Demonstration manager Jo Sheridan with farm hostess Emay at the Owl Farm Open Day
The carparks filled early on Saturday – and the people just kept coming.
Farm manager Tony Alarca gives the thumbs up during milking which was a big favourite for the crowd. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
By late morning, attendance at Owl Farm, part of St Peter’s School Cambridge, had surpassed expectations for its annual open day, drawing between 700 and 800 people through the gates.
It’s the biggest crowd the demonstration farm has ever hosted and at a place built on showing rather than telling, that mattered.
Visitors came to walk paddocks, talk cows, ask questions and see how theory translates into practice on the ground. They also came to meet the people who make Owl Farm work – a small permanent team supported by layers of governance designed to keep the operation technically sharp, financially sound and future-focused.
Evaleigh Edmey, 8, and in year four at Leamington Primary School gets behind the wheel of a Massey Ferguson tractor. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
At the centre of the day’s conversations was demonstration manager Jo Sheridan – last year’s Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year – fresh from a season that has been, in her words, “chalk and cheese” compared with the year before.
“We’ll be about 30,000 kilograms ahead of last season,” she said, gesturing towards pastures still holding plenty of feed.
“That’s just due to really good rainfall and a lovely summer. Last year we were right in the middle of a drought. It was tough.”
The difference shows. The grass is strong, the cows are in good condition, and the system has shifted to once‑a‑day milking as the end of the season approaches. Heifers start calving in late June, the main herd on July 1, and the last cows will walk out of the shed by about May 10.
Miles, 3 and Esme three months with mum Jess from Tamahere try out one of the tractors. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Milking in that shed on open day was farm manager Tony Alarca, captured mid‑task as visitors watched the rhythm of the operation. Beside Sheridan, a three‑year‑old labrador, Emjay Sheridan, soaked up the attention, blissfully unaware that she was fast becoming one of the farm’s most photographed residents.
Behind the scenes, Owl Farm is overseen by multiple committees. The Farm Management Committee brings together technical representatives from funding partners, the demonstration manager, St Peter’s representatives and farmers. Strategic direction sits with the Governance Committee, while day‑to‑day alignment with the school comes through the St Peter’s Farm Operations Committee.
It is a structure designed to balance education, innovation and practicality – a fitting context for the technology now embedded in the farm system.
Riley van Munster, 6, wants to be a dairy farmer one day. He has big boots to fill. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
This is Owl Farm’s fourth season using Halter collars. The collars come as part of a subscription‑based wearable technology that allows virtual fencing and individual animal management.
“We’ve seen a huge drop in lameness,” Sheridan said. “And we’re starting to get real gains with selectively feeding different mobs and better pasture management across paddocks. The product keeps evolving.”
Reproduction results are improving too and while the technology comes at a cost, it gives options – particularly around dairy‑beef strategies.
Guessing how much grass a cow has to eat to fill 20 litre milk bottles at the PGG Wrightson Seeds stand is, from left Jonny, Isabelle, 4 ½, Annabelle, 6, Breen watched by Sam Wiltshire and Greg Zeuren. (The answer is 60 kilos). Photo: Mary Anne Gill
“It’s about finding what suits your system. The interaction between a cow and a pasture is where the magic happens.”
Owl Farm will milk about 317 cows next season, down from around 360 this year, but still more than 25 per cent ahead in production – likely finishing above 160,000 kilograms of milk solids.
With Fonterra’s upcoming capital return to shareholders from the sale of its global consumer and associated businesses, attention is turning to infrastructure at Owl Farm.
The cowshed is 47 years old.
“One of our priorities is how we future‑proof it,” she said. “We want to put that money into productive outcomes.”
On a day when record numbers turned up to see how it all works, that focus on longevity felt entirely on point.
Dishing out the Appleby Farms ice cream, the team from Ravensdown, from left Sarah Death (Morrinsville), Eva Brakenrig (Taupō) and Jules McMillan (Christchurch). Photo: Mary Anne Gill
The Fonterra dairy tanker was a favourite with visitors. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Owl Farm Open Day. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Cows head into the 47-year-old milking shed which is due for an upgrade. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Scooped up by a tractor’s front-end loader were, from left Emily 5, Fergus 6 months and Melody, 7, Meerkerk of Roto-o-Rangi. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Riley, 6, and Liam, 3, were both sporting Red Band gumboots for the Open Day with mum Sarah van Munster, partnership relationship manager for the Dairy Women’s Network. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Grabbing a well-earned ice cream as she shows off spring calves is Vanessa van de Ven a dairy farmer from Springdale who is a dairy environmental leader with Dairy NZ. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Proudly showing off the manuka cutting grown from seed by Restore Native and soon to be in Owl Farm’s wetlands is Hugo Faber, 10, of Hamilton. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Demonstration manager Jo Sheridan with farm hostess Emay, a three-year-old labrador. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
