Mike Bailey

I'm Mike Bailey from the Waikato.

I’m originally from the Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa and I’ve been working in the Waikato for 20 years. I cover central Waikato in and around the Hauraki plains, but have clients across the whole region. I’ve got a Bachelor of Agriculture in Production and Management and spent the next 15 years working through the dairy industry from management, variable order, and then 50/50 share milking and joined FarmWise in 2000. I spent six years in the UK working for LIC as a farm consultant, which was really rewarding as you were taking people from high input systems and turning them into New Zealand type farming operators.

What do I like to do outside of work?

Consultancy takes up a lot my time but I’m heavily involved in what the kids are doing – though they’re in their late teens, early twenties now! So I like to be involved in doing whatever they're doing. I play a bit of golf, and have a couple of dogs that drag me around.

How did I get into consultancy?

Like many consultants, the natural progression from hands on farming and wanting to stay involved in the industry is consulting. I wanted to impart the knowledge I had gained as a practical farmer and I had a very good grounding as a Dairy Board consulting officer. Their training was second to none. So that just led into this role as a FarmWise consultant.

What I enjoy most about working with farmers?

The role is really rewarding and there are a lot of successes, and you meet a wide range of personalities and abilities. Having real empathy for the people you're dealing with is hugely important. Anyone can learn technical ability, but if you haven't got empathy and people don't enjoy your company, then no matter what you say will fall on deaf ears.

In my view, the successes are always fluid. Once you're in there and you're working with farmers, there's this constant pressure on yourself to see them do well. This is important. You aim to provide them with all the tools and support necessary and push them in the right direction.

I really value the experience and knowledge sitting within FarmWise. You can tap into a huge amount of experience all around the country. They may not be having the same problems, but they can look at it with a clean set of eyes, which is really good. We’ve got a very experienced collective group in FarmWise, we've got the back of the farmers, we'll go the extra mile – we’re a knowledge-based, empathetic consultancy group working for our farmers!