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General

CEO update on Kellogg accreditation.

Rual Leaders

A message from our CEO Chris Parsons, MNZM, DSD, CMinstD.

Chris Parsons, CEO New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust

As the year flies by all too fast, I thought it good to pause a moment to highlight a key development that we have been working on for just over a year and to acknowledge some of the achievements that Nuffield and Kellogg Scholars and the NZ Rural Leaders family have made over the last 12 months.   

Firstly, Kellogg Scholars have embraced the opportunity to obtain a Post Graduate Certificate alongside their Kellogg qualification. This is an opt-in opportunity and to date 98% of Kelloggers have.  

We would like to acknowledge Lincoln University for offering the chance for food and fibre leaders to gain this additional value. 

We’d like to acknowledge Massey University too, for recognising Kellogg for up to 60 post-graduate credits applied to further learning in both their business school and college of sciences. 

We are on track for 62 Scholars to concurrently achieve a Post Graduate Certificate by the end of the year!   

This achievement marks the two-year anniversary of The Pāhautea Initiative – a partnership between Lincoln University, Massey University, the Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust (AGMARDT) and Rural Leaders. 

The initiative focuses on lifting education levels across the sector and building deeper leadership benches in the regions, with the aim of creating a sustainable future for food and fibre. Accreditation of core programmes is key to delivering on the partnership’s purpose. 

If one of your neighbours or a work mate is considering becoming a Kellogg Scholar and opting in for the PG Cert, the good news is they do not need a prior degree to enrol for the PG Cert, we will work with you and Lincoln on admission requirements.  

Previous Kellogg Scholars (at this stage, from 2014 onwards) can apply for recognition of prior learning from Lincoln and Massey Universities, by contacting Lisa Rogers at lisarogers@ruralleaders.co.nz 

Finally, we’d like to acknowledge all those of you who have been selected to Boards, started businesses, led transformation, or helped your communities and environments.

Rural scholarship is all about creating impact – we get reports almost daily of alumni who are improving the sector and standing up to be counted.

Thank you for all you do! 

Back to the August 2022 Rural Leader.

Lynsey Stratford: Changing how we work for better outcomes.

Listen to "Changing how we work – a Nuffield Scholar’s perspective." on Spreaker.

Ideas That Grow: Lynsey Stratford, 2021 Nuffield Scholar.

Lynsey Stratford has discovered farmers make a few assumptions that aren’t very helpful – like accepting the fact that work might be dangerous and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. As Lynsey explains, “There are changes we can make, but those assumptions and those mindsets have been deeply held for quite some time.” 

As a consultant, Lynsey helps the primary sector with people management and development services and training. And, when it comes to health and safety she says, “We shouldn’t expect people to just know this stuff, but rather teach them and support them as they develop skills.” 
 
Lynsey’s research report unpacks the paradox that while farmers care about their people, farms as workplaces are overrepresented in fatal accident and injury statistics. So, what can be done to improve this?

Bryan Gibson – Editor of Farmer’s Weekly.

I’m Bryan Gibson, editor of Farmer’s Weekly. Today, I’m talking to former lawyer, consultant, and dairy farmer, Lynsey Stratford. How’s it going? 

Lynsey Stratford – 2021 Nuffield Scholar, Curio Bay, Southland.

Good thanks. Nice to talk to you.

Digging deeper with a Nuffield Scholarship.

Bryan: What have you been up to?

Lynsey: I’ve been up in Christchurch with Rural Leaders, to celebrate the end of the scholarship programme for the 2020s and the 2021s.

Bryan:  Fantastic. As you mentioned you are a recent scholar. What made you choose the Nuffield Scholarship?

Lynsey:  To be honest, I applied just after our first COVID lockdown. Like everybody, I’d been thinking about what I enjoy doing during that time – being stuck inside. I love to travel and learn new things. I’ve always looked at the Scholarship and thought that the stories from previous scholars sounded like a great experience and opportunity.  
 
I didn’t really think I’d get a scholarship, but I thought, what the heck, let’s give it a go, and if nothing else it’ll be an interesting experience. I was very surprised and honored to be selected as a scholar for 2021.

Bryan: And what sort of area did you want to study? 

 Lynsey: I love working with people in the primary sector. I went into the scholarship thinking I would look at health and safety and providing better workplaces for people that are more productive and engaging for better health and wellbeing outcomes. 

My project ended up being called ‘Super Humans, Not Superheroes’. It looked at how we do all this fabulous stuff in the sector, but we’re probably asking a bit too much of ourselves. We expect to be superhuman, and our teams too. 

With a slightly different approach to structuring work, we could support better outcomes that are more engaging, create better work, more productivity, and still improve the health and safety of our people.

Challenging and changing mindsets toward on-farm workplace safety.

Bryan:  Working in the farming world, it’s a relatively dangerous place and it can be somewhat isolating at times. What sort of strategies do people need to try to work into their businesses to make it better for people? 

Lynsey: I guess the good thing is most are low, or no-cost, so you can make quite big changes without spending a lot of money. The key to it all is mindset.  
 
What I found was that farmers have some assumptions that aren’t very helpful. We accept the fact that work might be dangerous. We assume there’s nothing we can do about it. And that’s not right. There are changes we can make, but those assumptions and those mindsets have been deeply held for quite some time. 

Farmers don’t think they’ll ever get hurt. They think other people might. Generally, we don’t think that we are prone to accidents. So, we don’t really take any steps to manage the risks that there are in our work. We tend to normalise the fact that it is a dangerous occupation and so we don’t try and challenge that by changing how we work.  

If you’ve got family or team members who think that way, that’s a good place to start. We need people to help us understand that there are things that we can do to organise work better. So, lots of the time, we’ll be told what to do, but not necessarily the why or the how. And that’s just good team communication.  

We shouldn’t expect people to just know this stuff, but rather teach them and support them as they develop skills. 

Bryan: I guess an engaged work team is probably going to not only be more productive, but also be happier and safer, would you expect? 

An engaged farm team means thriving workplaces and better outputs.

Lynsey: Absolutely. There’s some shocking statistics from Gallup, who looked at engagement across the world. For New Zealand, only 20% of our workforce, and this is across all sectors, is fully engaged. If you’ve got a team of five people, that’s only one giving everything they’ve got.  
 
So, yeah, if we can tap into engagement, it’s better for people. They feel like they’ve got some control and they’re growing – they like to be there. So, if you’re an employer, those people will go that extra mile for you because they want to be at work and they feel passionate about it. 

And engagement is, if they feel you care about them, that they’ve got some control over how they themselves can organise their work. That they’re growing and developing – those are all things that we can improve if we start to think differently about how we organise work. 

Bryan: I guess what you’ve just been talking about feeds into the ‘why’ you’re there. If there’s a bigger goal that everyone is working towards, then that can help, can’t it? 

Lynsey:  I guess that’s where we’ve gone a bit wrong. In the past we’ve focused on compliance, but we haven’t seen these wider benefits of good work. And there’s some interesting stuff that’s been done by the Business Leaders’ Health & Safety Forum by Hillary Bennett. It said that if you improve how you set up work, train people, you’ve got good processes, so they understand their role, and their responsibility, and how to change how work gets done – if you do all those things well, you improve mental health as well.  
 
So, that’s another component of this, that we’re looking at wellbeing as well as physical health and safety. 

Bryan: People who are engaged, feeling good about themselves are probably going to produce better work and be safer when they do it, aren’t they? 

Lynsey: Yeah. And be on the thriving end of the spectrum of mental health, instead of the just surviving space – or not surviving at all. So, that’s what we want. We want good work that sets us up for thriving people and great farming. 

Bryan: So, you’ve just finished then? 

A different kind of Nuffield Scholarship experience.

Lynsey: Yes. We had an experience that was interrupted somewhat by COVID. So, it’s been a very weird scholarship experience because it’s kind of backwards. Usually, you do your international travel, and then you produce your report. Ours will be the other way around. But I think our experience, although different, has been just as good.  

What we did was travel as a cohort. So, the 2021 scholars linking in with the 2020 scholars. We traveled through New Zealand, from Northland right down to where I farm in Curio Bay, Southland. We did the length and breadth of New Zealand together. 

Then we did our research independently, but with as much as we could face-to-face. A lot of it had to be remote via Zoom. So, now I get to go and do my international travel through August, September, and October. 

Bryan: You might want a rewrite afterwards! 

Lynsey: I think that’s the aim. We kind of validate what we’ve seen, and if there’s anything we need to change, we’ll revisit. 

 
Bryan: And that’s exciting. I mean, the travel component is a big part of the scholarship. Where are you off to? 

Lynsey: My group goes to Japan, Belgium, Ireland, and California. 

Bryan: Well, that’s an exciting thing to look forward to. 

Lynsey: Yeah, it is. It’ll be a Northern Hemisphere trip in the summer. So, that’s also quite exciting now, as we sit here in Invercargill. 

Bryan: When you’re not knocking out your report as part of your Nuffield Programme, what does life look like for you? 

Lynsey: I’ve been married to a Kiwi dairy farmer for nearly 20 years now. Being on farm with him was a big part of life until recently. We sold our farm effective 1st of June. Now, we’re kind of redefining where we go and what we do, but I’m also a mum, which is very important to me.  
 
I’ve got two children that I like to focus on. I like to try and support them with school things and support our local community too. And then I also have a small consulting business that helps primary sector businesses – but all sorts of businesses manage their people. 

From cows to consulting – a farmer advising farmers.

Bryan: What sort of consulting or advice do you offer businesses? 

Lynsey:  So it’s interesting because I started out as an employment lawyer in the UK. There I was focused on compliance and getting agreements, policies, procedures and following all the legal requirements.  
 
I still do all those things, but I’m much more focused on trying to improve work setup so that we’ve got engaged teams, great communication, good processes. We’re training people and developing them, making sure that the behavior we’ve in the workplace is setting up a great culture that engages people. So, I’ve moved away from just focusing on the compliance. 

Bryan: I think that’s a move the agricultural and horticultural industries in New Zealand need to complete still. A lot of the reaction I get at the newspaper to health and safety reform, or regulation is that it’s just a hassle, a box-ticking exercise, whereas if you do change that mindset into creating a space where everyone can thrive, then that’s when the goal is going to be reached. 

Lynsey:  That’s one of the things I concluded in my research. It has been sold to us as a compliance exercise – but it takes a lot of resource to change mindsets. It’s not that easy. And so, the easier thing to do is to set us up for compliance, make sure we’ve got the plans in place. But if we really want to make change, it’s that mindset that we need to focus on. We need resources to do that.  
 
We need great people connecting farmers with good information that helps them understand the opportunity and ‘the why’ for them, whatever it is. That then supports them to develop the skills they need. And it’s not something that we can nail in one workshop or one interaction. The resourcing really needs to be there, and it needs to be long term. We’re talking about generational change if we want to change mindsets. 

I guess I’ll just give a shout out to Ben McLachlan. He’s a 2020 scholar and his report is about mindsets that help us change. He’s looking at the growth mindset, which I found was critical to getting great workplaces.  
 
A workplace where we’ve got a growth mindset is one where we understand that people can develop new ways of thinking and new skills if we give them the opportunity and the right support. I was stoked when I saw his work, as it aligns nicely with mine as well. 

Bryan: That leads into my next question about the community that being part of the Rural Leaders team builds among those who are working through the same cohort? 

Lynsey:  We were lucky. Talking to previous scholars, they have often got their scholarship, briefly met the New Zealand cohort, then gone overseas and developed relationships internationally – but not quite as tight a relationship with the New Zealand scholars.  
 
I think we’ve been lucky that we got that chance to spend time together, because of COVID. It’s the silver lining. It’s been amazing to see the projects that the scholars came up with across those two cohorts. Some of the best opportunities were the discussions that we had in the van as we toured New Zealand visiting leading businesses. Thanks to all those scholars who talked to me and shared their views.  

Bryan:  Excellent. So, the programme is something that you’d recommend to other people? 
 
Lynsey: Absolutely. It’s not easy. To do anything like this where you are basically challenging things that you thought or your beliefs in how the world works, that has been a challenge. But it’s been a unique opportunity too. I just can’t think where you’d get the chances that we got to visit all these amazing businesses.  
 
We went to certain Rocket and Aerospace businesses. I didn’t even know we had these kinds of businesses in New Zealand. If you want to stretch your assumptions and learn some new things and meet some awesome people, I thoroughly recommend it. 

Bryan: Thanks for listening to Ideas That Grow, a Rural Leaders podcast. This podcast was presented by Farmers Weekly. For more information on Rural Leaders, the Nuffield New Zealand farming scholarships, or the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, please visit ruralleaders.co.nz. 

Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships

The future of food and fibre is in the hands of our bold and our grounded people – those who give back to their communities and industries.

Sound like you?

Register your interest to find out more.

Nine tips to nailing your Nuffield application. 

1. Identify Nuffield’s goals.

As simple as it sounds, applicants often don’t fully understand what the broader goals and objectives of Nuffield are.  

If your application is written with consideration to ‘giving back’ for example, this will go some way to increasing your chances of gaining an interview. 

2. Get your Nuffield referees sorted soon.

There’s still time to get your three referees locked in. This is something that often needs a little time, so if you don’t have three lined up yet, make it a priority. 

3. Include what you’ve done for your rural community or assisting others.

Tell us about it. We’re often surprised to learn of the above and beyond participation some applicants have done without mention in their application.  

Have you served on any boards, committees, in any community organisations? Any rural groups, or in any voluntary capacity? Have you written any articles?

Dig, think, tell us. 

4. Keep an eye on the close date – 17 August.

For some reason time seems to be getting away on us all at the moment. This next few weeks will be no different. Take five minutes to plan your approach to applying.  

Start planning what needs to be done and by when. Aim to finish on Friday 15 August – or sooner. 

5. Get in touch with our Programmes Manager.

Our Programmes Manager can help you through any queries you may have. she’s within earshot of CEO Lisa Rogers, so you get Lisa’s 8+ years’ experience as well.

We just asked Lisa for a gem, and she said, 

“Be very explicit about what being awarded a Nuffield Scholarship will allow you to do for the sector, not necessarily what it will do for you.” 

Who knows, five minutes on the phone with the Rural Leaders Team, or a quick email, might be the difference.

6. Focus on your strengths.

Find ways to both answer the questions accurately and get your ace cards down. 

An average application isn’t necessarily a badly written one, however, it is definitely one that doesn’t get across how suited you are to being a Nuffield Scholar. That said, you might want to pay attention to this next tip for a well written application.

7. Check your application.

Spell check. Grammar check. Read check – how does your answer sound when read aloud?

Check the questions. Check your answers. You get the idea.  

8. Read a few back issues of the Rural Leader.

Not as strange as it sounds. The Rural Leader has much information entwined throughout  that may spark topical responses to application, and potentially, interview questions.  

Of note are the Ideas That Grow podcasts and Alumni in the Spotlight articles. School up – read the Rural Leader. 

9. If you know a Nuffielder, get in touch with them.

As Kate Scott, 2018 Nuffield Scholar, said of the Nuffield Alumni, (they are) ‘A network open to you picking up the phone or flicking them and email’.  

Kate may have been talking about being part of the Alumni, but if you know, or know of, a Nuffielder, reach out and ask their advice.  

Good luck with your application. 

Julian Raine:
The apple of a horticulture robot’s eye.

Julian Raine podcast_apple orchard_featured image

Ideas That Grow: Julian Raine, 1997 Nuffield Scholar.

Julian Raine is a 1997 Nuffield Scholar who quietly gets on with things worth shouting about.  
 
Julian runs a mixed Dairy and Horticulture operation and no matter what he’s producing, the one constant is innovation. From robots to getting back to milk in glass, Julian has an entrepreneur’s motivation and an innovator’s foresight. 

In this podcast, Julian talks with Farmer’s Weekly Editor Bryan Gibson about his diverse operation, some of the challenges he faces and some of the innovations he’s making to meet them – including moving to robot-ready on horticultural sites.  
 
Julian also talks about his Nuffield travel, what he learned and how his research played a role in helping shape an industry.  

The interview took place in May 2022 and the version below was edited for clarity. Listen to the podcast above for the original conversation.

Bryan Gibson – Editor of Farmer’s Weekly.

I’m Bryan Gibson, editor of the Farmer’s Weekly. And today we are talking to Julian Raine. How’s it going? 

Julian Raine – 1997 Nuffield Scholar, Dairy and Horticulture farmer/grower, Nelson. 

Good. Thanks, Bryan. 

The apple of a robot’s eye.

Bryan: And where are you calling in from today?

Julian:  I’m in Nelson. We have a farming operation, which includes dairy and horticulture, just south of Nelson in the Tasman region.

Bryan: That’s quite a diverse business you got going there? 

Julian:  Yes, it is. The agricultural bit has been in the family for 180 years, so we’ve been around a while. Whereas the horticultural bit, I started with my business partners about 40 something years ago.

Innovating in a diverse operation.

Bryan: What do you focus on in the horticulture side of things? 

Julian: We have about 200 hectares of apples. I’m just trying to do the quick numbers off the top of my head – about 40 hectares of berries, all boysenberries. About 45 hectares of kiwifruit, and about five hectares of a new crop for us, feijoas. 

Bryan: Fantastic. And how have things been going this year? 

Julian: It’s been a good year in terms of growing. Been a lot more difficult to get things harvested with the shortage of staff. We completed harvest nearly a couple of months ago for all crops, so that’s good to have that behind us, although we were still packing apples well into July.  

There’s plenty of challenges with shipping and trying to get containers. We were running about a month behind with our shipping program, so that’s been a bit of a worry. 

Bryan: You haven’t had any of the weather or climate related yield issues they’ve had up in the North Island? 

Julian: No. No, we’ve been a bit fortunate thankfully, there was enough to contend with from COVID. 

Bryan: And the agriculture side of things, can you just tell me a little bit about that? 

Julian: Yes. We operate a fresh milk business. We deliver to about 3,000 households in the top of the South Island, Marlborough-Nelson-Tasman. We operate two dairy farms, and we buy and milk from another two dairy farmers. 

Bryan: So, it’s direct to the consumer. 

Julian: Yes. The home delivery is to the letter box, or to the back door, or front door. To cafes, restaurants. And we have several vending machines dotted around Nelson as well. 

Bryan: That seems to be a growing industry, isn’t it? 

Julian: It’s kind of back to the future really. When I was a lad, all the milk was basically bought at the front gate. And occasionally when you ran out, you went down to the dairy. So, we’ve kind of gone back to that model. 

Bryan: My first job I did all through high school was pushing a milk cart round the streets. I was there for the change from glass to the tetrapaks. 

Julian: Right. We’ve gone back to glass as part of what we do. 

We visited Julian at his apple orchard in April, where he has trees producing mostly the variety ‘Pink Lady’.

Julian spoke briefly about a new 500 cow, all-weather shed he has built, giving his operation ‘the tick’ from the SPCA, one of the first dairy farms in New Zealand to receive this endorsement. This dairy operation supplies Appleby Farms (Ice cream), a business collaboration between himself and Murray Taggart, a fellow Nuffield Scholar.

A Nuffield report creating impact.

Bryan: Now, it’s been a little while since you did your Nuffield report, 1997 I think you did it. But integrated fruit production, still relevant, I think. What do you remember of writing that report? 

Julian: As you say, it was 25 years ago. So, a bit of a distant memory, but many of the issues are still relevant today. What came from that report was a system I wrote called Green Grow, which was to deliver three things: Fruit with no residues, have some environmental indicators, and have a food safety system under something relatively new then called HACCP.  

This was a hazard analysis control point, which was what NASA used to send their astronauts into space. Because if you’re sick up there because of food, you’ve got a major problem. So, they wrote a food safety programme, and I adopted the bones of that, or the principles of that. 

They wanted to know whether the product was safe. The only way that we could guarantee the product being safe was essentially to take residues away. So, in terms of how we produce it, it’s up to us to battle the elements, with insects and fungi. 

When the consumer comes to consume it, they want to know that there’s nothing on there that can harm them or their kids. And then as part of that, some environmental indicators that say we haven’t harmed the environment in producing that fruit. 

Bryan: Space age fruit production, that sounds awesome. 

Julian: Yes, years later, I chaired the Apple Futures Programme, that was a three-year programme to deliver wider systems to get to the same point for the average grower. That’s pretty much about 80 something percent of the New Zealand industry now, with a fair chunk of the balance being organic. I wasn’t pretending to be organic. And yeah, we converted a whole industry in less than a decade. 

Bryan: The industry as a whole – horticulture, pip fruit and candy fruit, and that sort of thing has come a long way in the last decade or two, hasn’t it? 

Julian: It has. That was late 2000s, and since then it’s advanced even further. 

Setting up for horticultural automation.

Bryan: Do you have any other observations on how things have changed, running a kiwi fruit growing business in that time? 

Julian: We’ve set up our orchard systems now for being robot ready. We can’t keep going how we are. And so, investing in an orchard production system is a long timeframe. We must think about what the future will look like when we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a hectare setting up an orchard.  

We’ve set our orchards up in anticipation for robots to be able to harvest. We think about how they’ll optically see the fruit, how they’ll pick it, and then how they’ll get that fruit from the tree into a bin. That’s what we’ve been busy at in the last decade. About 30 something percent of our orchards, anything we’ve planted in the last 10 years, are robot ready. 

Bryan: That’s interesting. You often think about building robots to pick the fruit as it sits. But there are a lot of things, I guess, row spacing and the way you propagate the trees, that sort of thing. 

Julian: Yes, and how we set the structure up. So single plane trees. It’s like a single plane hedge row, so the robotics and the sensors sensing the fruit, can’t go through the tree. So, it’s got to be on a single plane essentially. 

Bryan: That’s amazing. How far off do you think you are from getting the robots? Are you involved in any of that? 

Julian: The Americans and the Europeans are leading that race. We don’t have the technology here that’s needed for it. Although, there’s a small group headed by Steve Saunders in the Bay of Plenty who are working on kiwifruit robotics. They’ve tended to go more into the pack house and look at optics and how you pack fruit. 

In ten-years-time, we’ll have lights out factories packing apples. Again, to try and get 24 hour a day, seven day a week packing businesses going, we need to do the same thing with our harvest processes. When the sun goes down, we don’t all go home – robots will carry on. 

Bryan: Sounds very high tech and quite cool.  

Julian: There’s a lot of work to get it to that point. A few of us, I suppose, think about these things in the middle of the night, when other people are sleeping.  

You’ve got to work out where your business is going. About how you make it more efficient and keep a lid on cost. Because everyone is really cost conscious now, the consumer wants to buy more for less. And we’ve got to get cost out of our business and keep a high standard, because that’s really what our New Zealand brand is built on. 

Nuffield and the international travel experience.

Bryan: Now, going back to 1997, you also did a bit of travel as part of your studies? 

Julian: Yes. Through Southeast Asia, Europe, and Eastern Europe. It wasn’t long after the wall came down, I was in Hungary looking at soft fruit production. I was also in South America looking at what they were doing in Chile and, North America, in Washington.  

Really interesting to get a handle on what the leading lights were doing at that point in terms of their growing systems. 

Bryan: And in the time since, how would you say being involved in the Nuffield Programme has informed what you’ve done in those years?

Julian: Well, for me it was about the personal experience and honing my leadership skills and trying to lead producers through changes. Also, trying to think about things holistically, looking at a problem, not from just a single plane, but being able to not only go around and see the other person’s view, but be able to walk right around that issue and look at several points of view.  

I’m probably not finished yet – I’m always willing to give back to the industry. 

Bryan: The Rural Leaders, Nuffield Programme would be something you’d recommend? 

 Julian: Without Nuffield I wouldn’t have got to where I am today. It gave me not only a critical thinking ability, but it’s also given me a lot of resilience as well.  

I am also able to call on the experiences I saw around the world – the interactions not only with other primary producers, but also government officials and how government thinks.  

And how the EU operates, rightly or wrongly. And then most importantly, how consumers think, and always interacting with your customer to keep yourself up to date with what the customer wants to pay for, and what they don’t want to pay for.

Thanks for listening to Ideas That Grow, a Rural Leaders podcast. This podcast was presented by Farmers Weekly.

For more information on Rural Leaders, the Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships, or the Kellogg Rural Leaders Programme, please visit ruralleaders.co.nz 

Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships

The future of food and fibre is in the hands of our bold and our grounded people – those who give back to their communities and industries.

Sound like you?

Register your interest to find out more.

Kellogg Rural Scholar Series: ‘Dairy Insights’.

Here’s an introduction from Rural Leaders CEO Chris Parsons, on the new Dairy Insights report.

Dairy Insights - Kellogg Reports

New Zealand’s food and fibre sector is full of capable, and purpose driven people. Supported by DairyNZ, Livestock Improvement Corporation and an incredible group of partners, the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust is privileged to be entrusted with growing many of these people in their leadership journey.

A key aspect of the rural leadership approach is research-based scholarship. The clarity of thought and confidence this approach promotes is transformative. 

The set of reports précised in this edition are penned by Scholars from the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme. The Kellogg programme has been equipping rural leaders for strategic impact since 1970. The selection of reports is just a sample of reports by Scholars from the Dairy Industry.  

They grapple with the big issues facing New Zealand Dairy and are written by people living and working in the Sector. Many Kellogg and Nuffield Scholars go on to live their research. They build businesses. They advance community and social enterprises. They influence policy and advocate for animal and environmental outcomes, informed by an ability for critical analysis and their own research-fuelled passion. Rural Scholarship is about impact.  

In the following pages we are pleased to précis 14 dairy research reports by Kellogg Scholars. The full reports can be found at https://ruralleaders.co.nz/kellogg-our-insights

The reports traverse topics as wide and timely as innovation, markets, people, sustainability and social issues.  

Ngā mihi,  
Chris Parsons

and the NZ Rural Leaders Team 

Download report

Download and read the full report here:

Kellogg Rural Scholar Series: ‘Dairy Insights’.

More issues from the seriess

Kellogg Rural Scholars Series: Horticultural Insights

Kellogg Rural Scholars Series: Horticultural Insights

Read More →

Kellogg Rural Scholar Series: ‘Dairy Insights’.

Read More →

Kellogg Phase Two – what does it look like? 

Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme - Wellington week

One of the highlights of the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme is the Wellington based, Phase Two. Scholars of the 48th Kellogg Programme (internally referred to as K48), will begin their Phase Two in September.

The week is delivered in a specific order designed to reveal the political and economic context carefully, each step building on the last.  

Dr Scott Champion, will facilitate, expertly introducing Scholars to this part of the Programme. Phil Morrison facilitates on other Kellogg Programmes. Dr Champion deftly fills the spaces between influential speakers, encouraging discussion and imparting his own extensive knowledge, so that the whole experience is as seamless as it is inspiring.  

So, what will Phase Two look like for the Scholars of the 48th Kellogg Rural Leadership programme?

Note, this gives an idea of how any Phase Two will flow. Details and speakers are subject to change. 

Kellogg Phase Two - The Political and Economic Context for Leadership.

Day One 

Dr Champion introduces this phase. 

Lian Butcher talks about the role of local and regional government. Lian is General Manager, Greater Wellington Environment Group. 

Jessica Smith is a Kellogg Scholar and talks about Māori governance and management, as well as her role as Regional Director of Te Tai Hauāuru. 

Vangelis Vitalis talks about trade policy and market access.  

Mike Petersen discussion session. Mike wears and has worn many hats, one of which was as SATE, New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy.

He is passionately committed to advancing New Zealand here and on the global stage.  

Day Two

Dr Champion leads each morning with a reflection session, designed to discuss the previous day, draw insights, and connect these with the upcoming speakers. 

Chris Parsons, CEO Rural Leaders will talk Civics (the rights and duties of citizenship) to get the morning underway. 

Nicola Hill and Rachel Groves, cover political structures and processes. Nicola is  Te Whanau a Apanui Takutai Moana Application Lead and was formerly nearly five years with the department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Rachel is a Principal Policy Analyst with the Ministry of Justice. 

Barbara Kuriger, a Member of Parliament for the National party, gives some insights into the inner workings of government. 

Hon. Damien O’Connor, MP for West Coast-Tasman, Minister of Agriculture, Minister for Trade and Export Growth, Biosecurity, Land Information, and Rural Communities. 

Question time, followed by networking at PWC.

Kellogg Wellington phase 2022

Day Three

Reflection session.

Ewan Kelsall and Kevin Hackwell, speak about the role of NGO’s, interest groups and lobbyists. Ewan is a Senior Environmental Policy Advisor for Federated Farmers and Kevin is Group Manager Campaigns and Advocacy for Forest and Bird.

Sam Halstead, speaks about the role of journalism and PR. Sam is Director at Latitude, Strategy and Communication.

Leaders Meetings. Small groups have one-on-ones with Sector leaders. This is a no-holds-barred discussion where leaders share their good decisions, their bad ones and what they would do differently if they could.

Networking function at PWC. The programme dials up the networking during phase two with this opportunity to get in front of industry leaders and policymakers.  

Day Four

Reflection session. 

Anna Rathe, Submissions Workshop 1 and 2. In two parts and delivered either side of lunch, Anna leads this workshop. Anna is a Strategy and Risk Policy Leader with Horticulture New Zealand.  

Sam Halstead, Communications Skills Workshop. Also delivered in two parts, this workshop expertly covers a lot of ground, focusing on the pieces that matter. 

Day Five. 

Reflection session. 

Martin Workman, Chief Advisor at the Ministry for the Environment. Martin leads a ‘big issues’ discussion and talk.  

Project Workshop. This 90-minute session is designed to help develop project topics. It’s a good time to air any challenges Scholars might be facing.
 
Goal setting and Phase Two close.

Kellogg Wellington phase 2022_group photo

Want to experience this for yourself. Register your interest in the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme today.  

2023’s January and June intakes at Lincoln. 

Kellogg Programme One, Lincoln: 24 January – 7 July 2023 

Applications close: Sunday, 30 October 2022. 

Kellogg Programme Two, Lincoln: 13 June – 30 November 2023 

Applications close: Sunday, 16 April 2023.

The carbon credit currency

Carbon credits
Carbon credits

By Sam Mander, Environmental Consultant, The AgriBusiness Group and 2022 Kellogg Scholar.

The article is reprinted from the Real Estate Magazine, with permission from the publisher The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

Indigenous forest land and the carbon sequestration opportunity for New Zealand landowners always seems to be downplayed — deemed too expensive, too hard, or inferior compared to exotic forests.

Sam Mander, Environmental Consultant at The AgriBusiness Group, debunks this myth and provides an understanding of how to identify the indigenous carbon opportunity.

Kanuka, manuka, regenerating native vegetation or planted native restoration sites hold a significant opportunity for carbon sequestration. But fundamentally, where the opportunity really lies in this space is where a natural seed source is present.

Land with naturally regenerating indigenous forest requires no capital input, eliminating the usual barriers of expensive planting regimes and delicate forest management.  

We don’t want to discourage the planting of new native areas, particularly around areas of ecological significance, but to capitalise on the low hanging fruit, landowners must take advantage of existing native seed stocks and develop these areas to accelerate the growth of regenerating New Zealand’s indigenous landscape.  

Determining eligible indigenous forest land

Indigenous forest areas are eligible to enter the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) if they meet the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) forest land definition. 

What is carbon sequestration?

Carbon sequestration is the process by which carbon dioxide is absorbed during photosynthesis, and is stored as carbon in biomass (trunks, branches, foliage, and roots). Source: nzfoa.org.nz 

Sam Mandes_Carbon Credit Currency

MPI’s forest land definition states that forests must: 

  • Reach at least one hectare in area 
  • Reach at least 30 metres average width 
  • Have species that can grow five metres high 
  • Have the potential to reach 30% canopy cover
  • Meet the above as of 1 January 1990 or after 
  • Have met all of the above as of 1 January 1990. 


If a landowner has property that has manuka, kanuka, mixed podocarps, or areas they are thinking of planting native species (including in riparian zones — the interface between land and a river or stream) carbon credits can be earned if the areas meet the forest land definition. 
 
One carbon credit is equivalent to one tonne of carbon sequestered; therefore, the tonnes of carbon sequestered by the forest each year are the total number of annual carbon credits available.

Tonnes of carbon are calculated on a per hectare basis, and the value of one tonne is equal to the current carbon price ($76/NZU/tonne). 
 
You’re typically looking for a natural seed source present with conditions that favour natural dispersion, growth and succession. Any native species can be included if it has the potential to reach five metres in height at maturity. 
 
The most common example of opportunity is regenerating kanuka and manuka forest land areas.  
 
To earn carbon credits, landowners need to electronically map the land to certain standards and capture aerial imagery to prove the forest area meets the forest land definition. 

The value of credits a landowner can receive and for how long they will receive them largely depends on the species growing on the land.

The MPI carbon lookup tables determine that indigenous forests can earn carbon credits from sequestration in the first 50 years of growth. 

How to assess the native forest area

This can be a difficult process for landowners; fortunately, professional forestry companies and environmental consultants like myself have developed methods for assessing forest land definition and providing the result of the assessment to MPI for a successful ETS application. 

“The value of credits a landowner can receive and length of time they will receive them largely depends on the species growing on the land.” 

Depending on the forest scenario, we use a combination of ground vegetation sampling, plotting, and integrated drone imagery to determine and prove this. In most cases, this is where an expert may need to be involved. 

A recent example is a property with an indigenous natural seed source. An assessment found it had 35 hectares of post-1989 indigenous forest land that had regenerated since 1990, with a forest age of approximately 17 years.

Forest species were predominantly kanuka, manuka, among other mixed podocarps. Carbon credits can be claimed for the remaining 33 years of carbon sequestration. 

Economically speaking, at the current carbon price, this equated to an average annual cash flow of $16,000, or cumulatively, $539,000. In summary, the opportunity to earn carbon credits for indigenous forest land is significant, particularly where a natural seed source is present.

The property mentioned above is among many that we have worked on which provides a great example of the type of property that is common around rural New Zealand and one that holds value from indigenous carbon sequestration. 

Planting trees to offset carbon isn’t a silver bullet against climate change.

However, carbon credits allow landowners to balance the scales for those unavoidable emissions on the path to reduction and has potential to generate financial benefits for those who wish to engage in these sustainable practices.

Download Sam’s report Carbon Sequestration Potential.

How Resilient Farmers Thrive In The Face Of Adversity

Resilient Farmers_Jack Cocks_Joanne R. Stevenson
Resilient Farmers_Jack Cocks_Joanne R. Stevenson

By Jack Cocks and Joanne R. Stevenson.

Article is reprinted from The Journal with permission from the publisher, NZ Institute of Primary Industry Management

Farmers face adversity from multiple sources and additional challenges to other sectors of society. To date, there does not appear to be a simple high-level resilience-focused model for how farmers can be more resilient ‘personally’.

This article, which is the result of a Kellogg Rural Leadership Study on ‘How Resilient Farmers Thrive in the Face of Adversity‘, is a first step towards developing that model.

The study found there were three key strategies that facilitated farmer resilience – purpose, connection and well-being.

Adversity affects farmers from multiple sources

Like all members of society, farmers face adversity in a range of forms from health crises to financial volatility, family challenges and personal loss. Due to the nature of their business, however, farmers are more vulnerable than those in other industries to climate challenges and global market shifts. They are also often toiling at the coalface of legislative changes and can have less access to appropriate support services. 

More than other industries farmers have strong identity ties to their land and business, meaning that disruptions to the farm are de facto disruptions to the farming family. They also typically live at their place of work.

The current global environment (autumn 2022) – experiencing climate, a global pandemic and a war in Eastern Europe – highlights the dynamism, volatility and interconnected global marketplace in which New Zealand farmers operate. 

Developing strategies to recover quickly from adversity, or ‘building resilience’, is essential to achieving long-term success in farming. While there are a number of tools and resources available that address social-emotional resilience, there does not appear to be a simple, high-level resilience-focused model developed specifically for farmers.

Such a model could be used by farmers when facing adversity to ask themselves, ‘Are we implementing the key strategies and techniques (both as an individual and as a team of individuals) that we need to be resilient in the face of this adversity?’ 

More than other industries farmers have strong identity ties to their land and business, meaning that disruptions to the farm are de facto disruptions to the farming family.

Context

The lead author, Jack Cocks, an Otago high country farmer, experienced adversity from a life-threatening brain injury which saw him in a coma, suffer a cardiac arrest, a seizure and a pulmonary oedema.

On day one in hospital Jack’s family was given a prognosis that their husband, dad and son would likely be dead today. The best case scenario was that he would survive but spend the rest of his life in an institution.

He obviously did survive, and the following six years saw him undergo 15 major surgeries and spend eight months in hospital re-learning to talk, and several times re-learning to walk. 

Through this experience and recovery Jack has been told that he is a resilient character. He has been asked to give several talks to farmers on his experience and how he developed resilience through adversity.

He found that giving these talks was a humbling and surprising experience for the feedback received.

However, the presentations were based on just one farmer’s thoughts and he had two questions he could not answer from them: 

  • The adversity he had faced, while bad, was it any worse than what many people face? 
  • Were his ideas on resilience applicable to all farmers, or were they just the ideas of one farmer who had faced some adversity? 

Five areas of adversity

The five areas of adversity and a brief synopsis of each case are given below: 

Health

Doug, who farms on the East Coast, faced severe adversity in the form of depression. This was primarily brought about through farming in what became an eight-year drought.

Natural disasters, climate and weather

Andy, who farms in Canterbury, has farmed through a succession of major weather events, snowfalls and droughts. He has a great deal of knowledge about how to farm through adversity.

Financial

Kevin and Jody, who farm in Otago, have faced a very high amount of adversity in their lives starting from before they emigrated to New Zealand.

Their major adversity in this country has been financial, in the form of a very low dairy payout in their first two seasons as 50:50 sharemilkers. 

Family 

Brent and Jo, who farm in Southland, experienced a number of challenges to farm succession early in their farming career. Communication and a desire to split assets evenly among all children, farming and non-farming, were the major challenges.

They have since done everything right to complete succession with Brent’s siblings and are an example for how farm succession can successfully be completed with their own children. 

Personal loss 

Melissa lost her husband to cancer and has since done tremendous good for her community. 

It would be impossible and unfair to compare each of these stories. The level of adversity and the situations they have faced are so different that any of them would have responded differently, perhaps better, perhaps worse.

The choice of case study participants provides representation of the common sources of adversity farmers in New Zealand face and a cross-section of the likelihood of adversity from the ‘wow, that is incredible’, to ‘yes, our neighbours have been in that situation – I’ve seen it many times.’

The most remarkable story of resilience is notable for the breadth of the sources of adversity and the severity of the situation they faced.

One of the case studies is therefore an important reminder of the possibility of compounding disruptions, where adverse events seem to stack up, showing the way that resilience can be repeatedly eroded and then built back up.

Jack was able to identify some of the case study participants because they have shared their stories publicly, mobilising the power of story-telling to process their own adverse event and improve the lives of others by sharing their message.

Interviewing and examining their stories collectively revealed common themes that underpinned this diverse range of experiences. 

Resilience strategies and the ‘Resilience Triangle’

Analysing the interviews revealed the common resilience strategies that the five case study participants knowingly or unknowingly put in place in their lives.

These strategies are captured in the form of a three-level triangle, the ‘Resilience Triangle’: 

Purpose 

This is the reason we are doing what we’re doing; the ‘direction’ of the triangle, the ‘why’. 

Connection 

This is the middle of the triangle; the ‘glue’ that holds it together, or the ‘who’. This is keeping connected with other people – friends, family, farming networks and local communities.

These connections are the people in our lives who buoy us up and encourage us to achieve, to rise above, and to have courage when going through adversity. 

Well-being 

This is the base of the triangle. It is, ‘what do I need in my life to be well’ or to be happy and content? It is the ‘foundation’ for resilience, the ‘what’. 

Participants in the study placed different weighting and had different consciousness of the use of these strategies, but they are common across all five cases.

Key to the effectiveness of these resilience building strategies is the combinations of approaches across the three levels and how the participants have implemented the strategies in their lives. 

For each of these strategies there were four ‘enabling techniques’ below each one that the farmers used to enable resilience at each level.

There are different enablers that underpin their sense of purpose, connection and well-being. We could identify enablers that, when missing, eroded resilience at different levels of the triangle. 

The resilience triangle_Jack Cocks_Joanne R. Stevenson

The lead author cites that after brain injury induced balance issues, having sufficient stability to be able to dress standing up was a cause for celebration after having to sit on the bed to do this for so long. Enjoying the little things such as seasonal foods, a sunrise, or the first birdsong in the early spring were all cited as enablers of well-being.

Conclusions

This study was concerned with developing a theory for how resilient farmers thrive in the face of adversity. It found that the case study participants employed three strategies in their lives to be resilient: 

  • they lived with ‘purpose’ in that they had a clear understanding of ‘why’ they were doing what they were doing 
  • they were very good at keeping ‘connected’ with those people around them who would and could help them through periods of adversity 
  • they also understood what they needed to do to keep ‘well’ – what they needed in their lives to be happy and content. 

Also, for each of these three strategies there were four enabling techniques which these farmers employed to facilitate each strategy. 

Rural professionals supporting our farmers need a clear understanding of not only the causes of adversity, but some of the strategies and techniques they can use to be resilient. 

The future global environment in which New Zealand farmers operate will face significant volatility, turmoil and potentially subsequent adversity. 

Rural professionals supporting our farmers need a clear understanding of not only the causes of adversity, but some of the strategies and techniques they can use to be resilient. We believe this study is a first step in crystallising how resilient farmers thrive in the face of adversity.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme for developing and delivering such an excellent programme. Also, to the five case study participants who have openly shared their stories of adversity and resilience, as they are remarkable and inspirational farmers. 

Jack Cocks is a sheep and beef farmer in the Otago high country and previously a partner in AbacusBio, a Dunedin agribusiness and science consultancy. Dr Joanne R. Stevenson is a Principal Consultant with Resilient Organisations Ltd and farms in partnership with her husband on a North Canterbury sheep and beef property. 

Corresponding author: jackcnz@icloud.com 

Hamish Murray: Building stronger on-farm teams by getting out of the way.

Hamish Murray podcast - Building stronger on-farm teams
Hamish Murray podcast - Building stronger on-farm teams

From Bluff Station to Cambridge University and back.​

This transcript of the podcast was edited for clarity.

Bryan Gibson – Editor of Farmer’s Weekly. 
I’m Bryan Gibson, editor of the Farmer’s Weekly. And this morning I’m talking to Hamish Murray. How’s it going? 

Hamish Murray – 2019 Nuffield Scholar, Bluff Station, Marlborough. 
Good. Thanks, Bryan. And you?

BG: You’re in Marlborough, is that right? 

HM: We are an hour south of Blenheim, 45 minutes north of Kaikoura on the east coast, inland at Kekerengu. 

We’re a high-country sheep and beef farm that stretches into the Clarence Valley. The Homestead is about five minutes from the coast and goes all the way into the base of Tapuae-o-Uenuku. It’s about 35 km’s to the back boundary. We run Merino sheep, Hereford Angus cattle, and we have about 800 beehives. 

BG: How have things been going this year for you? 

HM: We’ve had a great season with 300mm of rain through late January, early February. It’s meant our autumn has been incredible, and stock are in good condition. We’re through the bulk of our work now. It’s starting to quiet down for the next five weeks before we look at shearing ewes at the start of August. 

BG: I noticed from your bio you went to Cambridge University? 

HM:  Yeah. I suppose like many farmers at one point, you were told to get out and go and do something other than agriculture. And so, I spent a lot of my former years trying to give myself an opportunity to do anything other than be a farmer.  

I was sitting on a train on the way to a job interview in London, after graduating from Cambridge. It was then that I realised I really wanted to be back in New Zealand chasing stock around and being part of the farming community. I wanted to give our children the opportunity to grow up with the same experiences as we had. 

BG: How was that time in the UK at university for you? Must have been quite eye opening. 

HM: I was fortunate to get the opportunity to study there. I played a good level of sport playing in the varsity match on a couple of occasions while studying economics.

It was an incredible experience. It pushed me mentally as far as I could have been pushed. The expectation to perform and to be part of that was a great challenge. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look back on it fondly. 

Hamish Murray at Bluff high country station

Pushing your limits and personal growth.

BG: And in 2019 you went through the Nuffield Scholarship Programme. 

HM: Again, fortunate to be given the opportunity to do some travel. I felt that when I was in the UK, I was on a student budget. So, I didn’t really get the opportunity to do the travel that I would’ve liked while I was there.

The Nuffield Farming Scholarship gave me the opportunity to look at agriculture in different parts of the world with a whole lot of like-minded people.  

My topic was to look at teams and what made certain businesses successful or workplaces more enjoyable and engaging for staff. 

I had a real challenge about five years after coming home from overseas. We had a significant drought here in Marlborough and North Canterbury, and it pushed me to an emotional breaking point. I’d played top level sport so I knew, physically, how far I could push myself.  

Studying at Cambridge I’d reached that mental breaking point also. My limits had been challenged there. But I’d never had an emotional breaking point like this drought caused. I’m not unique in that. Everybody has these challenges. At that time, I exhausted myself trying to keep our team, our staff, and our family going. 

That was a significant point for me. I became focused on how to better lead myself first. That grew over the next couple of years as we recovered and then grew into how to better lead our teams.   

Hamish Murray at Bluff station

Nuffield study and building better teams.

My focus at the time of the Nuffield was around productive, efficient, and effective teams. What makes some places more engaging and motivating for staff to work in.

Then with Nuffield I was lucky enough to look at businesses all around the world that were held up on those pillars. What made them different, what made them tick, and what might that mean for the future of work in New Zealand – in the ag space, especially. 
 
BG: So can you talk a little bit about who you looked at and what some of the keys to building a successful team might be? 
 
HM: With my Nuffield travel I got to see businesses in the Netherlands healthcare industry that had developed these self-managing teams called Buurtzorg. I spent time in Silicon Valley too, looking at a lot of tech companies.  

Everywhere I went, I was looking at teams and what made them successful. And then coming home, I spent time with the Crusaders looking at what made them different. How have they been able to win multiple championships, seemingly pulling from the same talent pool as the rest of New Zealand.  

BG: And were there some takeaways from that can be applied to the agriculture situation? What sort of changes did you end up making, say, in your own business to overcome the sort of challenges you had with the drought?  

Building self-awareness and self-aware teams.

HM: A lot of what I learned was building on those challenges we had been working through. Self-awareness was a huge one. Building self-awareness together as a team was significant for all these businesses. They found their own individual ways to work together on the soft skills that make teams work well together.  

People don’t leave a job necessarily because they don’t like it. They leave the job because they don’t like the boss or their workmates.  

 “So much of what we focus on is the technical stuff in doing the job, rather than working on working together.” 

How do we best understand the individual attributes that people bring to a team? Little things as simple as how do people like to learn? How do they like to communicate? For example, what do I look like on a good day? What do I look like on a bad day? And how to come up with strategies as a team to overcome those things. 
 
BG: You mentioned the Crusaders and Scott Robertson’s approach to coaching and team culture. He seems to find out, as you say, the best way to do knowledge transfer, depending on that person’s mental makeup. And that’s part of the success, isn’t it? 

HM:  Absolutely. One example for me was the way every business or every super rugby franchise has their values in big print somewhere in their changing room so that everyone sees them. It’s kind of the way that people do it.

The real gold comes from when you spend time to work out with people what those values look, sound, and feel like.  

Until you dig deeper with your individuals. As the people in your team change, how does that look, sound, and feel for those particular people at that time? That makes these things come alive and become more of an ingrained part of your culture. 

BG: It seems that the world we live in now seems to be more challenging for both individuals and workplaces. So, this kind of approach and strategy, if you are running a team, is only going to become more important.

The Nuffield Scholarship and creating the space to grow.

HM: Wellbeing is important but being able to bring your whole self to work is even more so. As you get away from the hierarchy of things, people want to be able to turn up. They don’t want to be a different person at work than at home.  

To truly understand people, we’ve got to listen and ask better questions, and get to the bottom of truly understanding them. Then we can build a safety network of people around them, allowing them to flourish in our workplaces. 

BG: So you obviously enjoyed the experience of going through the Nuffield Programme? 

HM: I couldn’t recommend it enough. One of the greatest challenges for me, and one of the biggest learnings, was being able to set our business up with our team to create the opportunity for staff to step into that space. Then I could be away for nearly five months.

They really grew into that opportunity, by me getting out of their way, yet still giving them enough support.  

I think that’s been one of the greatest growth opportunities for me – is create the space for our team to step into. They’ve thrived in that opportunity. 

We haven’t gone back to where we were before. That has been significant and enjoyable for me. And when I look back on the opportunity, the travel, the study, and the chance to look around and gain many ideas from many businesses around the world – it was fantastic.  

“When I think back on what the greatest significance has been, it would be the growth in our team and in our business, simply because of being able to get my own ego out of the way.” 

BG:  Among all of what we’ve been speaking about, there was the earthquake down your way, too. That must have been a massive challenge. 

HM: It was, yes. We had four of six houses rebuilt. I was away, so my wife and three kids were living in a cottage while our house was being rebuilt. Jess managed the rebuild, looked after three kids who were just five, three, and one – while I was traveling around the world with Nuffield.

Yes, there were lots of challenges in that – but lots of growth for all of us too. 

BG: Teamwork with a capital ‘T’ there. Good grief. 

HM: Yeah. Very lucky, very grateful. And it’s nice to be able to repay some of the faith that people have put in me. 

BG: Thanks for listening to Ideas That Grow, a Rural Leaders podcast. This podcast was presented by Farmers Weekly.

For more information on Rural Leaders, the Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships, please visit ruralleaders.co.nz/nuffield.

Connect with Hamish on LinkedIn.

Kate Scott: Front footing the fast-moving regulatory environment.

Kate Scott podcast

Ideas That Grow: Kate Scott, 2018 Nuffield Scholar.

The interview with Kate Scott took place in May 2022 and the version below was edited for clarity. Listen to the podcast above for the original conversation.

Bryan Gibson – Editor of Farmer’s Weekly.

I’m Bryan Gibson, editor of the Farmer’s Weekly. And today we are talking to Kate Scott who is calling from central Otago. Is that right Kate?

Kate Scott – 2018 Nuffield Scholar and Landpro Executive Director.
Yes, it is. I’m based in, what is typically, sunny Central Otago. So, a little place called Bannockburn is where I call home, which is just out of Cromwell for those listeners who aren’t familiar with the area.

Bryan: Good stuff. And what took you to Bannockburn?

From dairy farming in Taranaki to environmental consulting in Otago.

Kate:  A little bit of a strange story. So, some people will know that I hail from Taranaki originally. I grew up on a dairy farm in Taranaki and some 16 years ago, my husband and I packed up our life to go and milk cows in central Otago. So probably not the most usual journey to dairy farming – was shifting from dairy farming central to Central Otago. But that’s how we ended up in the South Island.

Bryan: And enjoying the journey down there?

Kate:  Yeah, look, it’s been an amazing journey for us. So, my husband, who coincidentally, his first name is Scott – it confuses a lot of people when I refer to him. But Scott and I shifted down and we were on farm, milking cows for about seven or eight years all up. Then we took the opportunity to pursue some other avenues at that point, after a year of working together on farm. We moved off-farm and started Landpro, which is a consultancy business that’s been growing since 2007, now to a team of about
80 people.

We’re an environmental consultancy business and probably 60 to 70% of our work would be in the primary sector, working with farmers and growers to help them to navigate what are not insignificant hurdles and challenges in the environmental space. And now we also happen to call a small vineyard home too. I can’t say I know a heck of a lot about vineyards, but it’s been a pretty quick learning curve and something that we are really enjoying. Being able to have a little bit of space in such a beautiful part of the country.

Bryan:  Wow. So, you are making wine now!

Kate:  Yeah. To be fair. I don’t really make it, the only thing I’m probably good at is the drinking bit, but we do have some wonderful winemakers that work with us to make the wine from the grapes we are growing on our land.

Bryan: Well, that is um, a terribly important skill to have.

Kate: It is.

The Nuffield Scholarship and gaining new perspectives.

Bryan: And amongst all that, I think it was 2018 when you did your Nuffield Scholarship, is that correct?

Kate: That’s right. So, I was a 2018 Nuffield Scholar. That was an amazing journey, you know, having that opportunity to travel the world and to not only undertake, a research project, which I’ll tell you about in a little bit, but also that opportunity for personal growth and reflection and understanding. And I think as much as anything, to understand how the world works.

For me, probably one of the standouts was learning about the role of geopolitics within food and within agriculture. And I call on the things that I observed and learnt during that process often – now in my day job. But yeah, it’s certainly been one heck of a journey since that time. That’s for sure.

Bryan: Now your topic seems to me to be a little bit related to your consultancy, is that right? Um, taking a look at how New Zealand farmers can embrace, and improve sustainability, that sort of thing.

Kate: Yeah, that’s correct. What I did my research on was enabling better environmental outcomes in agriculture. Back in 2018, I was starting to see a bunch of the challenges that certainly a number of my clients were facing. How could they ensure they continued to have profitable businesses, but deliver better outcomes for the environment too? So those challenges that we’re all probably feeling more acutely now.

I took that opportunity to go and have a look to understand what things we were doing well. I asked, what are the areas where we can do things better? Some of the findings I identified in my research were things like, you know, I felt that we had to have an overarching strategy for sustainable agriculture within New Zealand, because if we’re not all on the same page, in terms of where we are wanting to go, how are we going to get there? How do we create that coherence?

I also identified during that study, that there’s a bunch of barriers in the way. And look, it’s perhaps a little odd for the consultant to say, but in my view, sometimes I think, if we could change our approach and view the world with a ground-up perspective and have less regulation, not more, we might actually end up with much better outcomes for our communities, for our environment and for our businesses. And so all these things that are just as relevant then as they are now.

I think the importance of supporting and enabling farmers to continue to do really great work is hugely important to me. That’s what drives me to get out of bed in the morning. It’s knowing that by working with those clients, we’re actually helping them to showcase and demonstrate the good things they are doing and identify the areas where they can continue to work on to do more.

And I think it’s been a real shift in the view of farmers in that space, since 2018. You know, the amount of knowledge and understanding that farmers have gained in that time has also been quite significant.

The Nuffield Research and a global context.

Bryan: Now, obviously you did a bit of travel. What did you see out there in the big, bad world, that either worked or didn’t as far as this goes?

Kate: One of the things I found really fascinating at the time, that was probably quite reassuring, was that New Zealand farmers for a while there were certainly getting a really bad rap about all the terrible things they did. But when I went out and had a look at the way that agriculture was being undertaken and other parts of the world, it pretty much highlighted for me that there was a lot of things we were doing very well.

In terms of managing the effects of our activities on the environment. I think one of the other things that stood out for me is that we actually have quite different challenges in terms of our environmental impacts from farming here in New Zealand compared to elsewhere.

An example of that would be that we run a predominantly pastoral agricultural system and therefore our impacts on fresh water, they will be some of the core concerns we see, and still see, here in New Zealand. Whereas if you go to other parts of the world there’s a whole lot more of their agriculture undertaken in indoor systems.

The impacts and the challenges that were top of mind for those farmers at that point in time were more along the greenhouse gas and emissions space. Identifying that we all have the same top 10 issues and challenges we are trying to overcome. They just came in a different order, depending which parts of the, the world we were undertaking our activities. I found that quite fascinating.

The other thing that I found interesting was the differences in scale. Some of the solutions I might have seen that were being deployed around some of the climate-smart agriculture in places like Denmark, for example, where, you know, you’re talking about very small-scale farms, perhaps those solutions aren’t likely to gain much in the way of traction in New Zealand. So, look, I think that was a really fascinating observation – that there isn’t a one size fits all in terms of an approach. I don’t think there’s any one silver bullet out there.

Bryan: You mentioned earlier about the pros and cons of having quite a strict regulatory framework. Did you see anything abroad that was better or worse than what we have?

Kate: It’s fair to say the deep-dive that I did into the regulatory space, around controls relating to agriculture in the environment – it’s probably fair to say that as a general rule New Zealand has some of the more stringent requirements. Obviously, some regions are different to others, but if we go into some of the more stringent regional requirements around land use controls on farming, it often wasn’t the case that those same level of controls were necessarily required through parts of Europe, where I spent a lot of my time. They had other controls and measures in place.

So, for example, it might have been the P caps that might’ve been in place. Yes, they had some controls, but they probably weren’t quite as stringent as some of the challenges we were facing here.

But they’re also quite difficult to compare because there were different layers of government, and different issues and challenges that were trying to be overcome. That was probably one of the challenges when I was trying to do a more in-depth analysis. It became quite difficult cause you weren’t always comparing apples with apples.

Tackling agriculture’s regulatory challenges.

Bryan: Seems to me, sticking with that regulatory sort of avenue, that the market itself seems to be starting to move farmers and food producers in that direction. And you know, maybe you can get more buy in that way. Is that something you’re seeing?

Kate: Yeah, look, I’ve seen a really big shift. I spend a lot of time talking to a broad range of farmers from a range of different sectors and catchment groups. And one of the things I often talk about is the fact that we need to make sure that from a mindset point of view, if we stop thinking about all of this change being regulatory driven.

It’s not just central government or local government making the rules to say that we have to change. If we actually think about it in the context of the consumer and those people that want to buy our meat or our milk, or our wood, those people are wanting to see, and be confident, that the products that they’re buying are doing the right thing. Whether that’s by the environment, or by people, or by animal welfare.

I very much believe that there’s a real market-driven change occurring there. But again, if we come back to our mindset, if we view the change in the construct of a market-driven change, then instead of doing it because someone’s telling us to do it, which we inherently don’t like to do, then our reason for doing it is a little bit different.

So, it becomes a lot easier to think, well actually, the reason I want to show why I’m doing a good job is because I want such and such, you know, and, you know, let the market actually value what I’m doing, and what I’m delivering, and how I’m doing a good job. The perspective shift actually helps to drive people along towards the change piece.

Bryan: I guess, chasing premium is a lot better than avoiding fines.

Kate: Exactly. It’s a pretty strong incentive there.

Sustainability and the speed of change.

Bryan: Yeah. Obviously, it’s been three or four years since you carried out your studies, and as we’ve been talking, the journey along this sustainability path is continuing – how do you feel about where we are at the moment?

Kate: I think one of the biggest challenges we’ve got at the moment is the speed at which things are changing. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the rural sector or you’re in any other sector – the speed and pace of change is getting quicker. One of the challenges I have in my job is things are changing so quickly, that sometimes it feels like you are trying to drink from a firehose. I think that’s the overwhelming bit that everyone’s probably feeling and the pressure that everyone’s feeling.

I think that there’s an amazing amount of good work being done by farmers, and by catchment groups and communities coming together to actually understand how they can do a better job. That’s not always recognised for what it is either.

My advice to farmers is keep doing a good job, keep striving for change and improvement. If you take little steps, you’ll actually get there. That’s something we’ll start to see bed in a little more.

One of the challenges everyone is facing is this lack of certainty, particularly when we look in the regulatory space, how do we plan for what’s coming? Or how do we plan to implement change when we don’t know if it’s stopped, or is it still coming? I think that’s the part that people are finding hard to overcome in terms of taking that next step in the progress space.

Bryan: As you say, the pace of change seems to be quickening and people in my line of work are probably somewhat responsible for some of that. But one thing you can’t make go faster is the physical and biological processes of the environment, so you know, it takes a while for changes to filter through, doesn’t it?

Kate: Yeah, it sure does. And you know, we also need to make sure that if we want change to be a long and enduring change, I strongly believe that that change needs to be led from the ground up, rather than the top down.

A really big part of my Nuffield research was about taking that, that ground up approach and leading everyone along with you rather than telling them what to do. I think, where we are starting to see some of that meaningful change is from those communities and those areas where they’ve actually seen the value in coming together as groups to support the change.

That comes back to the fact you need to have a profitable business to be able to implement change. There’s still a lot of work going to have to continue to happen around how we adjust our farm systems to meet the challenges from both a climate change, and from a biodiversity point of view. But it’s a matter of how we find ways to work together and support that together, rather than the loneliness of trying to do it on your own the whole time?

The Nuffield Scholarship – positive, life-changing, challenging, and giving back.

Bryan: So now it’s quite obvious that in your Nuffield studies you’ve learned a lot, but how was the experience for you?

Kate: Hmm, you’ve spoken to a number of scholars through the podcast series you’ve been doing, but they all, well the ones I’ve listened to, talk about the fact that it was this life changing moment. That’s completely true. But I often try, when people ask me about it, to describe it as being this event that is kind of a positively disruptive thing in your life, that at the time.

Sometimes when you’re living it, you are, not sure what it means. It tips your world upside down and you feel very uncomfortable about your place in the world. But as you work your way through that, and you get the opportunity to reflect on it, then you see it as this hugely positive experience.

For me, that positivity comes from the people you meet, the family of other scholars that wrap around you. That you have this network of people, of Nuffield scholars open to you picking up the phone or flicking them an email. And they’re immediately interested in connecting with you on any range of issues or challenges.

And that’s about that whole challenging of your perspective and your knowledge and your understanding – building yourself.

The people have been the amazing part of the opportunity and that personal growth, that business growth too, certainly that also comes from that experience. It’s been one of the most amazing things that has happened.

I think sometimes we can get or fall into the trap where we think we do our Nuffield Scholarship, and then that’s that – the end. But actually, I would probably view Nuffield, and once you complete your travels and your report, that’s kind of the start of the journey. It’s asking what next? and how we apply what we’ve learned, and how we give that back to our sector – to the primary sector, that’s the really exciting piece.

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