Natasha Grindrod grew up on her family's farm at Awakeri but never milked the cows, nor saw a career for herself in farming.

Instead, Barry and Yvonne Richardson's only child trained as a teacher, meeting her husband-to-be Brett Grindrod – who'd also never milked a cow – at training college in Palmerston North.

Natasha and Brett Grindrod – winners of the 2014 Bay of Plenty Sharemilker/Equity Farmers Award.

The couple had their futures mapped out as teachers, moved into a new house, and started a family, which is when things changed.

'We were both working full-time and Kaleb was in daycare. We seemed to have so little time with him each day. With our teaching background, we know how important those formative years are –and that wasn't the childhood we wanted for our son,” says Natasha.

When Natasha's parents offered Brett the opportunity to work on their farm, the couple decided to take a year's leave from teaching to see if farming would work for them.

To say it did is something of an understatement – Brett and Natasha have not only succeeded in making dairy farming work for them, they've excelled at it, winning the 2014 Bay of Plenty Sharemilker/Equity Farmers Award.

'After just a few months' farming, I called my school principal to say I wouldn't be back teaching,” says Brett.

'I enjoyed the flexibility farming offered, being so closely involved with my family and we could see the long-term potential for financial growth.

'There is not a single time I have wished I was back teaching.”

Since moving to the farm in 2010 the couple had another son, four-year-old Jayden, Natasha has learned to milk cows and Brett has graduated from farm worker to manager – and now he's a 25 per cent sharemilker.

'It was brave of Barry to give me the chance to become manager after only a few months on the farm. It really threw me in at the deep end,” says Brett, who has thrived on the challenge.

'Brett has immersed himself in framing and training, taking every course and attending every field day he can,” says Natasha.

Last season, despite the drought, the farm achieved a record 157,000 kilograms of milksolids and this season looks set to do 173,000kg/ms. An irrigation system, fed by the farm's bore, helped maintain grass growth through the dry.

The couple and their boys now live in the house where Natasha grew up, on the farm bought 58 years ago by her grandparents Gladys and Horace (Horrie) Richardson.

'If Brett and I hadn't been keen to go farming, I'm not sure what direction the family farm would have gone in. Now it will stay in the family, as it looks like at least one of our boys will go farming.”

The farm is prime, flat land, bordered by horticulture. The 450 friesian cows graze 140 effective hectares of pasture, and maize and grass silage is grown on a 20ha support block. They are milked by a 20-year-old in a 36-aside dairy, where in the milk room Brett's teaching instincts are obvious.

‘If you make a mistake, please tell somebody,' says a prominent sign on the very well-ordered shed noticeboard. 'Anyone can make a mistake and if we know about it straight away, then we can minimise the consequences, especially if it might affect milk quality,” says Brett.

Natasha says winning the award has been a goal for the couple since they came second last year. 'It's not about the prizes, which are awesome, but about the people you meet and what you learn by taking part, as well as benchmarking yourself against others in the industry.”

Brett also sees the awards as important in showcasing dairying as a career and with his teaching hat on, talks of finding ways to help promote the industry to teenagers.

'Farming was certainly never promoted to me as a career choice. Too often it was seen as a poor choice, when in fact it's a very worthwhile career.”

Brett says agriculture offers a wide range of career choices and the industry needs educated, enthusiastic young people to secure its future.

Shaggey, the highland cattle ‘lawn mower' was the only bovine Brett and Natasha owned until they went sharemilking.