Ten years ago farmers with small herds noticed a shift in focus in the dairy industry to large herds.
So they thought they should mobilise and the Small Herds Association or SMASH was formed.
SMASH's chairman Noldy Rust says a small herd is a non-corporate herd, often run by a couple or maybe a couple and one team member.
The average herd size in New Zealand is 420 cows but Noldy says there are still herds with fewer than 100 cows.
"We think differently and I guess part of SMASH's getting together was to network and to show that we still count.
"Everything you read was bigger, bigger, bigger and we thought this is not really fair and we actually felt a little bit that we were left out, pushed out...and didn't matter. So (we established SMASH) mainly to highlight hey there's a lot of us and let's get together and celebrate what we do. Let's network and learn as a group of smaller farmers that aren't overawed by the big guys that have multiple farms."
SMASH has 3,500 farmers on its database and holds seminars and fieldays around the country that are free for farmers to attend. It is supported by DairyNZ.
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
