In 10: The power of connection (and a good lunch): The SMASH story

In this episode of Talking Dairy in 10, host Jac McGowan chats with Noldy Rust, Chair of SMASH (Smaller Milk and Supply Herds), and Frank Portegys from DairyNZ, about how this grassroots initiative is helping farmers connect, learn, and grow stronger businesses together.

SMASH began as a local idea to celebrate and support smaller herd farmers. Partnering with DairyNZ, it’s grown into a nationwide network, offering practical learning open to everyone.

Find out what’s coming up on the SMASH calendar and what to expect when you head along to their events (we also heard there might be a good lunch there too).

Learn more about SMASH or find an event: SMASH NZ

 

About DairyNZ collaboration with sector partners

At DairyNZ, we work alongside trusted partners to stretch your levy further, supporting better farming, stronger communities, and a more resilient dairy sector. These partnerships aren’t just about funding. We roll up our sleeves too, offering time, tools and expertise to help deliver what matters most to farmers. By collaborating with sector leaders, we make an impact where it counts – reducing duplication, promoting better farming practices, and maintaining our independence and credibility. Together, we’re building a future that’s practical and inclusive, and maintains our competitive edge. Partnerships with organisations like SMASH reflect our shared commitment to delivering real value for New Zealand dairy farmers. Together, we’re shaping a sector that’s connected, capable and ready for the future. Find out more about DairyNZ partnerships.  

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes? Email us at [e-mail]

Connect with DairyNZ

Stay up to date with advice, latest research, tools and resources. Read, browse, scroll, listen, or be there in person. Visit dairynz.co.nz/get-connected

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Ki ora and welcome to Talking Dairy in 10.
I'm your host Jack McGowan fromDairyNZ.
Today we're talking about Smash,which stands for Smaller Milk
and Supply Herds.
Smash is a grassroots initiativethat's making a big difference
for farmers with smaller herds.
We're joined by Noldi Rust, adairy farmer and chair of Smash,
and Frank Portergeist fromDairyNZ.

(00:23):
Let's find out what Smash is allabout, why it matters, and how
you can get involved.
Tina Kurua, how are you two?

SPEAKER_01 (00:30):
Very well, thank you, Jack.
Yep, very good.

SPEAKER_02 (00:32):
Thanks, Jack.

SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
Alright, let's start with quick introductions.
You can go first, Noldi.

SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
Cool, yeah.
I am uh, well, ex-dairy farmernow, but I still own my dairy
farm, although only a portionnow, because it's in an equity
partnership.
I was farming most of my life upuntil about five years ago,
actively farming a smaller herdat Tipahu, bought our farm in
1996, and uh still own it tothis day, as I say, as an equity
partnership now, but sole owneroperator until about 2020.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
Cool.
Thanks, Noldi.
And Frank?

SPEAKER_02 (01:03):
Yeah, also an ex-dairy farmer.
Though we did sell our farm andhaven't been farming as long as
Noldi, but I'm a senior areamanager with Dairy and Z
covering the King Countryregion.

SPEAKER_00 (01:15):
Thank you both for joining us.
All right, Noldi, tell us a bitabout Smash.
How did it come about and what'sits purpose?

SPEAKER_01 (01:22):
In 2010 or 2009, Joyce Brown and Fran Alcock,
they were the two foundingmembers.
They were travelling, I think,in the South Island, and they
saw a large sign that said DairyEvent, Large Herds Conference.
And they thought everything inthe media these days is large
herds.
And they thought, well, whatabout smaller farmers?
There's a lot of smaller farmersaround.
Maybe we need to hold an event,organize a conference or

(01:45):
something to celebrate smallerfarms because there's a lot of
smaller farms around.
They're still very profitable.
And just to celebrate that youdon't have to be big to be
successful.
So they rung a few of us smallerherd farmers around the
Waikatter, and we got togetherand had a bit of a chin wag and
decided, yes, why don't we forma little committee, see if we
can raise some funds andorganise an event or two to

(02:07):
celebrate smaller herd farmers,to educate them, to network with
them, and just to celebrate allthe good things about smaller
herd farming.

SPEAKER_00 (02:14):
Very cool.
And Frank, what about Dari andZ's involvement with Smash?
Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_02 (02:20):
Well, probably the biggest thing Darian Z is doing
is that we're one of the fundersof Smash, along with some of the
other partners.
I'm also involved on the Smashcommittee with Noldi and a few
others.
We help out at some of theevents.
Sometimes we facilitate,sometimes we're presenting,
other times it's other people orother organizations involved.

SPEAKER_00 (02:38):
And what kind of events does Smash run?
What do people get out of them,Noldi?

SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
When we first started, we organized a
conference.
We thought we need to have aconference.
So we organized threeconferences, two in the Waikata
and one in the South Island.
And the idea was to get farmerstogether, to get a whole range
of good speakers so that we caneducate farmers and I guess just
give them some tips, some usefultips along the way.
It was mainly that innetworking.
So that's how it all started.

(03:04):
We had conferences, and thenfrom that we flowed out into
some field days because weactually went, some of the
speakers that were speaking atthe conference, we thought would
take it further and had someon-farm field days at some of
those speakers' farms.
So we went on to having fielddays and we thought, oh, this is
good.
We're getting a bit of afollowing here.
So maybe we need to have somemore field days.
So we had some more field days,and then we had some seminars as

(03:26):
well.
So it just grew from that,basically getting farmers
together, educating them,celebrating small herds,
networking, and uh giving themsome tips to make them farm more
successfully.

SPEAKER_00 (03:38):
Okay, and do you still run conferences?

SPEAKER_01 (03:41):
We don't anymore now.
We ran them for a number ofyears, but numbers dwindled over
the years, and the numbersincreased on our field days and
our seminars.
We have indoors and workshopsand uh field days.
Numbers increased on those andthey decreased on the
conferences.
So we thought, look, conferencestake a lot of time, they cost a
lot of money.
We're better off running moreon-farm events and smaller, more

(04:03):
numerous events.
So we did that instead.

SPEAKER_02 (04:05):
Nolda, you mentioned smaller herds a few times.
Are the events open to anybody?
Do you have to be under acertain size?
How does that work?

SPEAKER_01 (04:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, when we started, it wasall about smaller herds.
That was the main thing.
But we never turned anyone away.
And people used to say, whatdefine a smaller herd?
And we said, look, average cownumbers is so much.
We don't really care who comes,but it's it was sort of aimed
more at the smaller herdfarmers.
But it soon became obvious thatthe speakers we attracted, the
events we had, were attractiveto any any farmers at all.

(04:33):
So we sort of dropped thesmaller herds thing, and
especially to this day, smash isour catchphrase, but we don't
emphasize the smaller herd thinganymore.
It's just events for farmers tohelp educate them.
So it's morphed into somethingbigger than that now.
One of the reasons we get a goodfollowing is also we get really
good, well-known, reputablespeakers.

(04:53):
The likes of Josh Wheeler, NeilCheston, and Peter Alexander,
they're reputable.
They have got a good following,and and farmers still flock
along to hear that.
A lot of stuff's online thesedays, and farmers still like the
face-to-face interaction.
So I think that's what weprovide as well.
Would you agree with that,Frank?

SPEAKER_02 (05:09):
Oh, definitely.
And the turnout to the fielddays are generally very good.
Like you said, the conferencesall fell away, but uh, field
days have always been verypopular.

SPEAKER_01 (05:18):
Farmers still like that, yeah.
And our link with Frank isimportant because DairyNZ is
important to us, obviously, forfunding, but also for we use a
lot of speakers and things aswell.
And we don't want to becompleting or clashing because
we're trying to educate farmers.
We're all trying to do the samething.
So we don't want to be clashingdates and clashing with
speakers.
So we sort of want to make surethat we're all coordinating our

(05:39):
our messages a little bit moreum timely and accurately so that
we don't fall over each other,eh?

SPEAKER_00 (05:45):
Okay, and what's coming up with Smash?
Frank?

SPEAKER_02 (05:48):
There's a couple of events coming very soon.
One on the 20th of November,that's at um Mike White's on
White's Road in Patauru.
And we're just looking at the asimple profitable farm system on
their farm.
So that's yeah, 20th ofNovember.
That sort of kicks off about10.15 for a cup of tea.
If you want more information,just go to the smash website or

(06:10):
the smallerherds.co.nz, or youfind that on the DairyNZ
website.
And there's another one inTaranaki, November 27th.
Al McFederidge, they're on A3Hursthouse Road.
Again, you find some informationon the websites.

SPEAKER_00 (06:27):
And what can farmers expect when they come along to
those days on farm?
What does it look like?

SPEAKER_02 (06:34):
We'll be drilling into the profitability of the
systems.
You generally find with thehosts for these field days that
they're quite open about whatthey're doing, sharing the um
financial figures, but alsoinputs and couple of speakers
we've got.
We've got James Allen, we've gotDot from Balanced Agronutrients
going to be talking.
Also Baronbrug just talkingabout the pastures.

(06:54):
And also uh Paul Addison fromNew Farm talking about weeds on
the farm.
Very similar for the Taranaki,different speakers, but focusing
on weeds and what's making thefarms profitable.
And one of the differences withthe Taranaki one is they've got
the once-day milking.
And just I think they're doingthat all season on that farm.
So just know how does that work?

SPEAKER_00 (07:15):
So a chance to get under the hood of a couple of
really good farms there and andalso hear from some experts.

SPEAKER_02 (07:21):
And most importantly, there's also a
quite a nice lunch will bepresented at the end of the day.
Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 (07:28):
I was gonna bring that up, Frank, because when you
say what can they expect, theycan expect a good morning tea
and an even better lunch.
So and I think that's part ofthe attraction, eh?

SPEAKER_00 (07:36):
Very nice, yes.

SPEAKER_02 (07:37):
Yeah, it's it's a discussion, the networking that
that happens so after theactually event, which can be
just as valuable as theinformation itself.

SPEAKER_00 (07:44):
All right.
And Noldi, if someone's keen toget involved or support Smash,
what's the best way to do that?

SPEAKER_01 (07:51):
We've got a huge database now.
We do send out emails uh withupcoming events, but Facebook is
one of our big things,obviously.
We've got a Facebook page.
A lot of our events are onFacebook, so link up with us on
Facebook and Instagram, not somuch Instagram, but Facebook or
on our website, as Frankmentioned earlier.
So, yeah, we still do fly dropsas well in in local communities
because they still seem to workpretty well.

(08:12):
Farmers get it out of themailbox and stick it on their
fridge and they turn up.
So I just want to mention, if Ican, briefly, Dairy and Z too.
They're our they're our primaryfunder.
Once we started growing, wereally needed some funding.
So Dairy and Z came on board,and without them, we certainly
wouldn't be able to exist.
So the grant they give us everyyear is hugely valuable, along
with all our other sponsors aswell.

SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
Oh, thank you for that, Noldi.

SPEAKER_02 (08:34):
Also worth mentioning is as, or as well as
the field days, we've also doneonline webinars or seminars
online.
And we've done a couple recentlyjust around farm succession and
progression.
And they are recorded, and youcan find them on the Smash
Facebook page.
And I think they may also be onthe um Smash website as well.

(08:57):
So if you've missed them andthey're well worth going back
and have another look at.

SPEAKER_00 (09:01):
All right.
Well, thank you both, Noldi andFrank.
It's been so good to have you onTalking Dairy and hear how Smash
is helping farmers.
As Noldi said, if you're keen tobe a part of it, head to
smallerherds.co.nz to find outmore.
Thanks for tuning in to thisepisode of Talking Dairy in 10.
If you'd like to know more,we'll link to the web pages
mentioned in this episode andlist some resources at the end

(09:23):
of the show notes.
If you'd like to get connectedwith DairyNZ's latest advice,
research, tools, and resources,whether it's reading, scrolling,
listening, or in person, you canvisit dairynz.co.nz forward
slash get connected, and don'tforget to hit follow to keep up

(09:47):
to date with our latestepisodes.
As always, if you have anyfeedback on this podcast or have
some ideas for future topics orguests, please email us at
talkingdairy at dairynz.co.nz.
Thanks for listening, and we'llcatch you next time on Talking
Dairy.