Dairying a good deal for Shaun and Anna | Taranaki News | Local News in Taranaki

Local couple, Shaun and Anna Baxter, have come away from the 2007 Sharemilker of the Year competition with smiles on their faces and certificates for their wall.

The talented pair won the Lower-order Sharemilker of the Year title, The Daily News Thursday Farmer Attitude Award, the Dairy Insight First-time Entrants Award and came third in the overall competition.

Considering their dairying career only began a year ago, the couple are thrilled with how well they have done.

"The competition blew our expectations out of the water. We didn't really expect to come away with this much, we were just happy to get through to the top four," they said. Before they made the switch to farming, Shaun and Anna spent time overseas, first teaching English in Japan and later in the United Kingdom.

After the pair got engaged they decided to make the move back to New Zealand and settled on Taranaki as Shaun was raised in Kaponga.

They took a few months off to plan their wedding and have a holiday before they were appointed to a farm managing job on Bird Road for Stephen and Wendy Kalin.

At the start of the 2006-07 season, Shaun and Anna went to lower-order sharemilking and took on the challenge of entering the Sharemilker of the Year competition. "Entering the competition was really good for us because it meant we had to sit down and focus on what we want to achieve and where we want to go. We put in a fair few hours work towards it and it has definitely been worth it." One of the goals the pair had discussed while compiling information for the competition was wanting to go 50/50 sharemilking.

Although they saw themselves trying for a job in two years, the process has been sped up and they have been offered a job on Skeet Road, which they will start on June 1. "It was something we knew we wanted to do, but we didn't know it was going to happen so soon! It has come up maybe a year sooner than we had planned but the job is exactly what we wanted so we will go for it."

Ultimately, Shaun and Anna want to own their own farm, but for now they are content to steadily work towards their goal and progress up the dairying ladder.

"We are really loving the lifestyle. When we were overseas it always seemed like we would go different ways to jobs but now we get to work together. We are looking forward to what the future will bring."