Further Training Strengthens Miriam Lauridsen’s Dairy Management Skills
Miriam Lauridsen manages pasture, forage and the herd on a 137-hectare System 3 dairy farm south of New Plymouth in Taranaki. The property includes 34 hectares of leased land, carries 385 cows and produces 165,000kg of milk solids, or 446kg per cow. Pasture harvested totals 12.5 tonnes a hectare, while the farm grows six hectares of turnips and imports 200 tonnes each of palm kernel expeller and Proliq.
Lauridsen, aged 29, completed Dairy Training’s Feed for Profit course after examining whether additional feed was generating sufficient production gains during dry summer conditions. The course covered feed budgeting, pasture management and the relationship between feeding decisions and farm profitability. She completed it in November, allowing her to apply the material during the period when her farm typically uses more supplements.
Lauridsen says the training changed how she compares the cost of purchased feed with possible increases in output. She uses DairyNZ’s Supplement Price Calculator to examine feed prices and production decisions, and says the course helped her consider whether buying supplements was preferable to accepting lower production. She also learned that, at some prices, increasing feed could produce a profitable rise in output.
“The course has helped me understand the ‘why’ behind what I do,” Lauridsen says. She began her dairy career with an Apprenticeship in Agriculture—Dairy Farming through Primary ITO and grew up on her parents’ dairy and dry-stock farms. She says four small in-person workshops were useful for exchanging information with other farmers and comparing different farm systems.
Lauridsen also entered the Dairy Industry Awards. She won the 2026 Taranaki Farm Manager of the Year title and was runner-up nationally in May. In 2023 she was runner-up in the Taranaki Dairy Trainee of the Year award. She says preparing for the awards exposed areas for improvement, while judges’ detailed feedback addressed several aspects of farm management.
DairyNZ is an industry partner of the awards, and Dairy Training sponsors 11 regional awards for dairy managers in people and leadership categories. Dairy Training’s current NZQA-approved short courses include Animal Health and Stockmanship Fundamentals Level 3, Pasture and Feeding Fundamentals Level 3, and BizStart Level 5. The courses are described as free and practical, with content covering livestock handling, cow-health issues, pasture allocation, farm-business structures, tax and compliance.
