By Forsyth Thompson
George and Hannah King moved to New Zealand to follow their dream of pasture based dairy farming and farm ownership. If they were going to succeed, they’d need to earn it step by step. And that’s exactly what they’re doing.
George and Hannah King are two farmers on top of their game — and, after opening their books to the NZ Dairy Awards judges, they can prove it.
After emigrating in 2023 from the UK, with two farms to run in the Bay of Plenty (one as sharemilkers, one as contract milkers), rearing their own youngstock, plus Hannah’s full-time day job as a rural valuer, there’s not a lot of wiggle room to get things wrong. That’s where the couple’s financial discipline comes in, and the tools that give them the visibility they need to stay on target.
Hannah recently sat down with us for a quick interview to talk about their future plans, dream of farm ownership, why they entered the Dairy Awards, and the financial discipline that’s helping her and George achieve their goals.
Inside this article:
- The Pathway to Farm Ownership
- How Knowing the Numbers Has Helped
- Managing the Financial Side
- Getting Support
- Figured for Their Accountant
- What's Next
The Pathway to Farm Ownership
Coming from the UK originally, Hannah and George arrived in New Zealand to pursue their dreams of owning their own farm.
“Looking at the pathway, opportunities, and industry support over here, it just is possible to do whatever you put your mind to,” Hannah said. “There’s more hurdles in the UK.”
With a focus on visibility and a willingness to learn from others, they’ve found a lot of success so far. Building something from scratch isn’t easy, but their emphasis on knowing the numbers and mitigating risks has been a big part of what’s helped them grow so far.
“We have always been like this,” she said. “But I suppose coming out of our comfort zone, moving to another country, has made us double down on everything. On needing to know our numbers, needing to know our cashflow, and what we can and can’t do.”
“We don’t have an easy backup — it is just us here.”
Learn more: Handling Geopolitical Risks as a New Zealand Dairy Team
Opening Up to the Judges
It’s this attitude which shaped the couple's approach to the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards 2026, where she and George won the runner-up prize and collected three merit awards (George has also previously won Bay of Plenty Dairy Manager of the Year, in 2024).
When you’re doing something new, and looking to grow, as Hannah puts it, you “can’t afford to make mistakes” which might slow you down. Opening their books to the Dairy Awards judges was an opportunity for Hannah and George to test their operation, to stand out from the crowd, earn credibility, and meet other operators who could help them advance their business here in New Zealand.
How Knowing the Numbers Has Helped
Disciplined financial management and a clear vision for growth were both cited by the judges as reasons why the couple earned their merits, and it’s these traits which are central to their business as farmers.
Dairy can be a volatile market, with the milk price moving sometimes unpredictably over the course of a season. From a cashflow perspective, the mix of highs and lows can make it difficult to maintain consistency. For two Bay of Plenty farmers trying to build themselves up, this presents a risk — which is why they analyse their options and make decisions to mitigate risks (such as rearing surplus youngstock in preparation for their next step) so they can try to average a lower purchase price on livestock.
We knew how important cashflow and budgeting was, and to have something that was taking a lot of the manual entry away was worth the money to us.
“We took advice from Louise Gibson at the Sharefarming Consultants in the beginning, did our budgets, and made sure we understood our agreements from the outset,” Hannah said.
“The operations we’re running at the moment complement each other. We have learnt a lot and have the actuals now so we can then apply that to budgets for future jobs or farm ownership. With the help of Figured we can use our actual information to be more accurate."
So How Are They Managing the Financial Side?
Visibility is key to viability, which is why, when it was mentioned at their first NZDIA, Figured took the couple's interest.
Hannah and George had just met that year’s Sharemilkers of the Year, who were looking to grow into a larger sharemilking job, then into farm ownership. They explained how they “wouldn’t be without the data”, which was giving them:
- The ability to run scenarios.
- Live cashflow that links to Xero.
- A platform to generate variance reports.
- A way to collaborate with banks and accountants.
“It’s a tool that’s updating actuals against forecasts for you, rather than having to manually enter it into spreadsheets,” Hannah explained. “You can log on and it’s tracking your Xero, so you save a lot of time and be more accurate.”
“They told us this is the product that people are using and how much they valued it, and we didn’t look back. We knew how important cashflow and budgeting was, and to have something that was taking a lot of the manual entry away, so we could spend less time fixing formulas in spreadsheets and more time planning our future, was worth the money to us.”
“I know we can do more with it, but the parts I’ve used it for and the questions that I’ve asked the team to help with have been good.”
Learn more: How Figured Helps Farmers Generate Reports in Minutes
Getting Support to Help
Switching to any new financial management tool can be complex, but Figured isn’t a platform Hannah has had to use on her own. Having a support team based here in New Zealand has meant that whenever she’d had a question, there’s been an answer.
“The help you get from Figured very quickly is exceptional, really,” she said.
And it Works for Their Accountant, Too
With the Multi-Farm option on Figured, her accountant can easily see what’s been happening in their books.
Figured is a platform built for the full farm team, with each member getting the access they need based on their role. For two sharemilkers, it means that when they are tracking livestock live throughout the year, they can provide their end-of-year stock numbers a lot quicker and more accurately — because it’s all in one place.
“Our accountants find it saves them time reconciling livestock at the end of the year – that’s great for us.”
Learn more: Figured for Accountants
What’s Next
The immediate target? Looking at options and running scenarios. Figured will play a serious role in that, helping Hannah forecast her numbers as part of her due diligence on whatever comes next.
As for what's next, George and Hannah's outlook on New Zealand dairy is positive.
“It’s really exciting to be supplying milk from grass, producing products that the world is demanding with the support of the country,” she said.
Looking for insights into solving farm planning challenges in NZ dairy? Download the free Dairy Insights Brief here.
Or, read another farmer story: How One Dairy Farmer Ensures His Hard Work Matters Each Day
