Dairy farmers Manoj Kumar and Sumit Kamoj take on The Country Fast Five

Sumit Kamboj (left) and Manoj Kumar were the 2021 New Zealand Share Farmers of the Year at the NZ Dairy Industry Awards.

New Zealanders often hear about farmers being the backbone of the country, but do we really know what makes the primary industries tick?

With that in mind, The Country’s Kem Ormond has compiled a list of questions for everyday Kiwis in the rural sector.

This week it’s the turn of Manoj Kumar and Sumit Kamoj, who were named the 2021 New Zealand Share Farmers of the Year at the NZ Dairy Industry Awards.

They are also getting closer to owning their own farm.

If you would like to be part of The Country Fast Five series, get in touch with Kem at kem.ormond@nzme.co.nz. Or you can fill in the form here.

Manoj Kumar and Sumit Kamoj

What drew you into agriculture?

Born and raised on a small farm in the village of Rudrapur in Uttarakhand in northern India, we formed a love of the land from an early age.

Our family has lived and worked on the same land for three generations.

The whole family was involved in the farm, we only had about 10 cows and did a little bit of cropping, but it was a family affair.

Our brother Pramod and the family run the farm now.

When we first came to New Zealand in 2010, dairying wasn’t really on our radar.

Dairying here was completely different to back home such as the scale, the practices, everything, but it was what we knew.

After finishing our studies, we decided to see what jobs were in the dairy sector and secured jobs as farm assistants.

Since then, through hard work, we have grown our business in the dairy industry and love every part of it.

What’s the best thing about your industry?

The dairy industry has a lot of growth opportunities to offer, especially to the younger generation.

If we take ourselves as an example: 14 years ago when we came to New Zealand with nothing but a couple of suitcases, we started our career as farm assistants in 2012, and we worked hard and grew ourselves and our business.

Currently, we are 50-50 sharemilkers on 2000 cows in Mid Canterbury and looking to buy our own 200ha farm next year.

It’s very hard to find similar growth or opportunities in any other industry in New Zealand.

What’s the biggest challenge your industry is facing — right now or into the future?

Current high costs, lack of skilled workforce and very few young people joining the dairy industry.

What are you most proud of?

We are extremely proud that we are part of the best dairy industry in the world that produces the world’s best quality milk and looks after its animals and environment.

What would you like non-farmers to know about your role/industry?

The dairy industry has a variety of opportunities to offer, especially to our younger generation, and the lifestyle itself is amazing.

Opportunities that are available in the dairy industry are very hard to find in any other fieldor industry.

For example, most of the jobs come with accommodation and a great salary/wages.

The varieties of roles for growth range from farm assistant to farm manager to contract milker to sharemilker.