Our team

Manager

Cath Blake

Along with her husband Ed, Cath has been involved in the dairy industry for 20 years – firstly in sharemilking roles and then farm ownership in 2002. Cath joined DairyTraining in 2013 as a part time tutor at the Diploma level specialising in Business & Financial Planning and Human Resource course delivery.

Cath is very passionate about education and the dairy industry. She enjoys seeing people progress in the industry as a result of building skills and competencies by taking up learning and personal development opportunities.

Training coordinator

Marcelle Jackson

Marcelle was raised on a dairy farm and prior to coming to Dairy Training in 2007, was with AgResearch in an accounting assistant role. Marcelle prides herself on attention to detail and enjoys helping people. Her main roles with Dairy Training are account management, running our SharePoint site and organizing business data.

Marcelle enjoys being part of the DairyTraining team, where we have a lot of pride seeing students’ progress through our training and contributing in such positive ways to NZ’s dairy industry.

Administrator

Laura Littlejohn

Laura comes from a rural banking background and is very proficient at managing the logistics of all course timetabling, assessing venue suitability, and the printing and distributing of learner and teaching resources.

Laura also coordinates tutors training days, tutor conference, regional tutorials and study nights. She works closely with the PrimaryITO field team and Wintec administration staff, as well as managing all student details in the Dairy Training’s learner management system.

Ann Snowdon

Ann and her husband Brad are currently equity partners on a dairy farm between Rotorua and Taupo, milking 420 cows.  Ann has a bachelor degree in business studies, and after living and working overseas for a number of years she moved home to NZ, met and married her husband, moved to the farm and now has 2 children and enjoys the farming life.

Ann loves the fact she can use her business background and hands-on experience to help others in the dairy sector, tutoring and coaching modules in the Agribusiness Diploma.  Ann is passionate about helping others get ahead in this volatile industry.  Creating a sustainable, profitable business model is essential to anyone wanting to get ahead in and Dairy Training courses and templates offer a valuable toolkit. Ann loves the variety this role offers – no two businesses are the same, and she enjoys working with farmers at all stages of their business life cycle – from those starting out in their farming businesses, to helping fill the gaps for those who have more experience.

Ashlea Kowalski

Ashlea trained in Adult Education and Training as well as Human Resources. With her husband, a contractor, they decided farming was for them and worked up through the ranks, having now contract milked since 2011. During this farming period, Ashlea completed the NZ Diploma in Agribusiness Management and was asked to mentor dairy farmers already undertaking training.

Ashlea was then drawn into Dairy Training where she loves seeing her trainees succeed, and they in turn give her passion and excitement for the industry.

Bronwyn Cameron

Bronwyn has been tutoring the Human Resource module of the NZ Diploma in Agribusiness Management since 2013, and really enjoys creating the discussions and learnings in the trainee group environment. She is an independent HR consultant working across the Waikato region, with a background in HR management.

Bronwyn loves the rural environment – farming is in her blood! She also fits in some help with driving tractors / operating machinery for her agricultural contractor friend in the hay / silage season.

Crofton Hamilton

Raised in South Auckland, Crofton was educated at Massey University. Since then (25 years), he has managed and owned two farms with over 500 cows.

Crofton is focussed on industry improvement and imparts his knowledge tutoring levels 3, 4 and 5.

Cynthia Northcote

Cynthia and her family have been farming in Eastern Taranaki for many years. They have been involved in many aspects of farming: sheep, beef, dairy support, milking and calf rearing! Cynthia is Operations Manager for a farm consultancy business that focuses on animal performance, is undergoing training in Te Reo and the NZIPIM Dairy Systems Certification.

Cynthia teaches both the NZ Certificate in Agriculture Level 4 and Production Management in Taranaki. Cynthia believes in empowering others with new knowledge to create a better farming experience and describes herself as an ‘enabler’.

Ed Grayling

Ed progressed from a farm assistant through to farm ownership in ten years, and now has been an owner-operator in the Waikato since 2014. Ed has a Bachelor of Applied Science and has spent time as an agronomist in the maize grain industry, bringing wider industry knowledge and networks to his classes.

Ed teaches Level 3 Animal Husbandry where he enjoys helping the next generation of farm staff to upskill and progress within the dairy industry. He is passionate about grass roots farming and wants to share his broad industry knowledge and experiences to help others.

Gaynor Tierney

Gaynor hails from Ireland/UK and has been dairy farming in New Zealand for over 20 years. Strongly involved in the dairy industry through DairyNZ, PrimaryITO, Federated Farmers and Fonterra, being face-to-face with farmers, training rural professionals and on numerous boards, Gaynor has a wealth of experience. Gaynor extends this knowledge by training farmers in the Diploma of Agribusiness.

As a tutor Gaynor is motivated to help farmers help themselves. She enjoys working with amazing people who are self-driven and inspired to undertake learning off-farm to increase their understanding of the business of farming and for many to enhance their careers going forward. She loves the topic of agri-business and has good fun in the class environment whilst working towards positive change for their enterprises.

Jenny Sinclair

Jenny grew up on a dairy farm and loved the freedom and adventure that rural life offered. A career in teaching was switched for dairy farming with Jenny and her husband making the most of the opportunities and support offered by the industry.

Jenny’s passion for helping others to learn and progress led her to tutoring and she has been involved in dairy training since 2002. She teaches Level 5 Production Management and gets great satisfaction from helping farmers to analyse and improve their businesses.

Jim Henderson

Born of Taranaki farming stock, Jim went dairy farming after schooling and advanced, with wife Cheryl and three children, to farm ownership at Kampongs via the typical sharemilking route. Exiting farming after 40 years and moving to Te Awamutu to be closer to grandchildren allowed Jim the opportunity to branch into a new role tutoring for Dairy Training, which has been his vocation for the past decade [or so].

Kayleen Smith

Kayleen has a strong interest in feed and pasture that started when she worked on a research farm running agronomy trials. Kayleen had a career change and started dairy farming during which time she completed the NZ Diploma in Agribusiness Management.

After having her son, she extended her passion for feeding and began tutoring Level 3 Feeding and also contracts for DairyBase as a Financial Analyst.

Linda Evens

Originally hailing from the United Kingdom 30 years ago, Linda has for the last 25 owned, managed and overseen a dairy farm in the Waikato, increasing the platform over time to 1000 cows. Her partner mostly worked off farm.

Linda currently teaches Level 4 courses within the Waikato and King Country and goes above and beyond to support students to be successful in their training. She knows first-hand about coming to the industry with no knowledge or experience, and so how important practical learning is and how development can enhance your future.

Liz Grayling

Liz was raised on a beef and goat farm in Western Bay of Plenty and has a Bachelor of Applied Science from Massey University. Liz has spent most of her working life in the rural sector, ranging from hands on dairying, including contract milking, being a fertiliser rep and doing dairy research trials.

Liz is the lead tutor for the Level 3 Feeding course and really enjoys working with farmers to get the best outcome for their individual situation and needs.

Liz Sanders

Liz has been involved in the New Zealand farming industry for over 20 years, farming on both some of the countries smallest and largest farms from the Central Plateau through to the Bay of Plenty.

Liz has a particular passion for animal health.

Mark Speight

Mark comes from a sheep and beef family farming background in Western Southland. He has been involved in the dairy industry for almost 20 years with roles nationally with DairyNZ, Rabobank and now as a dairy tutor for the New Zealand Diploma in Agribusiness Management. He has also worked internationally with dairy development roles in Pakistan, Colombia and currently Sri Lanka.

What drives Mark as a tutor is for students to achieve their goals and increase their knowledge so they can progress ideally within the industry, and run profitable and sustainable businesses.

Matthew Wright

Matt Wright was born in South Africa and gained an Agricultural Management Diploma in Cape Town. Matt pursued a farming career, spending three years in the United Kingdom on a lily farm. Matt immigrated to New Zealand in 2010 and settled with his family in Taranaki four years ago. He is currently contract milking 550 autumn calving cows.

Matt enjoys passing on his experiences to farmers coming up through the ranks.

Pete Morgan

With a Masters in Agricultural Science, a Diploma in Agribusiness and 30 years farming, 20 as a farm owner, Pete is well placed to disseminate his wealth of knowledge to others. Pete teaches the Production Management course and and runs short courses on his South Waikato farm. He sees the training the others as a great way to challenge and energise his own love of farming and the need to continually improve.

Regan Kempson

Regan and her husband have been dairy farming for 20 years and spent some time managing a new conversion in America.

Having achieved the New Zealand Diploma in Agribusiness Management in 2012, Regan is now teaching it in Taranaki where her family now live and farm.

Rick Callaghan

Rick began farming beef in 1991 and 22 years later started dairy farming. Rick’s passion is growing grass and getting the most production from his cows.

Rick is driven by teaching students, watching them engage during class and as training progresses, seeing confident, knowledgeable trainees that help each other and grow together.

Robyn Boswell

Robyn grew up on a mixed sheep, beef and dairy farm in Tokoroa. Family first is a key value for Robyn, her husband and two children, centring on family friendly dairy jobs, including contract milking and 50/50 sharemilking throughout the Waikato. The couple entered the Dairy Industry Awards and placed in the finals several times with merit awards for Human Resources and Dairy Hygiene.

Robyn joined Dairy Training in 2009 and passionately supports many fantastic students achieve their Dairy Level 3 qualifications.

Shona Pedersen

Shona works alongside her husband on their 270 cow, rolling to steep dairy farm in Waitetuna. Shona has done plenty of study herself, having achieved her Diploma in Agribusiness Management, Certificate in Vet Nursing and a NZCS -Biology Option & Lab Technician – Immunology.

Shona teaches at Level 5, focussing on Business & Financial Planning. She likes to see motivated individuals trying to grow their agribusiness by being better informed with their own financial & business literacy.

Stacey Lepper

Stacey and her family are herd owning sharemilkers in the beautiful Bay of Plenty. Stacey gained a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from Lincoln University but after a few years of corporate jobs she and her husband felt that wasn’t for them and they decided to give dairy farming a go. She understands first hand the value to be gained from the Diploma in Agribusiness Management, having completed it herself in 2016 and that is what made it easy for her to say yes when asked to do some teaching.

Steve Hines

After five years working in town, Steve decided the farming lifestyle was for him. With his wife, they progressed through farm management and the sharemilking pathway, before purchasing their 720 cow farm in Whakamaru in 2002.

Steve brings a myriad of skills to Level 5 Production Management & the Level 4 programmes. He enjoys tutoring and believes it is important to have skilled & motivated people trained to a high standard for managing New Zealand’s dairy farms.

Stuart Burns

Stuart is married with a grown family of four. He and his wife own a 200-cow dairy farm in the hills of the Waikato.

Stuart has been involved in dairy farming most of his life. He originally trained at Massey University and then went on to complete postgraduate studies at Reading University during an eight-year stint in Europe.

He is keen for those who do the work in the industry to also develop their “mental muscle” and teaches a variety of courses to help achieve this.

Vanessa Schedewy

Vanessa has been dairy farming for 23 years, and an AB technician for 22 of those! Vanessa has a huge passion for farming and helping others succeed in their goals.

Vanessa loves seeing the students achieve and progress through the industry.

Willie McKnight

Willie and his family spent 20 years milking cows working up to herd ownership, then sold the herd to buy a small dry stock farm. They won the Waikato Dairy Industry Awards Farm Manager of the Year and came third nationally in 2010. Willie also manages a dairy grazing block and works as a contractor in the busy periods. He also manages a 200ha dairy grazing farm 6km from home.

Willie teaches both Level 3 Husbandry and Feeding as well as Level 4. He loves sharing his passion for farming, knowledge of growing grass, animal husbandry skills and seeing students succeed and move up through the industry.