Stephen Canton

Despite buying a racing quad bike during a mid-life crisis, Stephen’s professional focus is on track when it comes to his real passion: supporting dairy farmers.

“My role is to organise topic-based events for farmers in my area and help them achieve their goals through adapting to new ways of farming. Small farming businesses especially appreciate having an industry-good person alongside them.”

Stephen regularly connects with farmers, their local communities and rural professionals to ensure everyone’s working together. He also belongs to the Ōhaupō/Ngāhinapōuri Lions Club and the Waikato branch of the New Zealand Institute for Primary Industry Management.

“I’ve helped farmers to manage Mycoplasma Bovis, cope with droughts and floods, and deal with very low milk prices. I’ve also been a judge for the NZ Dairy Industry Awards’ Share Farmers of the Year category too, and for the Ahuwhenua Trophy competition’s Excellence in Māori Farming Award (dairying).”

While Stephen loves going into bat for dairy farmers, he’s not so brave when it comes to racing that quad bike, which he bought in his late 40s.

“I’ve never raced it! I’m too scared. But I do ride it around the back blocks of New Zealand. I think that must have been a mini mid-life crisis, when I purchased that bike!”

As well getting a buzz out of helping farmers navigate through constant changes on-farm and across the dairy sector, Stephen’s pretty proud of his DairyNZ colleagues too.

“The Waikato-based regional team has a vast range of skills and professional backgrounds. Having so many scientists based at our Newstead office also means we have direct access to high-quality, evidence-based information and tools that can help farmers.”

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