Jessie Pope is the 2024 Central Plateau Dairy Trainee of the Year.
Jessie Pope is the 2024 Central Plateau Dairy Trainee of the Year.
A past Dairy Industry Awards winner is heavily involved in the organisation of this year’s edition.
Jessie Pope, of Rerewhakaaitu near Rotorua, was the 2024 Central Plateau Dairy Trainee of the Year.
This time around the 31 year old is on the Dairy Industry Awards (DIA) Central Plateau organising committee,while also trainee team leader and skills day co-ordinator.
“I enjoyed it so much I wanted to give something back, make it enjoyable for the entrants,” Pope said.
Pope is a farm assistant to DIA Central Plateau 2024 Share Farmer winners Paul and Sarah Koopal.
Gaining this support, Pope said that for her the competition was about growth and learning.
“I saw the programme as a great opportunity to learn new skills and meet like-minded people within the industry.”
She admits this was outside her comfort zone, particularly in her first year of full-time farming.
“Every year I’ve entered the awards, I’ve learnt something, not just about the industry, but also about what kind of farmer I want to be,” she said.
“There’s no growth in comfort.”
Awards launch
2024 Central Plateau winners: Dairy Trainee of the Year Jessie Pope (left), Share Farmers of the Year Sarah and Paul Koopal, and Dairy Manager of the Year Ben Purua. Photo / Supplied
In that first year, she attended a launch event to find out more about the awards, followed by a sponsors’ night.
Judging included practical exercises covering a tractor pre-start check; feed calculations; use of Nait (National Animal Identification and Tracing programme) tags; bobby calves; and putting together a washdown hose.
The second part of judging involved a multi-choice quiz.
A similar format was followed last year, with Pope’s goal to reach the final six contestants in her category.
Attending boarding school in Marton, she was “always put to work over the summers”, helping out with drenching and yard work.
After completing secondary school, she had a gap year in 2012 that included volunteering for nine months at a brain injury rehabilitation centre in England.
On her return to New Zealand, she began a health sciences degree at Otago University, but after a year changed to animal sciences.
Pope then shifted to the North Island, living with her sister in Palmerston North, and working for LIC (Livestock Improvement Corporation) and NZ Post.
Vet nurse
Staying in the same city, Pope studied for two years at polytech and attained a vet nursing diploma.
With this qualification, she headed to Dannevirke and took up a position as a vet nurse.
Pope said it was a family farm, with the owner’s son contract milking.
She is one of two other staff, including a 2IC.
Her role as a farm assistant includes looking after calves, grazing young stock, and animal health.
Pope said she was excited about the advances in technology in the dairy industry and all the information available to farmers, especially in terms of animal health.
“I hope to be able to work with this technology one day with my own cows, to be able to give them the best support and care they can get, so they can perform at their peak.”
She thoroughly recommends the Dairy Industry Awards programme and what it has meant for her career.
