President’s Medal Feature
2025 President’s Medal winner’s latest piece for The Journal. Jamie Pottow from the South & Wiltshire HYB Club was awarded the President’s Medal for his dedication and commitment to HYB, Holstein UK and the dairy industry as a whole. His determination, passion and positivity helped him stand out to a panel of judges who named him as the worthy winner of HYB’s most prestigious award. Each year’s winner writes a column for The Journal which we are pleased to share with other Holstein Young Breeders below.
Finance and investment
Thomas Jefferson – “Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness”
Maybe a quote many of us need to focus on and remember in these new unknown times. Looking to invest in agriculture and especially dairy can seem daunting for many of us, but remembering who and why we are investing, can often refocus the mind.
So, who am I to be writing about finance and investment? I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up on a progressive dairy farm with forward thinking mentors and family members, this mindset stayed with me through college, university and took me to Canada where I was fortunate enough to work on one the countries largest dairies J&L Walker Farms and Walker Dairy inc.
Having been involved in HYB and YFC for many years the recurring theme that I see across young members of our industry is that they are all exceptional workers, cow men/women, and dedicated to taking our industry to another level. Yet how many young people in the industry can comfortably understand the financial state of their family business and analyse investment opportunities? Certainly, something I have had to somewhat force myself to be more interested in.
Many of us will be focused on improving herd KPI’s and many of us can reel off conception rate, preg rate, average yield, calving index the list goes on. But how many of us can even ballpark our businesses, turnover, profit, cost of production, labour cost, profit growth and so on. I am believer that, get cow management correct and the business will follow, however we can only truly evaluate our success by understanding these figures.
Its easy to sit here and say, “you must learn the business”, but how do we actually go about doing that? The easy answer is going to university completing an agricultural business degree and that’s it, but have you actually learnt how to use those numbers and what they truly mean. Our industry is incredibly fortunate to be one focused on helping each other, consultants, advisors and specialists are employed to be challenged and doing so will not only further your knowledge but will also push them to take on new perspectives. So next time mum and dad have the accountant, business advisor or bank manager around the kitchen table, ask to be present, ask what the difference between cash flow and profit is, challenge yourself to ask the question.
Away from the family farm, we are seeing many companies recognising the need to ‘invest in the future’ the likes of Kite and Mueller both run discussion groups focusing on young dairy farmers. Although a cliché ‘if you have a question then someone else has the same question’ rings true in these groups, by surrounding yourself with peers’ discussion flows, and without a doubt you will come away having learnt something. These groups not only allow you to advance your knowledge within the quarterly meetings but opens you up to a network of experience, expertise, and opinions on a national level.
Back to Jeffersons quote:
Real wealth, a financially stable business where you truly understand what progress is and can take the business to the next level.
Good morals, increase your network as far as possible, learn from anyone willing to teach, and be willing to share your knowledge with them.
Happiness, the security that you can continue working with the cows that you are truly passionate about knowing that you understand the business and financials behind them.