Waikato's sharemilker of the year believes in starting young and getting on with it.
Bas Nelis, 23, joined the dairy industry as a 16-year-old farm assistant. A year later he was a farm manager.
He aims to be sharemilking 800 cows next year has farm ownership by the age of 30 in his sights.
The Waikato farm manager of the year has been named as William McKnight and dairy trainee of the year is Dan Wong.
The Bay of Plenty sharemilkers of the year have also been announced - they are Jon and Steph Russell.
The regional farm manager title has gone to Russell Meade and the dairy trainee of the Year is David Kehely.
They will join other regional winners at the national dairy awards final in Rotorua in May.
