“But what was really under threat was our licence to operate.

“Those words [environmentally sustainable] were not on the radar at that time –dirty dairying was not a nice way to talk about it, but they were not far wrong.”

Despite being diagnosed in 2015 with Parkinson’s Disease, a degenerative disorder which impacts the central nervous system, he served as the inaugural chairperson of the Dairy Environment Leaders Forum between 2009 and 2016, a Dairy New Zealand initiative bringing together farmers recognised for their sustainable efforts, to share perspectives with the government and organisations.

He has championed environmental sustainability on farms, and was one of the first dairy farmers to take up a national leadership role in sustainability.

He established the Little Waipā Streamcare group, which was one of the first local waterway groups discussing the management of water quality and in 2014, he was appointed to the Farm Management Committee of OWL Farm, becoming chairperson in 2017.

OWL is a joint venture between St Peter’s School and Lincoln University, turning the school dairy farm into a demonstration farm. During his time with OWL Farm, a wetland was built to measure the amount of nitrogen being absorbed into the wetland – achieving a 24% reduction in nitrogen loss, reduced greenhouse gas loss by 16%, all while improving profits.

Bennett said he had experienced a lot of pushback from some in the industry and had at times been taken aside by company directors who were not ready for change.

“It was especially hard work talking about water quality – and very hard work getting any funding or even getting people to speak at conferences.

“But it’s about persevering and the key thing was that we were building a network of farmers around New Zealand who had the understanding and foresight to work with these concepts as a group.

“Now we are going great guns – it’s really working, and it’s making a difference.”

Bennett said the dairy industry still had a lot of work to do and that the tough regulations were yet to arrive.

He said he saw his honour as an acknowledgement for all the hard work thousands of farmers had put in to improve life on the land.

“We have an industry that is a far better operation than it used to be … there’s some pretty good people out there, and to be singled out as one of them is very nice, and I’m very grateful for that.

“I’m immensely proud of what we have done as a group and the future looks very bright.”

Bennett also founded the Parkinson’s Waikato Tinman Club in 2017, and has completed three Tinman Triathlons, raising $30,000 for Parkinson’s New Zealand, for which he received the Get Going for Parkinson’s Award in 2020.