their fifth season lower-order sharemilking job. Their goal is to enter an equity partnership.
Scott and Charlotte will travel to Queenstown in May to compete at the National Dairy Industry Awards.
They say entering the awards makes you take a good look at your business, highlighting areas for improvement as well as confirming the areas that are going well.
It was the second time they had entered the awards. They won $12,300 in cash and prizes.
The 2011 Bay of Plenty Farm Managers of the Year, Warren and Jo Lee, also picked up the DairyNZ Human Resource Management Award and the RD1 Farm Management Award.
Warren and Jo are contract milking 470 cows for Ross and Louise Macdonald at Whakatane.

It is the third time they have entered the awards and this time walk away with $7900 in prizes.
They entered again as they had enjoyed meeting and networking with like-minded farmers and rural professionals and had a lot of fun.
'We have learnt a lot about our farming strengths and weaknesses from doing the presentation and from the judges' feedback.
'Our future farming goals are to be professional proficient farm managers, with long term stability and a very good reputation. Our long term goals are to have sufficient savings to semi-retire in our late 50s, so we can travel and do casual work.
We also have a goal set for our retirement savings.”
The 2011 Bay of Plenty Dairy Trainee of the Year is 30-year-old Aleisha Butler.
Aleisha is a farm assistant on a 350-cow Manawahe farm owned by Geoff and Gerda Bradly. She won $5700 in prizes.
The mother of three is in her second year working full time in the industry.
Her partner, Chris McCormack, is also farming and their long-term goal is to purchase their own land with plans to buy their own herd first.
All three winners will now compete for the New Zealand Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year, New Zealand Farm Manager of the Year and New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year titles and a prize pool of more than $130,000 in Queenstown on May 14. Scott and Charlotte are hosting a field day on March 31 and Warren and Joe are hosting a field day on the Whakatane farm they manage on April 7.
Further details on the winners and field days can be found on www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz
Whakatane equity farm manager Fraser McGougan placed second in the Sharemilker/Equity Farmer contest and Whakatane 50 per cent sharemilkers Troy Doherty and Karen McLeod were third.
Te Puke farm manager Joshua Wadsworth, 32, was runner-up Farm Manager.
Te Puke farm assistants Luther Siemelink, 24, and Jeremy Cullen, 27, were placed second and third respectively in the trainee contest.
Sharemilker/Equity Farmer Merit Awards:
• Blackman Spargo Legal Audit Award – Sam Sherrard & Lorna McNaughton
• DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Troy Doherty & Karen McLeod
• Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Scott & Charlotte Jones
• Federated Farmers of New Zealand Leadership Award – Fraser McGougan
• Honda Farm Safety and Health Award – Rikus & Sirita Rautenbach
• LIC Recording and Productivity Award – Mark & Nika Booker
• Meridian Energy Farm Environment Award – Fraser McGougan
• Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Scott & Charlotte Jones
• Westpac Business Performance Award – Sam Sherrard & Lorna McNaughton
Farm Manager Merit Awards:
• DairyNZ Human Resource Management Award – Warren & Jo Lee
• RD1 Farm Management Award – Warren & Jo Lee
• Westpac Financial Planning and Management Award – Joshua Wadsworth
Dairy Trainee Merit Award:
• Farming Knowledge Merit
Award – Luther Siemelink.