The Team
John Donkers
John has spent the majority of his career involved in the dairy industry, starting out as a sharemilker, and had early experience of large scale corporate farming working in various management roles for Applefields.
For the last twenty or so years he has operated Dairy Farm Management Services Ltd., providing farm and business management advice and services to dairy farmer clients, predominantly in Canterbury. Following the sale of DFMS to Donald and Jose Arthur, he has continued as a contractor to the business.
Irrigation has been a key interest over a number of years and John has been a board member of Irrigation NZ Inc. since 2002 and a director of Central Plains Water Ltd. since 2003. John also recently ended 5 years of participation in the Canterbury Water Management Strategy as a community appointee on the Regional Committee.
John is also a shareholder in the Camden Group of companies that owns and operates 6 irrigated properties in Central Canterbury including four dairy units. Camden is also a joint venture partner in a number of sharemilking businesses and is part owner of a large contracting business.
John has a degree in Agricultural Science (1981) from Lincoln University.
He lives in Geraldine in South Canterbury with his wife Nicky and son Tomas.
Contact John on 027 439 7108
Brad Sutton
Brad lives in Darfield with his wife Greer and their three daughters. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Commerce (1993) from Lincoln University. He also holds a post graduate Diploma in Commerce (1993) from Colorado State University (USA).
Brad has been involved in farming his whole life as he grew up on a sheep, beef and deer farm. He has always had an interest in farm development, especially around dairy farm development, sparked in the early 1990s when his family developed a large scale property to irrigated dairying in North Canterbury.
On completion of his studies Brad embarked on his farm consultancy career in Mid Canterbury. A focus on dairy consultancy saw a move to work for Livestock Improvement as a Farm Wise consultant where he spent 5 years building a client base in Canterbury and on the West Coast.
Marriage, family and a shift to practical dairy farming followed with an opportunity to take on the lease of a dairy farm at Dunsandel where he got to put some of the theories and ideas from consulting into practice and build a small farming business. It was here that he met Donald and Jose and the Selwyn Rakaia Vets team who were the vets for their farming business during that time.
In the mid-2000s, Brad and his family travelled abroad to take up project management roles in Africa, developing both dairy, beef and irrigated forage cropping farm systems. This experience further developed his skills around project management, farming systems and people development and gave an insight into both farming and culture, living and working in a different part of the world.
A return to New Zealand in 2013 and dairy consultancy has provided the opportunity to work back alongside Donald and Jose and collaborate with John Donkers and DFMS to provide a comprehensive, well rounded and experienced consultancy team.
Contact Brad on 027 473 8017
Donald Arthur
Donald graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science in 1982. After a few years of working in dairy practice in the North Island he completed post graduate studies at Cornell University (USA) specialising in diagnostic pathology. In 1991 he became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists.
In 1998 he was a founding shareholder and director of Labworks, the first privately owned veterinary diagnostic laboratory in the South Island. In 2001 Labworks was sold to Gribbles Veterinary Pathology, an ASX listed company.
In 1996 Donald and Jose established Selwyn Rakaia Vet Services in Dunsandel which now employs about 20 staff servicing about 140 dairy farms in Canterbury.
Donald and Jose are also shareholders in Callura Dairies, a 2000 cow dairy farm near Culverden. Their recognition of the increasing complexity of dairy farming and the growing need for expertise in many areas has lead to an investment in DFMS.
Contact Donald on 027 431 8418
Kirsty Thomas (née Martin)
Kirsty graduated from Lincoln University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with honours in plant science.
She secured her first full time job on the West Coast working as a Farm Technician on a large Landcorp property which included 3 dairy units, dairy gazing and a dry stock farm with deer and cattle. It was here she was able to put the systems she had learnt at Lincoln into practice, working alongside the business manager in the office and on the farm.
However, Kirsty’s desire for learning called her back to Canterbury and she embarked on a PhD back at Lincoln in 2015. This was funded through the Forages to Reduce Nitrate Leaching Programme and looked at using alternative forages to lower nitrogen intake in animal diets as well as their dry matter responses to nitrogen. Promising results showed the use of plantain and annual grasses such as Italian ryegrass could be used as alternative forages to reduce nitrate leaching in farm systems.
With a new passion for the environment, Kirsty started full time work for DFMS in March 2018 with her goal being to help farmers farm within the environmental limits whilst maintaining production and profitability. With the use of modelling tools such as Overseer and Farmax, Kirsty can predict N losses in new farm systems which future proofs any new investments that may influence farm nutrient losses such and nitrogen and phosphorous. With these tools and sound farm systems knowledge, she hopes to provide advice and alternative solutions to farming within the rules set by the regional councils regarding the environment.
Kirsty loves to bake so in her spare time you may find her in the kitchen or in the cab of a tractor with her partner who is a contractor. Although not from a farm, she has always loved the outdoors and animals, which cemented her passion for farming and the agricultural industry.
Contact Kirsty on 027 465 2803
Jackie Codyre
Jackie brings her business and administration knowledge, combined with practical experience and common sense, to her role with Dairy Farm Management Services.
Jackie has spent most of her career working for ANZ in a variety of positions including Commercial Banking and Asset finance. She also spent 3 years as branch manager in Waimate. Jackie also previously worked for Craigmore Farms as the Office Manager.
Jackie’s interest include cricket, catching up with friends, renovating and of course watching the Canterbury Crusaders win! Jackie and her partner Martin and daughter Alexandria love camping and exploring the countryside.