Looking out the window from her office in her Norsewood home, Charlotte Heald has the perfect view of the heifers springing up and not far off calving. The farm is coming to life with colour again in the first days of spring, it’s picture-perfect. But not by accident, by spiralling up.

“It’s a real honour to be a farmer, but especially at this time of year. I feel so grateful to be sat here, looking out at all this. A past version of myself would be so happy to see me here,” she says.

Charlotte and her husband Russell run an award-winning 170 hectare, organic-certified, regenerative dairy farm in Norsewood. Charlotte, originally from a sheep and beef background, got into dairying when she met Russell and the rest, as they say, is history – but there have been plenty of bumps in the road since.

“I think back to those early days, Russell was working such long hours, we were raising a family and were under a lot of pressure, we probably both got burnt out. It was a low-payout year and we just felt like we were so far in it that we couldn’t get out; we had to find a way to farm our way out of it.

“I got unwell and got my rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis and that’s when we realised something needed to change.”

They adopted once-a-day milking and started using some aspects of biological farming, which saw the beginning of their regenerative and organic farming story.

“We were learning so much about the linkages between what you do on the farm, human health and the impact the way you farm has on all the systems. We started with some small changes, saw some positive results, and thought, ‘Ah, we’re onto something.’ I call it spiralling up.”

Her health journey with rheumatoid arthritis and background in rural nursing provided the foundation of her health coaching business but an underlying desire to help people has been the key to its growth and success over the last six years.

With a mix of one-on-one sessions and group sessions both in person and online, one of the key areas of focus in what Heald offers is in self-care, wellbeing and connection.

“One of my real passions is getting women to put themselves first. We don’t do it nearly as much as we should and it has a really profound impact on our lives. Russell actually had to encourage me to do this this year! I wasn’t going to play hockey this year so I could focus on the kid’s sports, but he said ‘If not now, then when?’”

Time and time again she was hearing from clients and her community that despite women being busy in their lives, they were lacking the deep, trusting conversations with people that make navigating life that bit easier. So she began running a local “women’s circle”.

“Mostly it’s a lot of being open to listening, sharing and letting those that need to talk, talk. If a person finds a resolve in speaking then it’s a good result, and that’s what makes it powerful. It’s such a special time, a lot of laughs, and a few tears – it’s something women really want and need.”

Over the past few years, the Healds have started opening up their farm for open days, hosting events like yoga in the sunflowers, picnics and more. It’s been an opportunity for them to share their story and show others what they’re doing and the impact that’s having.

“Sometimes, you just need to come and see things being done to get an appreciation for it. Come and see the cows grazing in our diverse pastures, see how we manage things, feel the soil.”

While the farm and the business are passions for the Healds, everything centres on family. With three children, Isabelle, Henry and William, life can get busy with homeschooling and the whole family being into sports and a number of other activities during the year. 

“I’ve stepped back in terms of where my commitments are. I have a full life and I choose to do a lot of things but sometimes if you’re ‘busy’ all the time, you’re not actually being productive. By slowing down and not filling all the gaps in my schedule, I’m more productive.”

Heald stresses the importance of their community in being able to manage it all, too. With connections made through farming, homeschooling, health coaching and sports, she said they’re lucky to have such a good support system to lean on when needed and give back to when they can.

Sitting at her desk and watching the heifers graze, Heald reflects on their journey and can clearly see the web of connections of the changes they’ve made to their lives and farm and the benefits it has had to her health and wellness.

“At a certain point in my life, I couldn’t see any possibility of healing myself. But more recently I’ve been reflecting and have got to a place where I have been able to acknowledge with a lot of gratitude that I have achieved a lot of healing in my body from where I was five years ago, to the point where I consider myself ‘healed’. It’s been a lot of work to get there, and I respect my body so much more now. 

“I look at my health journey and how it has been neatly woven into the changes we’ve made on farm and smile because it makes sense, everything begins with soil health.”

More: The Farmers Weekly Rural Living series highlights the rich diversity and people of Aotearoa New Zealand’s rural communities, farming families and contributions to the food and fibre sector.

Two years of the most comprehensive programme yet on the effects of regenerative pastoral practices in New Zealand has yielded some mixed results.

Whenua Haumanu is a partnership between Massey University and the Ministry for Primary Industries through the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund. The seven-year research project brings together universities, Crown Research Institutes and industry partners to assess the suitability and relevance of regenerative agriculture in New Zealand. The project is also linked with research in Australia, Ireland and South America.

The current scope of the research is large, with the intent for it to be industry led to help narrow the focus and address some of the key questions from farmers.

“We won’t be able to answer everything but the idea is to have robust engagement throughout the project to guide where it should be heading. It’s got to be driven by farmers, who are the people who are going to put all this into practice,” said programme and research lead Professor Danny Donaghy.

The most surprising result so far is the halving of nitrous oxide emissions on the diverse pastures compared to the standard pastures, irrespective of management. The measurements will be done again this year across more areas and Donaghy said they’re not exactly sure what to expect.

“This is probably because you’ve got a difference in root activity, you’ve got a difference in growth, and possibly more efficient use of nitrogen, so there is less available to be lost as gas. We are keen to see what this year’s results tell us,” he said.

This will remain a key area of focus to get a clearer picture of what regenerative practices mean for greenhouse gas emissions.

Donaghy said that scientists agree that many of the pastoral topsoils in New Zealand are saturated with carbon. Regenerative agriculture aims to build soil carbon, so the question now is, how much further can we go? And what, if any, benefit will it provide?

“The standard test depth for soil carbon is 30cm, so if we can routinely have, through species selection in pasture or through management, roots down below 30cm (which we can do), then is that going to build soil carbon below that point? That’s one of the things we are investigating at the moment.”

“Ecology 101 tells us that no matter the community – forest, grass, native or otherwise – after a year or so, about a handful of things are dominating. We found this on both the dairy and sheep farms. Eighteen different species were initially planted on the dairy pasture and 19 on the sheep pasture.

“We’re down to about eight to 10 of those species with about four of them dominating at any one time. On the dairy pasture, I took the five things that were most dominant and just sowed them and started the conversation with farmers around this idea of functional diversity.

“Instead of thinking of diversity in terms of the number of different plants that you can sow, start with thinking about what the function is you’re trying to achieve. For us, we were thinking of summer dry as an issue, we have stony soil next to the river, but we don’t want to sow exclusively summer-active species because then we can create a winter feed gap.”

Legumes were a must in the mix to reduce nitrogen fertiliser input, and plantain was included for its role in mitigating nitrogen losses. The species that dominated under a range of different managements trialled were ryegrass and white clover, cocksfoot and red clover, and plantain. Not surprising, when looking at the amount of breeding and selection that has gone into those varieties over the years.

“No one mix is going to solve everything on every farm, and it might not even be the pasture mix that’s the problem, it could be the management or something else holding the system back. The literature said that regarding yield, no matter how many things you put in, the yield benefits saturate at about four to eight different things in a pasture. Animal production benefits saturate at about three to four different things. This makes sense because plants that fill similar niches are all fighting for the same space.”

Much of the conversations the research team are having with farmers around functional diversity are about getting across the understanding that each different type of plant needs to be in high enough numbers to play the role it’s intended for and that the management needs to be right to avoid it being a costly exercise.

Day Zero measurements of soil bacteria and fungi were taken for DNA analysis on all farms involved in the research. Over 1400 different types of bacteria were found on the Massey dairy farm, a huge amount of diversity to start with. In comparison, the sheep pasture yielded only several hundred. This difference in number is linked to the dairy pasture being more free-draining than the sheep pasture, which is predominantly silt loam with a hard pan at around 70cm depth, and is anaerobic for periods of the year.

“This brings into focus the importance of knowing your baseline. If you’re a farmer or a policy-maker saying you want to measure several things to determine if your soils are in good health, then you really need to understand what the background levels are first.”

The likelihood of those numbers changing dramatically is unknown, as is the question of whether it’s a good or bad thing to have so many types of bacteria, as many of the species are yet to be classified.

Looking below the surface at soil health, one of the measures used is hot water extractable carbon, which is a measure of soil microbial biomass. This was higher in the diverse pastures than in standard pastures on the dairy farm.

“The regenerative treatments we’re using are giving the pasture a longer rest period, so longer rotations, and also aiming to leave more pasture behind after grazing, backing off nitrogen fertiliser and adding in other things like fish product to the soil, as it’s believed to stimulate soil microbial activity, especially fungi.

“There was also a trend for more earthworms in Year 1 under the diverse pasture with regenerative management, but the opposite happened in Year 2. This highlights the need for multiple years of data collection.”

Donaghy said that there is a bit of a question mark around the soil microbial aspect of the research, with not a lot being done currently in that area. A lot of what has been observed around soil microbial communities has been in forest communities rather than grasslands.

“You’ve got these diagrams comparing native forests with pastures, and the native forest soil is very dominant in fungi, whereas the pasture soils are dominant in bacteria, so many regenerative farmers are trying to get their pastures to be more fungally dominant, but what if pastures are naturally just bacterially dominant and all of their effort is going into changing something that might not be easily changed, or if it is changed, doesn’t have the impact that they want? We will be focusing on this and other questions in the coming year”

To date, pasture quality hasn’t shown much difference between treatments, but they expect those figures may change in line with the change of dominant species in the pasture. In the first year and a half of the project, legumes and herbs were abundant, but the team are expecting a shift towards pastures being grass-dominant, and with that will come changes in quality and potentially production.

“We are seeing some differences in the quality of the animal product, so the meat and the milk. We’ve got a student looking at amino acid profiles, and as you’d imagine, if you vary the diet, you can vary the amino acids. It’s early days for this piece of the project though.

“We’ve also seen higher lamb growth on diverse pastures, which is in line with expectations from a higher legume and herb volume in the pasture.”

A narrowing down of the measurements and focus points of the research is in store for the next few years of the project as the team figures out what farmers want to know more about and where the research can add the most value.

Exploring functional diversity more is on the list for the team, along with refining some of the measurements, especially around determining fungal and bacterial communities. The DNA measurements are progressing to targeted RNA measurements to target different groups of desirables.

“There are free-living soil bacteria that can fix nitrogen, so it would be cool if we could increase those because they would give you free background nitrogen that would save you having to buy it and apply it.”

Certain types of fungi are known to have positive relationships with plants that allow the roots to explore greater volumes of soil and to look for water and nutrients. This could potentially mean greater drought tolerance among other benefits and will be investigated further.

Animal welfare is another area that will be explored further, as well as the use of boluses to measure temperature, water intake and pH, and collars to track movements and rumination.

“We’re trying to get a handle on what’s going on below the ground, above the ground and what’s happening with the animals. The beauty of this sort of project is that we’re getting feedback and ideas from farmers. This robust engagement is what will make whatever comes out at the end of this project have a real practical value and not just be another book at the bottom of the pile.”

More: This article was made possible by Our Land & Water.

Grace Pettit has been a lover of the land for most of her life. She spent her early years in Auckland, but eventually moved to the King Country, where the farming bug really started to bite.

“I just went from being a little town girl that went to ballet every week, to being the farm gal and going out on the farm with my dad and riding my pony. It was my first taste of the industry I guess. And I’m still a farm girl who likes to go out riding my pony.”

After high school, she set her sights on going to Massey University to complete a Bachelor of Agricultural Science. Having not so much as attended the open day, Pettit applied, was accepted, and shifted her whole life down to Manawatū.

“I’d been sold the dream I guess. Study, get into a graduate programme then your career is set up for you. It works for some people, I just wasn’t one of those people.”

Two years into her study things were ticking along nicely. Pettit had got herself a series of part-time jobs, including a retail job at EziBuy and at social media management company Grass Roots Media. She was heavily involved with Young Farmers and was beginning to think about life post-university.

Unfortunately, her father was involved in a traffic accident that sent things spiralling. The accident served as a catalyst for a period in which Pettit struggled with her mental health. With life feeling a little bit in free-fall, and knowing something needed to change, she decided to take a break from study.

“I needed to take a break, there was no way around it. I started working at a horse stud out in Feilding. It was one of the best things I could have done. Working outside, in the fresh air, working with horses. I worked for a lovely family and learnt heaps and it helped a lot with getting myself back on track. I met my now-partner Struan [Currie] during this time too, so added bonus!”

And back on track she got. Pettit completed her degree in 2019 and went on to achieve “the dream” by landing a part-time job at PGG Wrightson before being offered a role as a technical field consultant at Outgro Fertiliser.

However, she realised that perhaps the dream wasn’t quite for her.

“I ended up with the job I thought I wanted or that I should have. I did it for a while but then I was able to see the bigger picture of the fertiliser industry and the sales industry and concluded it just wasn’t for me. I was really invested in getting the best outcomes for farmers and offering great service but turns out that doesn’t always align with chasing sales.”

Outside of working in retail, she was also a swim coach, did a stint as an intern for Young Country magazine, and got involved with local A&P show committees and other industry committees like Future Beef NZ. Her willingness to give things a go and generally get “stuck in” is something that’s played a key role in getting her where she is today.

“All of those things I’ve learnt things from. One of the best bosses I ever had was in retail, so you pick up bits and pieces to take with you into other roles and times in your life.”

Needing to make some changes on the work front she kept coming back to what had only ever been a sideline interest, but something she found immense joy in – writing and storytelling.

“The human connection is really important to me and that’s sort of what writing is for me. I’m one of those people who needs to remind myself that I was given two ears and one mouth for a reason. Writing also feels like a logical flow-on for someone who likes to talk a lot but turning that into something meaningful and impactful.”

She landed a job as the brand developer and content creator for Betacraft, in charge of executing its social media, copywriting and co-ordinating photoshoots. She also acts as a farming subject matter expert for the wider team and gets to flex her creative muscles while staying connected to the farming industry.

“I’m still not sure where I want to go with it all. For now, I’m really happy doing what I’m doing, I get to be creative, I get to write some stuff and I get to be involved in the farm too. I’m pretty lucky.”

In between all of the study, jobs, internships and everything else, Pettit and Currie got the opportunity to run his family’s farm, Four Creeks Farm in Kumeroa, a 660 hectare sheep and beef breeding and trading operation. The farm manager at the time didn’t work out so the opportunity came for them to take over the running of the farm in 2017.

“It wasn’t what we were initially going to do, especially at that age, we were in our early twenties. But we took it on and have been here ever since. Struan is essentially a one-man band but he is well supported by great contractors and professionals as well as getting help from me and his dad. I love it out there, it’s a beautiful piece of country.”

Reflecting on some of their biggest challenges, Pettit recalls the 2020 drought and ANZCO plant closures due to covid that nearly crippled many farms in the region, theirs included. With a large number of fat lambs ready to go but nowhere to send them and no feed to keep them, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“We had pressure from the bank, we had pressure from everywhere it felt, and we felt completely stranded. We were young and didn’t really know how to ask for help or were able to recognise that we actually needed help. We’ve always been on the same page for most things and really leant on each other during that time. It was rough.”

Spurred on by a shared vision, good communication, and some good support from stock agents and land-used advisers, the couple made it out the other side of that set of challenges with some fresh perspective and learnings.

“One of the things I came to realise quite quickly was some of the ugly cycles that go on, from banks granting unsustainable loans, to blanket advice given by organisations. Sometimes it feels like you need a bullshit sieve to sort through it all, but it taught me to not be afraid to question things, not everything should be taken at face value.”

Asked how she’s kept sane during a time that’s had more than its fair share of ups and downs, Pettit says her off-farm interests and community involvement have been important in keeping perspective and working through things.

“Being involved in a community, especially when you are farming, which can feel quite isolating, is really important. It’s a way to find support, resources, and opportunity. You know, you go to a local meeting and catch up with people and swap stories and you realise that other people are facing similar struggles and you get advice from them. It’s what helps prop you up when things get tough.”

More: The Farmers Weekly Rural Living series highlights the rich diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand’s rural communities, farming families and their contributions to the food and fibre sector.

Can New Zealand farms be profitable and have lower greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient losses?
New research used a “learning from farmers” approach to begin to provide answers to this question.

Sarah Hawkins, agribusiness consultant for BakerAg NZ and research lead, said that reducing absolute emissions doesn’t need to compromise profitability.

The team compared the performance of pairs of farms from four regions – Waikato, Manawatū, Canterbury and Southland – in the study funded by the Our Land and Water Rural Professionals Fund.

The research set out to uncover measurable differences in emissions (nitrogen, phosphorus and greenhouse gases, or GHG) among similar farms by examining what successful farmers were already doing.

Key learnings from the case study farms highlighted that there is a sweet spot for each farm, balancing environmental and financial outcomes. This may not be the farming system that achieves the most production per cow or per hectare.

Farms with lower total GHG emissions are not always the farms with the best emissions intensity. Whether emissions intensity or absolute reductions will be more relevant is yet to be defined – with regulation driving an absolute emissions measure and markets driving an emissions intensity measure.

Reducing GHG emissions was also found to not necessarily result in changes to nitrogen or phosphorus losses to water. Those nutrient losses are influenced in large part by the underlying physical characteristics of the farm and farm management.

Hawkins said that New Zealand farmers will have no choice but to reduce their environmental footprint and she believes they are not yet fully prepared for what is to come, which leaves many feeling overwhelmed by the pressure and task ahead.

The 2019 Climate Change Response Act commits New Zealand farmers to a substantial 24-47% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050 relative to 2017 levels. Financial institutions and international companies such as Danone and Nestlé are also making commitments to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Some farms already achieving low GHG emissions while remaining profitable are employing methods that have not been thoroughly investigated, leaving many farmers without the necessary knowledge about how to improve their existing farm systems.

The research highlights three key levers that can be pulled to help reduce emissions and nutrient losses and that are reflected in the approved models:

• Reducing nitrogen fertiliser and reducing imported supplements. 

•Improving feed conversion efficiency through management and livestock performance. 

• Reducing feed and livestock wastage on farm.

The research raises additional questions that will be important in refining the goalposts for farmers and the relevant tools at their disposal, from a suitable GHG accounting system that is fair and equitable, through to what the measure for GHG accounting will be.

“Do farmers need to account for all support land, young stock and winter, or just the milking platform? What will be the measure for greenhouse gas accounting – emissions/ha or emission/kg of product? The two measures have different drivers and will result in different outcomes for farmers and processors,” said Hawkins.

It was noted that the optimal farm system will likely change over time as environmental requirements change.

“This research is just the start. It helps highlight on real farms that there are small changes that most farmers can make on their farms, which will make a real tangible difference.”

With the postponement of  government regulation, Hawkins said she recommends farmers take a proactive approach to understanding their own farm system, and understand what levers might make a difference on your farm.

“There are now six years that are available to make positive changes – while protecting the bottom line,” said Hawkins.

More: This article was made possible by Our Land and Water.

In Focus Podcast |  NZ food system in disarray

Calls for a national food strategy are growing as the cost of living crisis leaves many unable to afford nutritious food here, despite living in a food producing powerhouse.

Lincoln University’s Professor Alan Renwick says it will take a holistic approach as there are many aspects to consider – health, social development, commerce and agriculture. He says the changing climate will force us to rethink how we produce food and where.

A cap on nitrogen fertiliser application of 190kg/ha/year has reduced nitrogen leaching on South Island dairy farms, according to a new study.

The study, funded by the Our Land and Water Rural Professionals Fund, analysed 12 irrigated Canterbury farms and three Southland dairy farms, comparing their OverseerFM files from 2020 and 2023. Farmers were also interviewed about how they had managed the changes.

The project follows on from research done by agricultural economist Phil Journeaux when the 190kg restriction was first announced; the Ministry for the Environment’s synthetic nitrogen fertiliser cap took effect in July 2021.

Journeaux, who worked alongside Charlotte Glass and Chris Beatson of Agri Magic, said: “We found all the farmers had reduced their nitrogen fertiliser applications below the 190kg level, some of them substantially. 

“But virtually all of them had increased the amount of nitrogen going into the farm via supplementary feed or increased cropping. The amount of nitrogen being fixed by clover had also increased. So while the total amount of nitrogen in the system reduced, it was not as much as the reduction in fertiliser nitrogen.”

This nonetheless led to a substantial reduction in the amount of nitrogen being leached from pastures. Journeaux noted that the reduction in nitrate leaching was greater than anticipated, tied to how much farmers reduced their nitrogen fertiliser.

The researchers suggested the higher-than-expected reductions were due to a combination of farmers coming to grips with the new regulatory regime and looking to fine-tune their systems, as well as coping with climatic conditions.

“Farmers need to think through the implications of nitrogen fertiliser. It is an important input on farms, but you have to use it very efficiently to get the best in monetary terms and have the least impact environmentally. Swapping nitrogen fertiliser for supplements also increased costs, as nitrogen fertiliser is often the cheapest form of supplementary feed.

“If they’re putting on excessive amounts and going from 300kg to 190kg, there’s probably no implications for their system other than saving a heap of money.”

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The impact on greenhouse gas emissions was somewhat mixed. Canterbury data showed methane emissions increased by 3% due to higher supplementary feed intake but dropped 2% for the Southland farms. Nitrous oxide emissions were down in both regions and total biological emissions remained static for Canterbury but dropped by 6% in Southland.

Some farmers interviewed were concerned that if the restriction was tightened further, it would directly affect the profitability of their business.

Journeaux believes that reducing nitrogen in dairy farm systems is more complicated than simply limiting the application of nitrogen fertiliser.

“Given the 190kg/ha limit, farmers need to be much more precise around the amount and timing of nitrogen fertiliser application. How this pans out in the future remains to be seen.”

More: This article was made possible by Our Land and Water.

Seventeen-year-old Elisa Harley has had a whirlwind of a year. Television interviews, speaking engagements at events like E-Tipu BOMA, numerous meetings with lawyers, scientists, business mentors – the list goes on. 

But in a recent interview her mind was also on the term ahead, NCEA exams, all seemingly normal things on a high schooler’s to-do list. She said she had a few grant applications she needed to get done and needed to prepare for a meeting with a scientist and lawyer later in the week – perhaps not so normal for a high schooler.

Harley is the founder and brain behind Enivo Pots, a solution she’s developing to solve the problem of the 350 million plastic plant trays and pots used every year in New Zealand. 

Inspired by the opportunity to take part in the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme, Harley got thinking about what problems she saw that she could solve. An existing love of our native flora and fauna and a small business selling native plants connected her with local nurseries and she very quickly saw the problem she wanted to take on.

“I thought if I could find a biodegradable solution to plastic pots that might be worth looking into,” she said.

With support from the Young Enterprise scheme, AGMARDT funding and Scion, Harley got to work developing a prototype that uses waste from primary industry, primarily forestry, to make biodegradable pots. The pots, which last six months above ground and degrade within a year in the ground, are currently being tested in large-scale nurseries.

“The pressure of being in this entrepreneurial space has definitely been overwhelming at times. It went very quickly from an idea for the Young Enterprise scheme to something that’s starting to get legs of its own.”

The most challenging part for Harley was entering an industry with no experience commercialising a business. She has since had many opportunities to go out and understand the industry, and learn the ins and outs of building a business, and she feels more supported in this space.

“It’s a privilege to be learning what I am at my age. I can try things, make mistakes and learn from them for the future. I’m not making Enivo Pots for the success or profits, I’m aware it might not be [a money spinner], but the learnings I get from this will stay with me for life.”

She recounts the story of getting up early the morning after her school ball to send emails and look over business paperwork.

“I think anyone would have the odd moment of feeling like they are missing out on being a ‘normal’ high schooler. A lot of what that entails isn’t me anyway though. I still get to hang out with my friends and do all the things I want to do. My friends keep me grounded and ultimately, I’m still me. They allow me the space to not be in the business mindset 24/7.”

Harley knows all too well the ramifications of being in the business too much. Between her Enivo Pots, school and generally being a teenager, she placed a lot of pressure on herself to excel across the board in those early days and quickly found herself dealing with burnout.

“Navigating that was hard, getting my ‘circle’ around me was really crucial to coming through that. I was working so many hours trying to do it all myself. I really had to reprioritise what was important to me. I think burnout is something a lot of teens struggle with.”

Harley was overwhelmed by the willingness of people to help. 

“I found that if you ask for help or even for a coffee to ask advice or something, no one has ever said no. People are always willing to help.”

Building a reliable and trustworthy team around her has been the key to kicking the business from an idea into reality. From her mentor through the Young Enterprise scheme she got connected with a co-founder of Sharesies, who is now her business mentor for the ‘big picture stuff’. 

“I also have a personal mentor who helps look after me. She’s a young adult at my church who I really connected with, she helps me become the best version of me. Not the entrepreneur Elisa, but the Elisa who has a whole life and a different set of passions outside of business. 

“My parents are involved with the legal side of things, school doesn’t yet teach us how to understand 25-page NDAs! Most importantly, my parents make sure I don’t over-commit at the sacrifice of my school work or wellbeing.”

Harley has been overrun with offers of help, grants and other support from people, but said the difficulty is not saying yes to everything, and learning to identify what opportunities are worthwhile. After all, this isn’t her full-time job.

Harley is driven in everything she does, she’s a firm believer in rejection being redirection and pushing herself to do the hard things in life, like taking a cold shower or a cold swim every morning. It started as something she did while on Spirit of Adventure but became a challenge she adopted at home, too.

“Before my day has even started I’ve done something hard and overcome it. The rest of the day, if something hard comes up, I know I can tackle it. It helps my mindset a lot.”

While her focus right now is on taking every opportunity that comes her way, Enivo Pots is not what she plans to spend the rest of her life doing. She is keeping her options open and on the lookout for other opportunities, like study, to continue developing herself and give her options in years to come. 

“I want to live a purpose-driven life that pushes the boundaries and inspires other young girls to create a better future for the planet, themselves and the generations to come.”

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.

This article first appeared in our sister publication, Dairy Farmer.

Farmer and grower Keryn Luke jokes that as a practical-minded person, she doesn’t see much sense in flowers – but there’s something she loves about them, and she’s been able to turn that love into a growing little business. Riverbend Flora is a small-scale flower farm producing a range of unique flowers purposely grown for cutting.

“Flowers bring so much happiness,” Luke says.

“I feel much more connected to and appreciative of the land since starting this business. I think it’s something I get from my grandmother, who also had a love for the land and growing.”

She grew up on a dairy farm on the Taieri Plains, right next door to their current farm, Riverbend. Her grandparents owned Riverbend before they passed, and she recalls many happy hours spent in her grandmother’s company tending the garden and enjoying everything the outdoors has to offer.

After finishing school she trained to become a radiographer but ended up back on a farm after marrying her husband, Matt. The couple took on a lower-order sharemilking job for her parents, running the home dairy farm while she worked full time at Dunedin Public Hospital as a radiographer until the birth of their first child in 2011.

“I took a year off after that and went back to a few days a week. When my first was born, my grandmother, who lived on the small farm next door, passed away. 

“After that Matt and I with my parents bought the farm and named it Riverbend. Because it had gone into estate when she passed, we didn’t move in right away as there were things to sort out, and we also had another baby in that time.”

Riverbend, aptly named for the bend in the river, is a fourth-generation dairy farm running 160 cows. It’s small, but that’s the way the couple like it.

“Matt still runs my parent’s farm next door as well, but we like having a small farm and being fairly self-contained. We now own Riverbend and feel blessed to have our own bit of land that we can put our mark on.”

She made it her mission to restore the gardens to their former glory. With three children under four years old at the time, she says getting her hands in the dirt also helped keep her sane. Her love of gardening started in her youth and gradually grew over the years, but she says it wasn’t until they settled into Riverbend that it really began to take root and eventually form into a business idea.

“I watched an episode of Country Calendar on Nourish Gardens when my fourth child was a couple of months old. They grew cut flowers for sale and had a winery on Waiheke Island. I got thinking about how neat it would be to spend hours in my own garden and make a business out of it. I’m a fairly logical person and initially thought no, this isn’t a viable idea, but something about it interested me.”

After six months of researching the slow flower movement, finding other small flower farmers to talk to and figuring out what it would take to get a flower business off the ground, she was hooked.

“I trialled raising seeds myself as I hadn’t done a lot of that. I did it all in our little conservatory. I got hooked quickly and asked Matt if I could use the calf paddock out the back as a test paddock. It wasn’t a great paddock for calves, so he was quite happy to give it to me. Then we had the first lockdown, so we all got involved in setting it up.”

Her first official growing season was in 2020 and to start with she thought she’d grow and sell to florists and stay as a background person. She quickly realised that, at the scale of what she was doing, it wasn’t going to be financially viable to sell at a wholesale rate. 

Almost by accident she discovered that selling direct to customers was the way to go. She started selling bouquets first to family and friends and then as interest grew to more customers.

“I could charge the same price for a retail bouquet as a full bucket of wholesale flowers for a florist, so going down the more consumer route made more sense for the scale of my field.

“When I started planning this business, covid didn’t exist, and the support was minimal. But when I first started selling it was at the height of people wanting to support local and seasonal products. It worked out really well.”

She also discovered growing interest from customers to learn about flowers and gardening, which encouraged her to start offering workshops. She holds them a few times a year, covering a range of topics from the art of cutting and arranging flowers to gardening and growing for beginners. Her workshops are well attended, and she enjoys having the chance to pass on the knowledge she’s accumulated over the years from her family and fellow gardeners.

“The more I got into my business the more it took me to different places,” she says.

When a friend converted an old woolshed into a wedding venue, this took her little business off on another course again. Doing wedding flowers was the perfect addition to her growing list of services. It added a level of stability while not sacrificing the flexibility she needs.

“Wedding flowers make a lot of sense for the stems I grow, and they don’t need to last 10 days or be perfectly straight so I can be more creative, which suits what I grow.”

Flowers are grown in the house garden and the old calf paddock, which is about 20m x 31m. Luke cultivates a huge variety of flowers, focusing on varieties that are not commonly commercially available. The growing season is typically from late September through to early April.

Being situated close to the river means the soils are sandy, providing a good natural soil base to work from. Regular mulching and use of seaweed products help keep the soil thriving along with some strategic use of fertiliser when needed.

“We replant annuals every year, and I tend to have probably 10 main perennials that flower throughout the season starting with anemones, tulips, ranunculus, peonies, roses, lilies, dahlias, hydrangeas and chrysanthemums. Like farming, there are times of the year when the garden is very intensive, like when we are planting, but the whole family pitches in and it’s quite a nice time of year.”

Now into her third growing season, Luke says there have been a lot of sharp learning curves along the way, from finding a niche that naturally worked for her to always thinking of ways to utilise what she grows.

“Because my field is small, I have to always think of ways to use my flowers. If I can’t sell them fresh I dry them, press them or photograph them. You have to think like that to make it financially viable.”

She’s also had to dip her toes into the realm of social media, which was an exercise in self-belief and stepping into the unknown. Not a regular user of social media in her personal life, she initially didn’t think she’d need it but quickly saw it as a free way to show people what she was doing.

“At the start I didn’t think what was I was doing was going to be interesting enough to share. Over the years I’ve met some wonderful people and I really enjoying sharing what I am up to here at Riverbend.”

While social media has certainly played a role in her business growth, word of mouth has been one of her biggest marketing successes.

“I love what I do, so I tend to talk to anyone who will listen about it, and you’ll be amazed what comes out of that.”

As her business has taken a shape of its own, she’s been well supported along the way by her family, in particular husband Matt. 

“Over the years I’ve enjoyed listening to Matt speak about his highs and lows on the farm, his plans and all of that. This business of mine has given me to chance to do the same and for us all to do something together. Matt comes up with all these ideas and being a farmer he’s got great handyman skills, which has meant my little idea for a workshop turned into something quite amazing with the help of a builder friend.”

Flexibility was on her mind when she first started the business. Family time and time off farm is important to the family and by luck or design, that’s what she’s been able to achieve as she’s worked with the direction the business has taken her in. 

“This business has multiple sides to it, which I love, so the future will just embrace that. I’m mindful that I only ever wanted this to be a part-time business and while it’s growing nicely on its own, I don’t have specific plans in place right for growth. I think I’m just enjoying the season of life that we are in right now.”

This article was among Farmers Weekly’s most read in 2022.

A Waikato farmer who loves to be busy had to turn down a business opportunity in homeopathy when it came her way because the timing wasn’t right. However, when the opportunity presented itself for the second time, she just could not say no.

Tracey Simpson and husband Murray are sharemilkers on three Tirau farms, milking 900 cows and supplying iwi-owned dairy company Miraka.

Getting out on the farm, sorting out the kids or working in her own business, Simpson is at her best when juggling life.

“I think the real nuts and bolts is that I like having a purpose,” she says. “There’s purpose in being a mum and a farmer. So when the opportunity came up to buy Homeopathic Farm Services, I had to jump at it. After learning about homeopathy and seeing what it can do for myself, I became passionate about it, and now I get to share it with others.”

She has been involved in the world of homeopathy for over a decade. She gained the necessary qualifications, and trialled different homeopathic approaches to her own farming practices. Now, she gets to help other farms and animal lovers make gains through the use of her products.

Born and bred on a dairy farm in the Waikato, she left school at the age of 17 to go farming. A few years in, she switched paths and went into a career as a veterinary nurse.

“I’ve always loved the medical side of farming, which is probably what drew me to be a vet nurse. I met my husband Murray during this time and got my boots back on the ground when we took on our first sharemilking gig together in Tirau. We were a young couple and broke, but it was exciting.”
Unbeknown to them, the herd they bought to kickstart their farming career had bad facial eczema issues, and their first year was full of heartache in trying to get things under control.

“It was a nightmare. At the end of our first year of sharemilking, I went to see a homeopath on my sister-in-law’s recommendation. I was having trouble with my periods and wanted to get it sorted. We ended up chatting about the farm, and I explained what was going on.”

She was given her first vial of Chelidonium to take home and give to the cows. Chelidonium supports the liver and assists the body’s immune system in the function of the liver. 

“After nothing else was working, this made such a difference. It gave their livers a clean-out, and after three weeks, they seemed to be doing much better. That’s the wonderful thing about animals, they never lie, and the results spoke for themselves.”

This sparked an interest in homeopathy and its many uses for humans and animals. Eventually, she was inspired to pursue the study of homeopathy in 2008. She says that it changed her whole perspective on farming, which helps her in battling the attitudes she often comes across in the homeopathy industry.

“I think what I’ve come to see and realise through using it on my own farms is that it’s not a one-or-the-other thing. Sometimes what you need is a dose of penicillin to get the best outcome for that animal, and it’s utilising the best of both worlds for the greater good of your stock. 

“You have to be open-minded and realise there are other modalities that can be beneficial for human and animal care. Sometimes it’s the best option, and sometimes it doesn’t touch the sides.”

During these years, she was juggling study, farming and starting a family. At one point the couple were sharemilking 1200 cows across four farms for Te Raparahi Lands Trust and even buying into a small farm with the trust for a few years. 

“I remember sitting at the kitchen table until the wee hours of the morning to get my study done because I was busy out on the farm and with the kids during the day. It sounds crazy when I think back on it, but I just did it. It was all things I enjoyed, and the farm and the homeopathy study worked really well together.”

When the payout dropped, they had to make some hard decisions and ended up scaling back to three farms and 900 cows. Homeopathy plays a big role in their farms’ animal health strategy, particularly their calf-rearing policy.

Eventually, she linked up with Tineke Verkade, a homeopath who owned Homeopathic Farm Support, who she’d met previously at one of Verkade’s seminars. Simpson worked for Verkade for a few years before the first opportunity popped up for her to take on the business.

“At the time, I was just too busy. Between the farms, which I was fully involved in every aspect of,  and the kids, it was just unrealistic even for me.”

Then in 2018, Verkade approached her about the business being for sale again, and this time Simpson said yes.

“It made sense, but it was a scary step to take. We thought about it for a while, did our research, talked to our accountants, the whole due diligence. In the end it was my brother-in-law who said, ‘If homeopathy is your thing, then just do it.’ That was a little lightbulb moment.”

The business, which was originally based in Hamilton, aims to assist and support farmers in improving their animals’ health in a gentle, safe, effective and environmentally friendly manner. Simpson and her team do this through sales of their range of BioGro-certified organic products and by delivering seminars, discussions and talks with farmers to educate them about the uses and benefits of homeopathy.

The ins and outs of purchasing a business are extensive, but despite their busy farm and home life, she loved having the chance to work on something that was just hers to grow and nurture. Adding to her CV, she’s also recently finished up her diploma in homeopathy (animal health). But her biggest challenge has been putting herself out there and talking about her products.

“Its incredibly hard to step into a sales role. Often farmers can be challenging to deal with, especially with this sort of business. I think that’s where being a farmer myself really helps, I can understand their concerns and perspectives. I’ve spoken at a few seminars, and it gets a bit easier each time.”

She says she has a fabulous team behind her, including another homeopath and an administrator. They help round out the skills the business needs to run and grow.

Despite the growing interest in animal homeopathy, especially in the small-animal world, one of her biggest challenges sits with farm animals. She recalls many occasions when homeopathy has been referred to as “witchy stuff”.

“We often get people come to us as a last resort, and that’s okay. People don’t know what they don’t know; the same goes for homeopathy. It creates some interesting conversations, which I love. I always tend to come back to one point: how do you get to the 21^st century and still be so narrow-minded? There are so many other modalities that can be beneficial to human and animal care. Homeopathy is simply another option or tool in the tool kit.”

When it comes to the logistics of farming and operating a business, she jokes she’d love it to run like a finely tuned engine, but often she feels like she’s flying by the seat of her pants.

“The first three years it was a whirlwind. Travelling between the farm and the office isn’t always easy depending on the time of year, but I think what helps most is that I often don’t feel like I’m ‘working’. Be it on the farm or in the office, I enjoy what I do. It sounds cliché, but if you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work sometimes.”

With a recent shift in premises to accommodate the growing business, she’s increasingly looking to the future and figuring out what that might look like for her business and her family. On the business front, she is hoping to hold more seminars and workshops to educate people about human and animal homeopathy. Simpson is keen to continue growing the small-animal side of her business and eventually be in a position to talk to and inspire up-and-coming homeopaths by sharing her own experiences.

“Whatever the future holds, family will be at the centre of it all. My husband and kids have been a huge support over these last few years, so ensuring we are always striving to achieve some form of balance in life is essential.”

Sometimes it takes looking back to appreciate how far you’ve come and when a Southland farming couple did that, they realised just how many challenges they have navigated during their journey from Cornwall to farming in Gore.

Ollie and Lauren Badcock are variable order sharemilkers on a 280ha farm milking 850 Kiwicross cows. But when they first came to New Zealand to start their Kiwi dairying careers, they had no idea of the rollercoaster that was ahead of them. Looking back, the couple said they’re a bit in awe of what they’ve achieved in just five years.

“I remember saying to Ollie a year ago that I didn’t feel like we were getting anywhere. But looking back, when we came here, we had nothing. Now that we’ve built a business, we have assets and are actively striving towards our farm ownership dreams. Sometimes it’s good to look back to appreciate where you are now,” Lauren says.

Hailing from Cornwall in the UK, Ollie and Lauren came from different backgrounds. Ollie grew up on the land and knew from just 16 years of age that dairy farming was the career for him. On the other hand, Lauren was a townie through and through and had aspirations of becoming a top-notch lawyer after completing her law degree. But, tiring of the rat race, the couple decided they wanted to head in a different direction with their lives and found themselves heading to Australia on a money-making and travel adventure.

“I had a job at a solicitor, and Ollie was working on a dairy farm. We decided to head to Australia with the intention that Ollie would find a farming job and I’d work in town or something. The job we ended up getting was too far from town for me to work off the farm, so I started off as the nanny before stepping into the hands-on farming bit,” Lauren says.

This short jaunt down under was enough to give Lauren the farming bug too, and upon their return to Cornwall they found a contract milking job that suited them, and they started their farming career as a duo. Just five minutes from the beach on a dairy farm that produced its own ice cream, it was as good as farming gets for lifestyle.

“We started to think really seriously about our careers in farming. Progression in the industry in the UK tends to be very within the family, and the opportunities for outsiders to progress are limited. We’d learnt a lot about Australian and New Zealand dairy industries and saw much more opportunity, so we decided we’d give dairying a go in New Zealand,” Ollie says.

The couple initially landed in the Waikato hoping to start their journey, but due to visa limitations they often didn’t get a look-in from prospective employers. Not wanting to give up on their ambitions, they opened themselves up to opportunities from around the country, including the South Island. 

“We applied for two jobs and ended up getting one purely because it was a long way out from town and no one really wanted it. It was a manager’s role in Clinton, and it ended up being a bit of a baptism by fire,” Ollie says.

Just a few weeks after the couple started the job Ollie had a quad bike accident which saw him shatter his tibia and fibula. He was airlifted to Dunedin Hospital and experienced a few complications that almost resulted in losing his leg. During this time, it was up to Lauren to keep things ticking along on the farm, surrounded by a bunch of people she’d just met, and with limited farming experience under her belt.

“One of the things we struggled with when we moved to our first farm was integrating into a very rural community. It was hard to meet people. We met the neighbours for the first time because of Ollie’s accident. The guy was on call with the local volunteer fire brigade,” Lauren says.

Ollie made a full recovery with the help of some metal to keep things together. The couple slowly started getting comfortable in their new farming life and gradually started to feel part of the rural community. 

“One thing we will say for rural communities is that when the chips are down, you can always count on everyone to help,” Lauren says.

Adding even more complexity into the mix was their mob of reared calves. In their second season farming in New Zealand, they decided to rear some calves to build equity to reach their 50:50 sharemilking dreams. Due to the situation on the farm they were managing, they had to source alternative grazing, which they found about 20 minutes from the farm – but this brought logistical issues as well as extra costs to their business.

“We really wanted to get ahead but in hindsight probably made a rod for our own back but at the time we didn’t have residency at that point so it was really our only option to grow something for ourselves,” Ollie says.

Eighteen months ago, they welcomed their son Wilfred into the family, but amid covid, stepping into their first contract milking job and going into a spring where they were understaffed, it was another challenging time.

“We couldn’t get family into the country, so we really had to rely on our ‘village’ of friends and neighbours for support. Like Ollie’s accident, it was another one of those times where we felt pushed to our limits, but this time we knew people, which made it easier,” Lauren says.

Earlier this year saw a turning point for the couple, who had by then worked their way into a contract milking position. A 50:50 sharemilking position came up that the couple almost took, but for all the wrong reasons. 

“It didn’t really fit us in terms of our values. The efficiencies weren’t there, and it didn’t feel ‘right’. We would have hamstrung ourselves on the things that are important to us in a business and lifestyle. So we ended up selling our herd at a good price, which helped us into the variable order sharemilking job we took up in June.”

Selling the stock they had reared was a tough decision, especially from an equity point of view. However, they had hit a point where the herd either needed to be leased out or they needed somewhere to milk them. 

Their new farm, so far, suits them down to the ground, and they found that their values were well aligned with those of farm owners Andrew and Heather Tripp.

“They’ve been incredibly supportive of us and encourage us all the time. We genuinely feel like they want us to go far, which is really lovely to have that extra backing, particularly during those times when you’re lacking a bit of faith in yourself,” Lauren says.

The 280ha dairy platform is part of a 1600ha sheep station, which brings many benefits. The System 3 farm is peak milking 850 cows and a short drive to the township of Gore and perfectly situated in the hills for good rain patterns in the summer to keep grass production near steady year-round.

The dairy platform portion of the farm was converted 15 years ago to a high standard, which means in terms of infrastructure, Ollie and Lauren hit the jackpot.

“The infrastructure is certainly one of the biggest strengths of the farm. We have excellent laneways, calving pads, and a 400-cow feed pad. It’s all been set up with elevation in mind. We do catch snow and frosts here. Having a good flood wash, greenwash, and the feed pad gives us extra ability to carry on feeding the cows when it’s miserable weather and not ruin the pasture,” Ollie says.

The wintering and feed set-up is a perk of the dairy platform being part of a sheep station. Silage is grown and bought in from the sheep station for winter supplement each year, and nothing is wintered on the milking platform. Everything is wintered on the sheep station.

“We winter half our cows on silage and the other half are wintered on crops. Young stock are grazed on the station from weaning through to calving as R2s. The sheep station is basically a big hill with quite fertile flats on either side, so it’s quite good. The sheep station and the dairy platform are very complementary systems,” Ollie says.

A big part of their plan to squeeze extra efficiency out of the farm is to use grass better, which rolls into their fertiliser plan and grazing policy. Rather than relying on bulk feed coming in, they’re trying to make the most of every kilogram of dry matter produced.

With no crops grown on the platform, it’s generally a grass-to-grass regrassing policy with 15% of the farm  regressed each year and priority given to the poorer performing paddocks. Given the age of the dairy platform, most pastures are fairly young, and from a fertiliser perspective, the focus tends to be on adding sulphur back into the soil.

Because of previous grass grub issues, most of the farm is sowed with diploid AR37 preventative grass grub endophyte. It’s a more expensive seed, but it grows grass for longer and is highly persistent.

“In previous years, they had big chunks of the platform out due to grass grub, so while it’s an increased cost, the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term fails,” Ollie says.

Summertime residual targets are aimed at 2650 pre-grazing and 1500 post grazing with a focus on maintaining quality at all times. If grass is starting to get ahead, round length will be sped up, or paddocks dropped out for surplus if needed. To keep on top of this the team do weekly pasture walks on foot.

“I was once told that the best thing you can put on your farm is footprints, so we tend to do our farm walks on foot. Each staff member has a different part of the farm they measure. This is great for consistency and because we want all our staff to have these skills to assess grass quality and understand where stock needs to go next.”

They draw up whiteboards that cover grazing plans, residuals, work lists and everything else that needs to be communicated to the whole team to keep everything running smoothly. Every team member is involved in grazing planning and management, with the expectation that they can all track and monitor residuals and make tweaks to the rounds if necessary.

“For fertiliser, the bulky will come in and do 70-100ha as the first round of ammonia sulphate and humate. Once this first round is done, we will follow the cows for five to six applications with 30kg of nitrogen as urea to give the grass a kick of nitrogen.”

The Kiwicross herd has been bred for efficiency and their focus will be on efficiency in the 1:1 liveweight for milksolids produced. Currently, the herd is sitting at 90% efficiency with production while the farm is sitting at about 80%, but with some focus on using grass better, they’re confident they can squeeze a bit extra out of the system.

Planned start of calving kicked off on August 10. In previous years the herd has had some difficulties with down cows with substantial money and time going into trying to solve the issue. 

Calving 2021 saw the down cow trend going in a more positive direction, but this year with their springer policy and diet changes, they’ve only had to bag one cow so far this season out of the 400 that had calved at the time.

“It wasn’t about reinventing the wheel on a new farm, and we haven’t done anything drastic,” Ollie says. 

“We’ve tried to utilise the minerals better to ensure that each cow gets the correct amount. 

Previously minerals were spread on a self-feed silage stack, so it was hard to know how much each cow was getting. Now, we walk the cows through to the feedpad with the minerals. It’s a bit more accurate and allows us the opportunity to split off cows and calves in one movement, rather than chasing them around.”

The small change has been huge, and speaks to their philosophy when it comes to farming: to increase overall efficiencies.

“We want everything to be as efficient as possible, whether that’s grazed grass or staff management. If we can do an extra job on the way to getting the cows in, that tightens everything up,” Lauren says.

On the calf-rearing front, Lauren leads this part of the farm. With 250 heifers and 100 beefies lined up for rearing this year it’s a busy time. Luckily the calf-rearing sheds are set up perfectly with long bays that can accommodate 20 to a pen.

“I’m quite particular when it comes to calf rearing,” she says.

“I’ve been to a number of seminars that spoke on the importance of colostrum testing, so being quite a literal person, I went out and got everything I needed for that. It’s given us really great results over the years, so now every cow gets tested. Everything gets gold colostrum 22 on the refractometer and above.”

This year, the couple have been lucky enough to have another helper on the farm, Ollie’s mum, who’s in New Zealand for four months from the UK. 

“It’s been amazing having her here over calving to help with Wilfred. Being able to be rear the calves without a toddler in tow has been great. It also means I can focus completely on the calf rearing, plus that added support means I can get out on farm for other jobs when needed easily as well,” Lauren says. 

They are both AB technicians and passionate about making gains in breeding and genetics. The herd’s six-week in-calf rate sits around 76%, so the bar has been set quite high for them, but they are hoping that, with some tweaks, they can improve that and get the empty rate down from 11% closer to 9%.

The focus for this mating season will be on using sexed semen for four weeks on the top tail of the herd to get their replacement stock. This will be followed by six weeks of the bull, with mating kicking off November 2.

“The policy in the past has been mating the top 50% of heifers to AB, which we will still do. But it’s also about reducing bobbies and waste in the system,” Ollie says.

“We want to utilise the genetics coming through in the heifer and get more consistency coming through by using the sexed semen. By tailing with beef bulls, we’re using Herefords; we hope to get some premiums there too.”

For selecting sires, they keep things simple, looking for good stature, average-sized animals that will achieve their 1:1 ratio goals for liveweight to milksolids. One of the things they pride themselves on is their bull management. They have a day team and a night team of bulls who don’t leave the paddock.

“They don’t go in the laneways with the cows. We do this so they’re not expending energy by fighting or walking further than they need to. It helps keep the cows calmer on the lanes as well. It’s really just basic stock management skills,” Ollie says.

Animal health-wise, they approach this the same as everything else on farm – if they don’t measure it, they can’t manage it. The core of their animal health programme is ensuring cows are well fed, sitting at an appropriate body condition score for the time of year, and that they never have to chase big jumps in liveweight gain.

“We body-condition score each month, this just makes it easier to make tweaks to their diets if we notice a bit of slippage in weight. We’d rather deal with issues early,” he says.

They use apps like the DairyNZ foot-trimming app to keep track of which cows have been trimmed and what type of lameness is popping up.

“You often forget that you’ve dealt with 20 whiteline lesions, so if you look at that data, you can start investigating causes and problem-solve it. With animal health as a whole, for us, it’s really about good stockmanship, which doesn’t have to be complicated.”

They work with the shepherds on the sheep station and hold monthly meetings with the farm owner and all the staff across the two farms to ensure everyone is across what’s happening in the farm business. It helps ensure that the two farms are running efficiently and cohesively.

“The farm owners want everyone involved in those monthly meetings as much as possible. 

They have a solid vision and set of values regarding how they run their business and it cultivates a lovely little community out here,” Ollie says.

With eight families living on the station, they’ve decided to set up a station market garden for everyone, with extras being offered to locals via an honest box at the end of the road. They’re also planning some off-farm social events for everyone to further the team culture and bond.

For their dairy platform team, it’s been an exercise in upskilling for them as their team is the biggest they’ve ever had with five full-time staff over spring and 3.5 FTE the rest of the year.

Team experience and focus is varied, from one staff member who is very animal-focused to another who’s never had to look too closely at pasture management practices.

“We’ve done a lot of work to upskill ourselves because we knew this would be a pain point, so to speak. We’ve also been fortunate to have wonderful mentors, neighbours and others in the industry to lean on for advice and support when it comes to managing a team,” Lauren says.

This year, they participated in the DairyNZ mark and measure course, which gave them some useful tips on growing the team’s capabilities and their own by being more strategic. They’ve also been introduced to the FarmTune programme, formally called the LEAN management programme, which got them thinking more critically about how they run things and where they can pick up efficiencies.

The team have daily toolbox meetings to discuss the upcoming day, and weekly sit-down meetings with an agenda that includes the opportunity for the team to give feedback to them on how they can improve.

“Because we have such a diverse team in terms of ethnicity and experience, it’s important to make sure everyone feels heard and valued. We want to give everyone the opportunity to come away from their time with us with a well-rounded skillset and the confidence to go into their next opportunity,” Lauren says.

While they are only in their formative months on their new farm, they are focusing on the future. 

Growing more equity is top of the list to set themselves up for a 50:50 sharemilking position within the next few years.

They say they’ve taken valuable knowledge and experience from each of their Kiwi dairying jobs, and, having entered into the industry fairly naïvely, are better off for it.

“In looking back at the past five years and thinking about our measure of success, it’s really in celebrating the small wins and realising how far we have come. It’s celebrating fewer down cows this year, letting calves out for the first time, and enjoying family time on and off farm. Our end goal of farm ownership will be where we set it, but we are enjoying the journey to get there.”

Growing up as a townie, a Wairarapa farmer had plenty of friends who lived on farms, so she knew full well that life on the farm could get busy. But at the time she never dreamed she’d end up on a farm, with her own business, creating the life and lifestyle she has today.

Donna Herrick and her husband Mike milk 270 cows on the 100ha family farm at Carterton on once-a-day year round. Last year she bought an online business selling candles.

“I look at the life my husband Mike and I have created here with our blended family on his family farm, and I sometimes have to pinch myself,” Donna says.

“It’s a far cry from my career in hospitality, but it’s the best life. Every week we’re working towards being more self-sustainable on the farm, growing more of our own food and just enjoying this time in our lives with our young family.”

Donna grew up in the township of Carterton and was no stranger to farming with plenty of friends who grew up on farms and school trips out to farms, but she never caught the farming bug. Instead, she got into the hospitality industry, where the bulk of her professional career remained until she had her daughters a few years ago.

She trained and worked her way up to become a chef, working at several cafes and restaurants in the Wairarapa area over the years. Her hard work paid off, and she invested in buying her first house at just 21 years old. She describes herself as always being “Miss Independent” and has always worked hard to be able to support herself and do whatever she sets her mind to.

“As many young people do, I wanted to travel the world, so I worked my butt off to save up, rented out my house and headed overseas. I worked and lived mostly in London and Somerset but would make trips out all over the place.

“It was an amazing time. I came home for a bit with the intention of going back out travelling, but then I met Mike and life had other ideas.”

At the time, he was co-owner/operator on a farm in Eketahuna. She moved in with him and started a new life in the country. Going from the bustling city of London to the small town of Eketahuna was a big change, but she embraced the slower pace of life and quickly got herself a job at a local vineyard restaurant, Paper Road.

After a few years in Eketahuna, an opportunity for Mike popped up that he wasn’t expecting – taking over the original family farm in Carterton. As one of three brothers, who were all into farming, he had thought the opportunity would likely never come his way. 

“One brother was working the original family farm, and he decided to get out of farming and pursue another career, so the opportunity came to Mike to take over,” Donna says.

“We love being back here and living and working in the place he grew up. He made a real success of the farm in Eketahuna under some tough conditions, so the chance to put his farming skills to work on a more established farm and move back home was an amazing chance for him.”

The couple now co-own the property with Mike’s parents, who act as silent partners in the business. They focus on animal health and breeding and continue to make small changes to ensure they future-proof their herd and farm.

“We’ve been here seven years now, and we are now at the point where many of our breeding and management decisions around the herd and farm are starting to show, which is exciting.”

Mike runs the farm himself with one full-time employee, while Donna uses her many transferable skills from her hospitality career to manage the administration side of the business.

“Eventually, we will take over full ownership. Mike’s parents are amazingly supportive of everything we do and are always there to bounce ideas off and talk things through.”

Donna says there is some stunning scenery on the farm, some great secret fishing and swimming spots, and lovely river walks. – the perfect place for their young family. Mike has two children from a previous relationship, Cheyden and Zac. The couple also have two daughters together, Ava-Rose and Stevie. Needless to say, family life as a unit of six is pretty busy, and Donna decided after having Ava-Rose that it was time to leave the hospitality industry.

“It’s not a very family-friendly career, and I like to be a really hands-on mum for all the kids. With the boys being that bit older and with us 50% of the time, it was easier to make my hospitality work around them, but with a baby, not so much!”

Still wanting to keep her independence and have a life outside of the farm, she dipped her toe into retail work and worked at some high-end retail shops in Greytown. After the pandemic, the birth of her youngest and everything else that 2020 threw at them, she again had to sit back and think about what was next for her career.

“The retail shop I worked at decided to focus more online and set everything up from a showroom at their beautiful house. It got me thinking about online businesses, and I thought with my skills in hospitality and retail, it was definitely something I could do and would be the perfect fit for the farm and my family. The biggest thing I’ve always wanted is to have my job be flexible around our lifestyle.”

As fate would have it, a small but fairly new online business selling soy candles, called Bays & Leo, was put up for sale. The business’ original owner was moving on to new opportunities, allowing Donna to start her own business journey. She purchased the business in October 2021, and for the past 10 months has been hard at work adding her own flair into the business and working to grow it.

Donna has taken the soy candle concept a step further and now sells crystal-embellished soy candles in beautifully handmade ceramic vessels instead of traditional glass. Her aim was to create a unique gift for people with a multipurpose aspect.

“I purchase the ceramic pieces from a wonderful business in the Hawke’s Bay called Sia Pottery. Each piece is unique and one of a kind,” says Donna.

A cornerstone of the business is sustainability and being eco-friendly. Everything used from product to packaging is recyclable and plastic-free. This can sometimes add to the cost, but Donna feels it is important from an ethical and a business perspective.

“I’ve always been a bit creative, which I guess is why being a chef was something that came fairly naturally. When this business came on the market, it ticked many of the boxes I was looking for. I wish I had come up with the idea myself,” she says.

The shift towards pottery and ceramics was a way of putting her stamp on the business and also making it more than selling just a candle. It’s creating a keepsake item that customers can either send back to be refilled or keep and reuse in other ways.

The first few months of business ownership were spent perfecting the candle-making craft and getting the scents just right. She used old baby-food jars she had been collecting for her wedding as test pots and spent a lot of time making and burning candles to get the formula just right. 

Once she had her product development down to a fine art, she turned her attention to the marketing side. Because the business is still in its infancy, there’s been a lot of groundwork to get the Bays & Leo brand out there. To help with this, she met up with previous employers, who have been very supportive and helpful in helping guide her along the way. She also joined a local content club run by Digital Cactus, a digital marketing business based in the Wairarapa.

“The content club has been an excellent way to develop content ideas for my social media platforms, it’s helped me figure out what I should focus on, and just how to market my brand.”

She wanted to inject more of a personal element into her content and branding, sharing the ups and downs of small business life and life on the farm.

“The biggest learning I’ve taken from the content club, along with creating a good network of fellow small business owners, is that with things like social media, you just have to give it a go and realise that it takes time. You don’t have to rush everything. The whole reason behind buying this business was to have something that I could fit around the rest of my life, so why rush it?”

Being based in the Wairarapa, Donna has plenty of opportunities to get the Bays & Leo brand out and about at local markets in fact. She attended her first one earlier this year at the Greytown Winter Festival.

“With markets, I have to be a bit picky about which ones I go to. Because of the type of product I have, it’s not really going to suit a farmer’s market. I’ve booked a few more markets into the calendar this year, including the popular Martinborough Fair, which I’m really excited about,” she says.

As she approaches the end of her first year of business ownership, she is already thinking about future plans, including expanding her online shop offerings to include other small business brands from around New Zealand and one day hopes to have a little gift shop on the farm.

“Bays & Leo is something that gets me really excited. I love working on the books for the farm and doing my part, but I also love having this little business opportunity. The main thing is it has to fit our lifestyle, which can be busy sometimes. My main priority right now is getting the brand name out there and increasing sales.”

With a busy family life, a farm to help run and a small business, the juggle struggle can be intense sometimes. She says she thrives on a busy life that revolves around her family but remains conscious of the need to take time for herself and of making the most of the life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

“If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s the value of slowing down a bit sometimes.”