One only needs to spend a few minutes in Storm Baynes-Ryan’s company to know she’s a woman of many passions. She’s also down to earth and easy to talk to, which goes a long way in her line of work.
The Gisborne-based farmer and physiotherapist runs a wellness service in her community and across the motu, a business that was born from the devastation that Cyclone Gabrielle wrought on her region in February 2023.
Baynes-Ryan grew up on a farm, but has been practising physiotherapy since 2002. After working full time for 15 years, she took a few years off to focus on her family. She eventually took up a job on a farm and enjoyed it so much that she decided to become a full-time farmer.
Two years ago, she and her helicopter-pilot husband, Anthony “Ginge” Ryan, decided to purchase their first farm, a 63 hectare sheep and beef and finishing operation in Te Karaka, but it hasn’t been an easy journey.
Less than a year in, their farm and community were lashed by cyclone damage, leaving their land and livestock in a less than desirable condition.
“It was really, really disheartening. We hadn’t even been on the farm a year. It was just starting to look like we could do it properly and start to make a go of it, so when Gabrielle hit it was really disheartening.”
Their predominantly hill country farm experienced extensive damage to their land and fences, impacting their ability to properly graze their livestock, which resulted in a 30% mortality rate during lambing.
“We weren’t able to feed them how we wanted and because of where we had to lamb them because the flats were sodden, [so] we had to lamb them on the hill and they weren’t strong enough. It was heartbreaking. And then we’d go out to feed, to fix fences and we’d look at the weather report and think ‘Why are we even bothering to do this? There is just no point,’” she said.
Despite receiving initial support to rebuild tracks and fences after the cyclone, heavy rain and flooding in June 2023 washed away all the repairs, leaving additional damage in its wake. All while the farm faced increasing interest rates on top of lost productivity.
“We stretched ourselves to buy it knowing that the interest rate would never go above 7% – and we are far, far, far above that now,” she said.
“We still haven’t fixed some fences. The tracks were fixed immediately afterwards. We had someone come and donate his time. He did about 10, which was between 80 and 100 hours on his digger as a volunteer job and he fixed all our tracks. Three weeks later there was the June rain event and all of that work he did got washed away … now we can’t find the money to pay for these tracks to be repaired.”
Juggling rebuilding their farming operation, her children’s extramural activities and working two days in town and two in Te Keraka, the mum of four also runs an online and face-to-face physiotherapy business, providing a much-needed service to her local and wider farming community.
She provides personalised consultations that focuses on common farm-related ailments, such as aches, sprains and the odd on-farm injury.
“Our social life is very much associated with kids playing sport. So we are part of the Surf Life Saving Club. The kids play netball, rugby, gymnastics and shooting. So that’s where all our spare time goes, getting them into sport. Yeah, so we don’t get much social life.”
She also runs a successful Instagram page, That Farming Physio, where her 1300-plus followers receive regular tips and exercise routines to help them stay farm-fit.
“Originally it was just to document what I was doing. I was farming up north and it was just beautiful and I loved it. And I thought, let’s just share this. And then when I moved away, I had two really good friends and I thought, I’m just going to show them. I’m just videoing. I’m just putting up Instagram for my two best friends who I miss so much, to show them what I’m doing because I’m not going to be in touch with them every day,” she said.
“And then I thought, what if I could provide a service to people who find it hard to get health care?”
Baynes-Ryan wanted to make something really specific just for farmers to “help some people who I feel are marginalised, who are important to the country and who I want to be empowered”.
“I haven’t grown virally and I don’t want to specifically because I want the people on my farming physio page to be the people who want to be there. I don’t want them there because of one video I’ve done. I want them to be there because they know that they’re going to get some straight-talking physio advice focused on farmers, rural people, remote folk.”
She said a lot of what she does is to support communities that would otherwise not have immediate access to these services or have to travel great distances to see a specialist. She also works closely with other medical practitioners, to ensure that her clients will receive the necessary support and care if they need to be referred.
“When I see my clients online we do Zooms, and sometimes the camera’s moving all over the place and we’re giggling and I’m trying to see their feet and I’m kind of pointing and they can’t see me. It’s hilarious and it doesn’t have to be serious. You can still do a great job and have a sense of humour,” she said.
One of the most common ailments she deals with is lower back strain and pain. Many of these things can be mitigated through simple lifestyle changes, she said.
“I see people with grumpy backs and hips. So on most joints, to be fair, necks, shoulders, backs, hips, knees and ankles, they are the big ones. And then other little things like people with wrist injuries. If they’ve got hand and wrist injuries, I’ll probably send them to a hand therapist because they’ve got postgraduate training specifically on the hand and wrist,” she said.
“I can charge ACC and create ACC claims, but I can’t do medical certificates. I can also send off referrals for X-rays, ultrasounds and to specialists.
Baynes-Ryan said oftentimes on-farm injuries like back pain occur because “we’re not moving well and we get into movement patterns where the back is loaded more than it should be”.
One service she offers to ease this common issue is a no-cost Manage Your Grumpy Back mini programme, designed to prevent injury and support recovery.
She also has a weekly newsletter that provides wellness tips and exercise routines to decrease the risk of injury or to aid recovery and will be launching a website soon.
Many of her clients are women, she said. “I’m not sure if it’s because they’re more in tune with their bodies or more inclined to seek assistance when required, but there’s definitely a trend that leans more to women seeking wellbeing support.”
She said it’s equally important for men to get the necessary care as the long-term benefits far outweigh any inconvenience in making the time.
She said a well-balanced life can easily be achieved by simply being average, and by this she means doing even just the bare minimum to ensure that you’re not only fit on farm but long after retiring as well.
“Whether it’s making healthy meal choices, like incorporating more protein into your diet, doing stretches, doing strength training, or simply reaching your daily step target, all of these things goes a long way in ensuring wellbeing and longevity,” she said.
“My ultimate inspiration is that farmers get to retire from their jobs, not because they can’t get on their horse anymore or can’t get on the bike anymore or can’t walk around the hill anymore because they are so stiff, sore, weak or whatever – that they retire because they want to and are capable of getting out.”
You can check out Baynes-Ryan’s Instagram page here.
More: The Farmers Weekly Rural Living series highlights the rich diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand’s rural communities, farming families and contributions to the food and fibre sector.
