Mark Laurence

What gets Mark Laurence out of bed in the morning? Helping farmers. He wants them to know they can pick up the phone anytime to ask his team anything.

“It’s my job to grow our team’s capability, so that we can work with farmers to deliver the best possible return on their DairyNZ levy. One of the joys of the New Zealand dairy industry is our co-operative spirit. Farmers have figured out that working together is so much better than going it alone.

“That’s where DairyNZ fits: we use the collective input of the sector to benefit all dairy farmers. It’s about collaborating to get the best outcomes for our levy-paying farmers as much as we can.”

Mark says his role for the team is to encourage them to push the limits, and challenge anything easy and normal. Then learn from their mistakes and celebrate their successes. “The personal growth the people in my team have shown over the past five years has been a big highlight for me – I’m working with awesome people.

“Ours is a massively diverse region, too. Taranaki is prime country for dairying, with one of the best and most iconic backdrops imaginable. The soils and climate are so well-suited for dairying and the sector is critical to our local communities.

“The rest of the Lower North Island is a snapshot of the country. From tough unforgiving soils to amazing loams, from new large-scale conversions to well established historic dairy communities, the Lower North Island has it all.

“My passion is simply this: helping farmers and see the team grow and do exactly the same thing.”

• Find out more about DairyNZ’s other Lower North Island regional team members.
• Check out our nationwide regional teams.