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How Resilient Farmers Thrive In The Face Of Adversity

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 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

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.

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.

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.

Leading in uncertain times.

For New Zealand’s food and fibre leaders, championing change is rewarding and meaningful work. Though these are complex times, where driving a purpose across diverse stakeholders, motivations and attitudes can mean these rewards come at a price.

Increasingly leaders are feeling overwhelmed – with a lot coming at them. They run businesses, sometimes volunteering in their community as well. They wear multiple hats, face multiple responsibilities and all too often burnout lurks behind the next deadline.

To nurture New Zealand’s food and fibre leaders, the Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) is delivering a new programme with a leadership focus, offering the support they need for an uncertain and stressful environment.

‘Know your Mindset. Lead what Matters’ is a short, online programme aimed at grass-roots leaders of change, behind and straddling the farm gate. It’s for both women and men driving change – helping them to manage multiple pressures, calmly and clearly.

Adapted from AWDT’s successful ‘Know your Mindset. Do what Matters’, it aims to understand leaders’ struggles and give them proven, usable tools and techniques to do the same with their teams.

The antidote to tricky times.

Leading is often a lonely place. This new programme connects farmers, growers, rural professionals, and funders across the sector to face common leadership wellbeing issues together.

It’s in this same spirit that AWDT and the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust (Rural Leaders) have come together as well. Along with the programme’s other partners MPI and Farmstrong, both Trusts are sharing ideas to help grow resilience in leaders today – and tomorrow.

Lisa Sims, AWDT, and Chris Parsons, Rural Leaders, talked recently about the programme and the context it lives in.

What to expect from ‘Know your Mindset. Lead what Matters’.

In a time of mounting pressure for rural New Zealanders, participants will learn how stress affects their ability to plan and act effectively as a leader. They gain practical tools to listen for signs of stress in teams or rural communities. They learn how to respond to them and lead them through change.

Running across two evenings, ‘Know your Mindset. Lead what Matters’ is presented by a registered Clinical Psychologist and Chartered Organisational Psychologist, alongside AWDT facilitators who work in breakout spaces where participants share stories and support each other. It’s a heavy-hitting line-up of presenters and one with a deep rural knowledge.

Creating a strong base from which to lead. 

The programme explores the impact that uncertainty, disruption, and change might have on thinking and behaviour. Participants build on this and develop a shared understanding of how to talk with and support others.

Time is also spent identifying traps for leaders along with learning to use tools to navigate working with people, stress, and emotions.

Participants round out the programme by gaining clarity about the positive changes they can make with their own leadership and building a realistic action plan to make those changes happen.

When, where, and how much does it cost?

The first ‘Know your Mindset. Lead what Matters’ programme is set for:

30 June, 7pm-8.30pm and 7 July, 7pm-9pm.

It is delivered online via Zoom and will cost $45 + GST per person.

To register for this timely programme head to https://www.awdt.org.nz/programmes/know-your-mindset-lead-what-matters/

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

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.

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.

Lucie Douma: Entering an unknown future – 2022 Nuffield CSC – Norfolk, United Kingdom

Denitsa

I was lucky enough to be at the first Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC) to take place as the world is starting to see out the other side of the Covid pandemic. It was quite surreal to be with two-years’ worth of scholars (roughly 140 people) from 15 countries, all in one place for eight days. Considering most of us have not travelled for more than two years it was a bit of re-learning how to travel and manage the new ‘Covid’ rules. But it felt normal again. This feeling couldn’t be bet.

The feeling of returning to normality comes with a number of new challenges. These global challenges affect all of our agriculture systems and our farmers. The challenges we are facing are:

Two weeks before the CSC took place, Russia invaded the Ukraine.
Dealing with the aftermath of the world being shutdown for two years from Covid, and the damage this has caused to our respective supply chains.
The implementation of Brexit and creation of new Free Trade Agreements with countries.

These large challenges were common themes to all of our discussions during the conference.

How do we navigate this new world from Norfolk?

We also spent a significant amount of time at the Norwich Research Park which is home to pioneering research and solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges including; food shortages, an ageing population and climate change. The perfect place for us! Here we tackled some big questions from potential meat free days to water shortage.

Innovation in agriculture in Norfolk can be seen at the Food Enterprise Park where Fischer Farms has begun work on a £25m project to build the world’s largest vertical farm. The vertical farm will be 25,000sqm of stacked growing space for salad leaves, herbs and other fresh produce for supermarkets.

Fischer Farms claims they will be able to produce the same amount of food in its four-acre building as would be possible on 1,000 acres of conventional British farmland. What does this mean for conventional British farming? The question becomes, is there room for both and how do they co-exist? This is what Tristan Fischer (CEO of Fischer Farms) tasked us with designing a solution for.

Learning from other scholars

I greatly valued learning from the other scholars on the challenges they face in their countries with agriculture. It was heartening to hear that we face similar challenges. However, having read through other Nuffield reports these challenges were already recognised 5-10 years ago.

One example is the vegan movement, which is getting worse and there is now a greater level of activism amongst vegan and environmental groups who appear to have coalesced in some areas (including the UK).

If this is a sign to come, then in New Zealand we really need to be thinking how we can reduce our rural-urban divide. How do we encourage more participation in our agriculture sector? Is there a role for data here? This will lead me through to the rest of my research on data interoperability and the value of data.

Thank you to Rural Leaders and all those who support Nuffield for enabling us to travel to Norfolk and come together as a global community to address some of our big challenges in the sector. The experience and what I have taken out of it is invaluable, including all the new friends I have made.

Ngā mihi nui.

Parmindar Singh: 2022 CSC Insights – Norfolk, UK

Denitsa

Background

The 2022 Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC) was held during March 2022. Nuffield 2021 and 2022 Scholars travelled from 15 countries and were hosted in Norfolk, UK. Prior to our departure in March the New Zealand Government announced their plan to relax border restrictions, welcoming New Zealand residents back to New Zealand. With this announcement we had the opportunity to attend the CSC in the UK and represent Nuffield New Zealand.

Pre-conference, Lucie Douma and I spent time with Nuffield Scholars David and Christine Hill in Norwich. David and Christine introduced us to agriculture to Norfolk, where we visited their arable farming business, visited friends of the Hills who were dairy farmers in the village and toured the local town and village getting an insight into farming in Norfolk. David and Christine shared with us their farming and family history and the challenges the UK farming sector was facing.

Farms in the Norwich area consisted of generational farming with long-time family connections to the land and estates. Larger estates like Holkham Hall consisted of variable farming and commercial enterprises and considerable land ownership. These estates are well recognised in the UK, along with their family ownership and heritage and in some circumstances their association to the House of Lords.

The UK Farming Situation: March 2022

The Russian invasion on Ukraine, has created a global humanitarian crisis. In the UK, it signified the immediate concern for food security and the additional pressure on farmers who had already been challenged over the past two years. Spiralling input costs were front of mind, particularly with wheat, fuel, energy and fertiliser costs.

Russia’s significant control over the supply of gas though the UK and the EU, imposed not only an increasing input cost on farm, however also increasing household and living costs. General conversation with the UK public, posed an anxious population with the on-going impact of covid-19 on businesses and the additional pressures from the Russian invasion on the Ukraine. It was interesting to note, that although the general UK population was sighting increasing food costs in the supermarkets, when comparing UK super market food costs with New Zealand super market food costs, it appeared that the cost of food in the UK was significantly less that the cost of food in New Zealand.

Additional changes in agriculture in the UK also reflect the transition from the long-standing EU scheme of agricultural subsidies (Common Agricultural Policy [CAP]) to the phasing out of the subsidy scheme with the exit of the UK from the EU. Post Brexit, the UK is navigating the challenges of staff shortages and increasing costs of production (which are likely to see the cost of local produce continue to increase), creating additional pressure for UK farmers.

Regenerative Agriculture was a topic discussed often and referred to as an opportunity to restore soil health and the quality of waterways, whilst reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enabling a healthy ecosystem; expanding the conversation of the global environmental challenge.

UK dairy farmers also expressed the increasing pressure and scrutiny they were facing from the public on environmental and animal welfare issues.

The CSC Agenda

The CSC agenda included presentations from agricultural leaders, identifying agriculture and the food of the world, British agriculture in a global setting, the impact of agriculture on climate and the global environmental challenge.

The all-important health, safety and wellbeing also featured on the agenda, with some real-life take-home messages and scenarios. A visit to the Norwich Research Park, highlighted the research and innovation undertaken in searching for solutions to worldwide challenges in food-related disease and research into plant sciences and species.

We also visited the Norwich Food Enterprise Park. This park has been created to encourage and support food production, processing and agriculture through co-location of commercial enterprises. Our visit to the park provided us with an opportunity to participate in a small group activity to come up with solutions to challenges four businesses in the park were facing. It was a great way to learn about real case scenarios and learn about a group of diverse agricultural businesses.

A visit to Houghton Estate and Dairy was enlightening, hearing from two enthusiastic farmers about their journey. Holkham Hall & Estate, was the final destination in Norwich. Holkham was somewhat surreal, with history dating back to the 1600’s and a family estate that was built for the 1^st Earl of Leicester in the 1700’s. The Estate consists of 25, 000 acres, with business ranging from agriculture, holiday park, retail to property development.

The final few days of the conference were spent in London, with a visit to the Houses of Parliament and a celebration to mark the closing of the CSC Conference with a Gala Dinner.

Learning from Global Scholars

The CSC offered the opportunity to engage with global agricultural leaders. Learning from other scholars about their country and their agriculture was a highlight.

Such a diverse group of agricultural enthusiasts, ranging from: cows, camels, poultry, crocodile, pigs, vineyards, horticulture, bees, deer, sheep, flowers, arable, sheep and beef to agricultural service and technology providers and developers (no doubt there was more). From the opening of the CSC on March 7^th to the closing of the CSC March 14^th, each day, a country group would present agriculture in their country.

Learning about how countries engage in agriculture and listening to the proud country men and women talk about their work and their countries work back home, was a great start to every day at the CSC.

NZ Farming vs UK Farming

UK is farmed according to landscape, water availability and weather/climate conditions much like NZ. Norwich for example consisted of predominantly arable farms, with variable crops (dominant crops included: wheat, oilseed rape and sugar beet) and forward negotiated contract agreements. Arable farms consisted of large fields and it was interesting to note that some fields were planted with more than one crop simultaneously.

Although the EU is recognised as a leading exporter of Dairy alongside New Zealand and the US, the UK was not seen as a leading exporter of dairy, conversely more of a domestic producer. New Zealand exports more than 90% of domestically produced dairy products and revenue exports contribute significantly to the New Zealand economy. The UK reports significantly less contribution to its national economy from its agricultural exports.

Across the UK, dairy farming appears to be more predominant in the South. As with NZ, some dairy systems are more complex than others and weather dictates the type of dairy system applied. The dairy farms we visited in Norfolk, housed their animals in barns, which appeared to be the dominant form of dairy farming system applied in this particular region in UK.

New Zealand Brand Reputation

CSC participant and fellow scholar feedback consistently focussed on a global perception of New Zealand producing premium agricultural products, with a focus on grass fed and an organic style of farming where products can be traced back to origins of a country that cares about their environment and animal welfare. “New Zealand punches above its weight”, was a consistent and humbling message from many fellow scholars.

My insight from the conference and travel, was that New Zealand is profound at producing premium quality food. Globally we are viewed as leading in all thing’s agriculture and we are seen as a country who cares about environment factors and animal welfare. We have a great story to tell, and we are getting better at telling it!

Lucie Douma and Parmindar Singh reporting from abroad.

After a two-year hiatus courtesy of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Contemporary Scholar Conference (CSC) finally took place this year, in Norfolk, UK. Lucie Douma and Parmindar Singh, 2022 Nuffield Scholars, attended and reported back on the event and their travels. The following article brings together these reports.

As part of their scholarship programme key milestones, they also compiled a brief insight work report.

Follow the links to read Lucie and Parmindar’s Insights Reports.

The 2022 Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference.

“Lucie Douma and I represented New Zealand this year. The Contemporary Scholars Conference was a great way to start the global aspect of our Nuffield Programme. The Conference provided an opportunity to meet global agricultural enthusiasts and build new network of connections,” says Parmindar Singh.

“Our hosting region, Norwich, is predominantly arable farming with notable long time family estates. The landscape, climate and access to water very much determines land use and production.

“Before the CSC, Lucie and I were very generously hosted by Christine and David Hill. David is a Nuffield Scholar who is still very active in the Nuffield community. David travelled the world to study biotech crops. His wife was a science teacher and very involved in agricultural education and research and is also actively involved in several Norfolk organisations working in this filed. They manage their 500+ha arable farm.

“David and Christine showed us around their neighbourhood, we visited a local dairy farm and learned about the Hill’s arable business and family history,” shares Parmindar.

Our hosts, Christine, and David Hill had introduced us to Norwich and to some of the Nuffield Team.

Sharing New Zealand with the world.

New Zealand, our farming systems, and the positioning we have on global markets was part of virtually every conversation Lucie and Parmindar had at the CSC. This was driven in some part by a presentation Lucie and Parmindar gave to those attending. This was a brief overview of the New Zealand food and fibre sector.

“At the start of each day of the CSC, representatives of all participating nations were asked to share a short presentation of the agricultural sector in their respective countries. In all cases the ten-minute time limit was not enough, and we were no different,” shares Lucie. “For our presentation, Parmindar opened with our values and understanding towards agriculture and how we incorporate the principles of Whakapapa and Kaitiakitanga.

“I did the second half of our presentation and covered the key statistics of farming in New Zealand and shared our vision of fit for a better world.”

Parmindar adds, “ Learning from other scholars about their country and their agriculture, was always a highlight of the day. To be given the opportunity to explain more about what we do here at home was a time for reflection on how proud I am to be a New Zealand farmer.”

The CSC business hackathon.

One of the initiatives included in the conference programme was the so called “business hackathon” where each group of scholars visited four different businesses over one day.

“The visits started with a 20-minute induction about the business followed by a specific challenge. Then as a group, we had to come together with a result – a solution to the challenge. We then had to present this to our hosts at the end of each session,’ explains Lucie Douma.

“It was an interesting way to get to know more about some of the notable businesses in the region. I really enjoyed the exchanges we had during the hackathon with the other scholars and the local business community,” adds Parmindar.

At the Houses of Parliament and the Palace of Westminster with Aussie friends

Two years’ Nuffield Scholars get together.

This year’s conference was the first after a two-year hiatus caused by Covid restrictions around the world.

“It was great to have two years combined – instead of having 60 or 70 people, we had 140. Also attending were the 2020 UK Scholars and we got to meet some of the alumni,” recounts Lucie.

Parmindar agrees, “All in all, CSC was a full-on conference, where we had the opportunity to meet passionate and enthusiastic global agricultural leaders.

“Many scholars commented on how New Zealand punches above its weight and has created a name for itself as a premium agricultural production powerhouse. It seems we are known as a small country with a notable place in the premium agri-products market.

“We also touched on many global issues around climate, water, and soil management along with political tension particularly with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the associated concerns for global food security.

“We’ve both been reflecting on the last few weeks and feeling very privileged to have had the opportunity to engage with whanau from across the globe! Thank you Nuffield New Zealand, the CSC in Norfolk was invaluable,” concludes Parmindar.

Lucie’s post-conference travels: North England, Scotland, Shetland Islands, Norway and the Netherlands.

Young Farmers Club, Shetland Islands - dog training session

Training session for a sheep dog, Shetland Islands

After the CSC, Parmindar travelled back to New Zealand to organise further travel plans for later in the year, while Lucie had the opportunity to further explore the United Kingdom and Europe.

She went to Wales, where unfortunately she tested positive for COVID and had to spend a week in isolation – giving her time to reschedule her itinerary.

“I went up through Northern England to The Lakes District and spent some time with farmers in Cumbria, and North Cumberland.

“What really struck me is that people were facing similar issues to what we do in New Zealand. Almost all farmers who have similar systems to us, are facing the same challenges with labour access and input costs. It’s a global problem, not a localised one.

“In Scotland, I visited Angus Soft Fruits. These growers supply 15 to 20% of all the fresh berries to UK supermarkets. It was interesting to talk to them and hear about the challenges they face with Brexit, and what they are doing to secure the labour they need to harvest. They need roughly 400 seasonal workers over the main picking period.

“They have contracts with growers in other countries like Morocco, Spain to ensure year-round berries are available for the UK supermarkets. It was informative to hear how they are dealing with the realities of modern farming,” says Lucie.

“The next stop was the Shetland Islands – probably the most eye-opening time I had. They farm so differently to us here in New Zealand, it’s a more community-based approach they have built there; where everybody supports each other,” explains Lucie.

“They don’t have the same labour challenges as larger farming operations do, because they operate as one community, they operate on mutual support – helping each other in times of need. That really came across in my conversations with the people there. They have an active young farmers group and I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with them. I really enjoyed that,” concludes Lucie.

Next on the schedule was a visit to a Norwegian salmon farm. “This is an industry that has risen at pace and scale over the last few decades. The wild salmon population around the Norwegian coast numbers 500,000. This farm has 11 cages with the capacity to hold 1.8 million salmon and there are over 1000 farms in Norway such as this one.

They are very advanced in some respects. When it comes to data management, similar issues exist around data interoperability of systems as with the agriculture sector. Biosecurity is an important issue for them as well,” adds Lucie.

Lucie then headed to the Netherlands, but not before experiencing full Norwegian blizzard.

The Netherlands had a highly advanced agriculture sector. From traditional horticulture and animal farming through to developing new industries, including camel milking.

Land-use change in the Netherlands means incorporating energy production into the systems. Some arable farms where busy building large wind turbines and other farms had solar panel fields incorporated within them. Lucie visited advanced farming barns where the whole rood was covered in solar panels.

“With the Russia-Ukraine conflict, energy production and self-sufficiency has come to the forefront of farming. All farming systems I visited were diversified in some part, and they all had a farm shop in order to share the story of their produce and build strong connections with the local communities,” recounted Lucie.

You can read both Lucie and Parmindar’s Insights Reports here.

Where it started – The Global Tour of New Zealand.

The ‘Global Tour of New Zealand’, as it was quickly named by 2020’s Nuffield Scholars, gave a unique view of the country’s food and fibre sector value chains. This year, the programme will be made richer still.

The Value Chain Innovation Programme will begin in September 2022 and is now open to a larger number of people in the primary sector.

Building the value.

A lot of work has gone into building a collection of exciting and varied case studies across dairy, arable, horticulture value chains. Participants learn straight from the source. They gain unique insights into food and fibre innovation, in both domestic and international markets.

The new programme gives a wide view of established and novel value chains. Participants compare and transpose thinking at a time when the primary industries are going through the biggest period of transformational change since the 1980’s.

“If you’re in food and fibre, now is the time to be gaining a pan-sector view of as many successful business models as possible,” says Lincoln University Lecturer Prof. and Programme Co-facilitator Hamish Gow,

“Increasingly the most successful value chains are those with business models closely aligned to their customers, use protected IP, and provide innovative shared value structures.”

The programme runs over five weeks, two of these are spent on the road. The remaining time is spent on an individual research report. “It will be a busy few weeks, with the time commitment being 100 hours on field trips, guest lectures and networking, online lectures and discussions, tutorials, and another 50 hours self-directed learning,” said Prof. Gow.

The programme delivery team.

New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust CEO Chris Parsons remarked, “As a global leader and thinker in value chain design, innovation and entrepreneurship, Professor Gow is uniquely qualified to impart deeper strategic learning and insight into the September programme.”

Leadership and Strategic Development Consultant, and Programme Co-facilitator Phil Morrison, ONZM, further strengthens the team. “We are also fortunate to have Phil onboard. He brings a different leadership perspective, drawing on a career in military command, and in the delivery of innovation, strategic and leadership training as a consultant. We couldn’t hope for a stronger team”, added Chris Parsons.

Building leadership capability.

Once completed, the programme will give participants the competencies, confidence, and networks to influence change and lead transformation at an enterprise level and throughout regional New Zealand.

Chris Parsons says, “We hope this programme will lead to positive larger scale change as our graduates continue to grow and contribute to a fast-changing food and fibre sector.”

Rural Leaders are taking applications until Sunday 10 July.

Applications can be made at ruralleaders.co.nz/value-chain/

Finding the next Nuffield Scholarship recipients.

After recent Nuffield strategic work, the Rural Leaders Team and the NZRLT Board have identified five highly desirable core attributes of a Nuffield Scholar. These won’t come as any great surprise to Nuffield Alumni, but articulating these simply has been a valuable exercise, especially as our 2023 Scholarship search is set to begin.

Here are the five attributes any scholar selection process will look for in terms of evidence that they exist or have the potential to emerge in an applicant.

Bold

The will to step forward, be willing to challenge conventional thinking, to act, to make decisions with confidence.

Innovative

Someone who can develop and express original thinking and ideas.

Motivated

Driven to go above and beyond to accomplish a goal. Someone who can find the energy and confidence needed to do so.

Perceptive

Possesses the cognitive, observational, and critical thinking abilities to assess challenges and generate usable insights.

Community-minded

Motivated to contribute to community by collaborating and sharing skills, knowledge, experience, and ideas, forging ever-stronger connections with people and place.

Six Alumni to help with this years’ Scholar search.

We’re fortunate to have so many inspiring alumni to help us drive this years’ scholar search. We’ll need to represent as many industries as possible as well as show the changing face of food and fibre.

From the Catlins to Nelson – Scholars photographed doing their thing.

We set off a on a road trip recently to capture a few Nuffield Alumni – in their natural habitat.

From a time and budget perspective, travel was kept in the South Island. We hope to make it up to the North Island as well at some stage.

There are still many industries not yet represented – we’ve done our best for now covering: Aquaculture, dairy, sheep and beef, horticulture, agri-business, and more broadly, entrepreneurialism.

A big thank you to the Nuffield Alumni that agreed to help us with this shoot. Your generosity with your time and the effort you made was greatly appreciated. Those images shown, or some like them, will be used in advertising for the upcoming 2023 search. Here’s a preview.

Kate Scott, 2018 Nuffield Scholar

While much of Kate’s work is done indoors these days, running her business Landpro, she has a background in resource management planning, part of which involves testing water. We wanted to show Kate outside, on the land, doing the work she did when she started her business in 2007.

Kate balances a young family with work and involvement with organisations outside of work too, such as being Chair of the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust.

Julian Raine, 1997 Nuffield Scholar

Julian is involved in both the horticulture and dairy industries. For the purposes of this campaign, we captured Julian in one of his apple orchards near Richmond, in Marlborough. Julian is also partners with fellow Nuffield Scholar Murray King in Appleby Ice-cream.

One of Julian’s dairy farms was recently recognised by the SPCA for infrastructure aiding animal well-being. He has an eye on the future too, making at least a third of his orchards robot-ready.

Lynsey Stratford, 2021 Nuffield Scholar

Lynsey is a non-practising lawyer involved in her local rural community. She is a consultant for her business Primary People, which provides people management and development services to the primary sector.

We wanted to shoot Lynsey out with husband Chris on their dairy farm, situated in a unique part of the country at Curio Bay in Southland. Here, they have also recently covenanted 30 hectares of incredible bushland.

Andy Elliot, 2018 Nuffield Scholar

Andy is based in Nelson, Marlborough and is Research and Business Development Manager at Wakatū. He is at the cutting edge of aquaculture research and far from being daunted by the need for a lab, he created his own at the Cawthron Aquaculture Park. He is currently developing several projects.

Andy was also recently appointed to the Investment Advisory Panel for Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures.

Desiree Reid-Whitaker, 2010 Nuffield Scholar

Desiree is a former dairy farmer who learned the craft of whiskey distillation from some of the world’s best. Returning home to New Zealand, she spent six months finding the right location to build the Cardrona Distillery.

We wanted to capture Desiree in a beautiful environment loaded with visual clues that she has built everything in the most authentic way, not the easiest way.

Hamish Murray, 2019 Nuffield Scholar

Hamish farms sheep, cattle, and runs a substantial honey operation at Bluff Station, near Kaikoura. The station is as visually beautiful as it is vast and is run by an exceptional team of people. No surprises there, as Hamish is just as passionate about his own growth as he is about his team’s.

We were spoiled for choice at Bluff Station, the landscape is a photographer’s dream. The goal was to capture Hamish working – in this case moving cattle.

The Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference 2022.

Lucie Douma and Parmindar Singh, 2022 Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholars, have been in Norfolk, UK, for the Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC).

Back after two years’ hiatus, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CSC ran between 7 and 15 March.

The Contemporary Scholars Conference – all together now, finally.

The Conference gathers Scholars from the current year and creates opportunities for them to learn and get to know each other at the start of their Nuffield journeys. Nuffield Scholars each bring different expertise, and all are keen to share knowledge and discuss the big challenges.

The CSC is followed by the Global Focus Programme (GFP), where Scholars split into groups to travel around the globe, visit multiple countries, businesses, institutions, and research organisations. On the GFP, Scholars will begin to dig deeper into their topics of interest, they will gather information and explore solutions and ideas.

CSC 2022 – Food, climate, health.

The theme of this years’ Conference was “Food, Climate, Health”, but by all accounts, the discussions were far reaching and went beyond the theme, not surprising given the aim of any Nuffield initiative has always been to look at things differently.

The Conference itinerary was packed with quality content, Q and A sessions, workshops, and plenty of opportunity for networking between Scholars.

In a post early on the CSC, Lucie and Parmindar both share the excitement,

“What a privilege to be able to join 150 people from across 15 countries at the Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference in both Norwich and London.

The week was packed with inspirational speakers, farm visits, gala dinners, meeting MPs, and getting to know how other countries farm. We’ve met some incredible people along the way.”

The elephant in the room: War time food security.

When the Conference was planned, everyone’s mind was preoccupied with the Covid pandemic and when we would get that under control. If we only knew…

Just couple of weeks before the start of the CSC, a new global challenge arose – the Russian invasion in Ukraine, bringing a tsunami of worries around the world – the humanitarian devastation, the economic sanctions, the shifts in the political stances on so many issues. But there are massive implications for the agricultural sector and food security, caused by the war and the sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus.

As part of the conference a Dutchman, named Kees Huizinga, who farms in Ukraine, addressed the scholars and talked about what it is to farm in a war zone.

As Lucie recounts, “Kees gave a sobering account of what is happening on the ground in the Ukraine, where farmers have less than a two-week window to plant their crops for the next year, including wheat. They are short 200,000t of diesel and are afraid to drive their tractors at night because they light up like Christmas trees and become targets.”

Everyone in the room felt the situation required immediate action.

“I just heard of a group of UK farmers who are driving to the Ukraine border next week to drop off supplies. This is real action. My question to you is what can we do from New Zealand to support these farmers?”, asked Lucie.

Scholar, Camila Hayseldon-Ashby, from the UK also conveys the sense of urgency and desperation she felt during Kees’s talk:

“As well as the humanitarian and moral impact, the war will have a huge impact on food production. We go to our political representatives and make sure they understand how this is impacting food production and global food security.”

Aled Rhys Jones, Nuffield Farming Scholar, broadcaster, and podcaster tweeted,

Visiting the locals: Condimentum.

Another highlight for the New Zealand Scholars, was the visit to Condimentum. Lucie shared on LinkedIn after the meeting:

Great to spend the morning with CEO, David Martin and the wider team at Condimentum where they are going through an exciting Growth stage while servicing a 10 year contract with Unilever to supply Coleman’s Mustard, an iconic brand in the UK. Parmindar Singh and myself learnt a lot about the mustard business and suggested ways they could use their by-products as an income stream instead of a waste stream #Condimentum

The end of the beginning.

The week appeared very intense and busy, even from afar, and in Lucie’s words “An excellent week spent getting to know 150 scholars, across two years from all around the world.”

Another attendee, Helen Wyman, quoted Nuffield Scholar Wyn Owen at the conclusion of the conference – ‘The end of the beginning’ as she elaborates on the experience,

“On Tuesday I returned home emotional, tired and overwhelmed but after a few days of reflection I am excited about the future and look forward to visiting my new friends around the UK and the globe very soon.”

These were only some of the anecdotes from the conference. We’ll hear more from Lucie and Parmindar when they return to New Zealand to collect their thoughts.

The conference is over, but the journey still lays ahead. For most of the participating scholars, it will never end. After all, being a Nuffield Scholar is, above all, a mindset – to keep searching, keep daring, keep improving.

Lincoln University, Kellogg, and Rural Leaders – a collaboration spanning decades

Based on campus since 1979, the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme has a long connection with Lincoln University, having been developed by the Kellogg Company as a way of enhancing global leadership capability.

In 2013, the programme was transferred to the newly-formed New Zealand Rural Leadership Consortium, which merged it with the prestigious Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarship to create a single organisation. Four years later, the consortium became a registered charitable trust and changed its name to the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust (Rural Leaders).

A partnership known as the Pāhautea Initiative was announced in late 2020 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.

Kellogg accreditation strengthens the bond with Lincoln University.

Rural Leaders, Lincoln University and Massey University have further strengthened ties by offering academic accreditation for those who undertake the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.

After completing the programme, Kellogg scholars can opt into a Postgraduate Certificate in Commerce.

Alternatively, they can allocate the 60 credits they can earn towards the 180 required credits for a Lincoln University taught master’s degree.

Scholars can also elect to use their 60 credits towards a master’s degree at Massey University.

Additionally, accreditation may soon be available for the Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarship, although this is a work in progress, says Rural Leaders’ Programme Manager Lisa Rogers.

“Theoretically, it would be a diploma, or 120 points towards a 180-point taught masters.”

A dedicated Kellogg programme team.

The Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme team – including Rural Leaders facilitators Dr Scott Champion and Phil Morrison, Dr Patrick Aldwell and examiner Professor Hamish Gow – work hard to provide a varied and stimulating learning experience.

The programme includes two papers, the first of which requires the completion of specific assignments and is delivered by Scott Champion and Phil Morrison.

The second paper, delivered by Dr Patrick Aldwell, involves completing a research project and giving a presentation at the end of the programme.

Rural Leaders deliver three Kellogg Programmes a year, with two based at Lincoln University. The other, in alignment with the Pāhautea Initiative’s aim of growing flourishing regions, is regionally based. The next location, in May 2022, will be Whanganui.

Each programme is delivered to 20 to 24 scholars. Numbers are kept low to ensure a transformative experience, as the Kellogg journey is as much about learning from fellow scholars and developing a pan-sector network of friends as being exposed to industry leaders and new ideas.

A shared history and a shared future.

Rural Leaders have a strong presence on campus and increasingly share alumni with the university now that Kellogg scholars can gain a Lincoln postgraduate certificate.

Lisa Rogers says she is keen to see the long association continue to grow.

“We often get graduates from the Lincoln Future Leaders Scholarship Programme coming through to do the Kellogg. While we may not see recent undergraduates apply, it’s something we see happening later in their careers.”

Fun fact: Up to 50% of participants in any one Kellogg Programme have previously graduated from Lincoln University.

Whanganui and Partners and Rural Leaders serve Strategy for Lunch.

A collaboration between Whanganui and Partners and Rural Leaders, Strategy for Lunch, has been created to meet a need among business owners, to engage more confidently in business strategy discussions and design.

The programme consists of five neatly wrapped, bite-size, online sessions that provide the tools and knowledge to help Whanganui business owners build their strategic capability.

Some of New Zealand’s leading strategic facilitators have come together to deliver the five 90-minute, online workshops, from midday every Friday, starting 11 March.

Strategy for Lunch is designed for business owners from across all sectors and industries who are looking to advance their strategic skills, knowledge, and their businesses.

The programme will help business owners undertake their own strategic analysis, identify opportunities, and to evaluate their strategic choices.

From sharing frameworks and tools, to recommended reading, review and reflection sessions, and group discussions, this innovative programme gives business owners a strong knowledge foundation from which to tackle their own strategic challenges.

Here’s a brief week by week outline of what participants can expect to cover and learn in this smart and highly accessible programme.

Week 1: 11 March – Orientation.

An introduction to core strategy concepts. We’ll also outline the programme’s
5-week journey. We’ll answer questions like, what is strategy? What isn’t strategy? What are the forces influencing our world today? And tomorrow?

Week 2: 18 March – Strategic framing.

Aims to understand a business’s value discipline and maps its business model. Questions we’ll answer in this session are, what is your ‘value discipline’? How do you create customer value? What is your business model for delivering customer value?

Week 3: 25 March – Strategic definition.

Defines a customer’s “job to be done”. This session also aims to understand customer drivers of value. It will unpack what the best options are to increase value for your customers?

Week 4: 1 April – Strategic options.

This session aims to explore a business’s strategic innovation options. We’ll answer questions like, how might you design or adapt your strategy for a competitive advantage? How do you develop a blue ocean strategy?

Week 5: 8 April – Strategic action.

This final session brings it all together. We evaluate strategic choices, including key implementation considerations. WE answer questions like, how do you move from strategy prototype to market offering? How do you test and validate an MVP? What are the key considerations for scaling-up innovation?

Find out more about Strategy for Lunch, or to register, head to
https://discoverwhanganui.nz/news/strategy-for-lunch/

Two Te Puni Kōkiri Scholarships available for Kellogg Whanganui.

Te Puni Kōkiri is generously sponsoring two places on Whanganui’s Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, May start.

This is an extraordinary scholarship opportunity, covering programme fees and giving applicants the chance to develop leadership skills closer to home.
These scholarships are open to passionate Māori as part of their leadership journey in the Food and Fibre Sector.

Those wishing to apply for a scholarship, should include a cover letter with their application indicating why they should be selected.

In the cover letter, evidence should be shown of leadership in Māori Food and Fibre, along with discussing how the scholarship will contribute to personal leadership development.

How to apply.

To get an application underway, prospective applicants should register their interest through the link below. They’ll receive an application form to complete. When they return this form, include a cover letter indicating intention to apply for the scholarship, at the top.

For any questions about the scholarship please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Lisa Rogers, Programme Manager, at lisarogers@ruralleaders.co.nz

FMG Young Farmer of the Year – Tasman Regional Final.

Meet you Saturday night at Springston Hall.

Did you know Mary Bumby introduced honeybees to New Zealand in 1839? No? Incredibly, her name has nothing to do with the naming of Bumble Bees, or any bees. Quite possibly history’s greatest example of a surname impacting the course of a life.

The seven Tasman Region finalists for the FMG Young farmer of the Year hadn’t heard of Mary’s exploits either. Though they had answers to other questions during the four quiz rounds at Springston Hall, Saturday evening, 19th February.

Rural Leaders were fortunate to be invited by our strategic investing partner FMG to catch this thrilling conclusion to several days of competition, to find the Tasman Regional Winner. Competitors had given their all in three components of competition: Agri-business, Agri-skills, and Agri-Sports. They crafted a ‘chair’ from a wood palette, filleted (in some cases butchered) a salmon, they did the maths on the application of fertiliser, and competed in fencing too.

And so, it all came down to the Springston Hall for the fourth Agri-Knowledge component, to determine the winner and finalists for the national competition later this year.

Te Radar sounds the alarm.

After a BBQ dinner and some masked, socially-distanced mixing, long-time host Te Radar kicked off the evening with the housekeeping, which included the obligatory fire evacuation notice – and at that exact moment an actual fire alarm sounded. We all evacuated. The rural fire brigade eventually gave the all-clear and the seven finalists took their places.

The finalists were: Archie Woodhouse and Phoebe Smailes of Lincoln University Young Farmers, Andrew Allan and George Dodson of Lincoln Young Farmers, Jonny Brown of Dunsandel Young Farmers, Ash Foley of Waimakariri Young Farmers, and Blair Anglesey of Renwick Young Farmers.

Entering this final evening, Jonny Brown had the lead, with Andrew Allan in second.

Fingers on buzzers please.

The first round ‘Photo ID’ asked contestants to identify everything from a specific arable crop to a breed of pig, through to filling in a missing element on a familiar sector logo.

Round two ‘Rapid Fire’ gave each contestant 30 seconds of questions. Performances here were strong, with the highlight being an ability to anticipate the answer to a question cut-off by the timer. Contestants were allowed to answer despite not having the full question.

Best anticipation efforts were Archie Woodhouse’s ‘Marlborough’ to the cut question “What region…?” (What region is the mainstay of New Zealand mussel farming?”) And Phoebe Smaile’s ‘Four,’ to the cut question “What is the minimum clearance…?” (“What is the minimum clearance for equipment from overhead powerlines?”)

Round three was an observation round. Here a video was played with questions following. A hard round, though had this not been a dry event, it would have been harder still.

And the winner of the FMG Young Farmer of the Year, Tasman is...

The final round was a ‘quick buzzer,’ here big movers were Phoebe Smailes and Ash Foley, but not enough to break into the top three. After a focussed period of calculation from the judges, the final places were awarded.

The top female competitor’s prize went to Ash Foley. Third place, by just one point, went to Archie Woodhouse, second was Andrew Allan, and seasoned competitor Jonny Brown took the overall win, after missing out last year.

This was an expertly organised event and a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Thank you to FMG’s Michelle Stephenson for the invite.

The Contest series Grand Final is scheduled for Whangarei in July.

Keep an eye out for details here.

Changing the narrative – an online Kellogg session.

Kellogg has had to adapt during the Pandemic, to a hybrid model, working both online with tools like Zoom, and in-person when it is safe to do so.

One positive thing about video calls, and for some one might be a stretch, is being able to sit on the side-lines occasionally, with mute on and video off. You get all the benefits of the call, without needing to worry about asking clever questions.

So, muted and invisible we joined Scholars on Phase Two of the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, to listen to Sam Halstead of Latitude Strategy and Communication. Sam works in Public Relations, focussing on the primary production sector.

Phase Two is important for Kellogg Scholars. It gives an economic, political, and environmental context. It zeroes in on how to engage and influence decision making at a local, regional, industry and central government level. And engaging means communicating effectively. Enter Sam.

The most scrutiny in a generation for the primary sector.

Sam began his presentation with a slide headed ‘The most scrutiny and pressure in a generation.’ Discussion moved easily from one example substantiating this, after another.

The next slide, ‘It’s not all bad,’ presented positive sector perception statistics, based on recent polls from UMR Market Research. The pendulum has been moving in the other direction through Covid – with a public realising New Zealand now has big bills to pay and that the primary sector might be the one to help. The numbers make interesting reading:

New Zealanders have a positive view of the primary sector.
New Zealanders remain strongly positive about horticulture (67% positive, 29% neutral, 4% negative).
Sheep and beef farming (58% positive, 29% neutral, 13% negative).
And dairy farming (55% positive, 29% neutral, 16% negative).

Changing primary sector narratives with human connection.

While sentiment is on the up, the big challenges remain. Challenges that continue to impact the way the public views the primary sector. Sam took scholars through how public relations is utilised to help address some of these.

‘Changing the narrative,’ Sam explained, is about human connection and building trust over time – to change the narrative over time. Briefly, that might mean:

Avoiding the echo chamber – telling our stories outside of the sector.
Enlisting champions, or advocates.
Collaborating – avoiding confrontation.
Better leverage of the sector’s points of difference.
Owning issues and improving performance – sharing those improvements.
Building high quality relationships.
Most importantly – strive for human connection.

These sessions, delivered both online and in-person, help scholars build a critical awareness mindset, build confidence, and empower scholars to create change – public relations is just one tool in the toolbox that can help.

2022 Nuffield Scholar Induction and tour of Canterbury Alumni.

From on the same Zoom to in the same room.

Selected as 2022 Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholars in November 2021, Lucie Douma, Parmindar Singh and Anthony Taueki, finally got to meet face to face recently.

The two-week Lincoln induction got underway in late January and provided the scholars with their first real opportunity to spend time together and to prepare for the year ahead.

As Parmindar explains, “Our Nuffield journey really begins now. We had a few conversations since receiving our scholarships and had engaged through Zoom meetings, but finally meeting face to face was truly awesome.”

Lucie Douma, recently appointed Covid Recovery and Supply Chain Manager at the Ministry for Primary Industries, recalls a significant work-related event marking the beginning of her Nuffield induction at Lincoln.

“The 2022 Nuffield Programme kicked off with a bang, with the announcement of community transmission of Omicron the day before we were due to arrive at Lincoln. Nothing like a bit of excitement to get us started,” recounts Lucie.

Parmindar recalls her first day in Christchurch. “The media skills training got us working hard on our first day – after a 4am start to get down to Christchurch. It was a busy few hours on day one, with a valuable in-front-of-camera exercise designed to sharpen our ability to deliver key messages, clearly and succinctly – a lot harder than it sounds.”

After bravely volunteering to be the first to have a go at the practical interview exercise, Anthony agrees, “I’m really at ease talking to people in all kinds of settings. This is the nature of my work as a regional coordinator and Kaiako (teacher, instructor) at Tū Te Wana, Fruition Horticulture. But I was surprised at how difficult it could be to talk in front of the camera.”

“My first words as I sat for the practical exercise were, “Oh man, this is going to be hard. But we got there.”

Leadership at Lincoln.

Next on the schedule were a number of sessions on Lincoln campus.

For Parmindar, taking part in elements of the Kellogg Programme was an opportunity to get to know her fellow Scholars. “It was great to hear from Primary Sector leaders together and to learn from a range of highly skilled and engaging Kellogg facilitators and guest speakers.”

“We spent a fantastic first week learning about our core drivers on our leadership training and along the way getting to know the scholars on the Kellogg Programme running at the time (K46). The theories and practical sessions were the perfect prelude to the second week, out on the road”, adds Lucie.

In between Kellogg sessions, media training, and induction, the 2022 Scholars had an in-person meeting with James Parsons on strong wools. For Parmindar, it was also inspiring to hear about James’ leadership pathway after Nuffield. She also notes the video calls with Nuffield and Kellogg Scholars, including Kate Scott, Tom Lambie, and Andrew MacFarlane from Blinc Innovation. “All of these conversations made this induction a stimulating and thought-provoking time.”

The Nuffield Alumni road trip.

The induction also included a road trip, designed to help scholars build broader knowledge and give a current context of the primary sector – while also sharpening observation skills.

For Parmindar, the road trip was the highlight of the induction. Parmindar is a Waikato dairy farmer, also involved in a number of business and community organisations.

“Spending time together as a cohort off campus, meeting with incredible Primary Sector leaders, passionate about what they do, what their people did before them and growing and developing the people in their businesses now.”

“We met with Nuffield Scholars as business owners, who welcomed us, shared their knowledge and experience, and encouraged us to step up on our Nuffield Scholarship journeys. Special thanks here to Craige Mackenzie, Ben Todhunter, and to Rosemary and John Acland for sharing so much with us in the stunning setting of Mt Peel Station.”

Anthony echoes the sentiment, “We had an awesome time catching up with Hamish and fellow tohunga. Being immersed in the wealth of knowledge and history by all was awesome. It allowed us to have a better understanding of the land and history across multiple sectors, which helps us define and mold our research topics.”

What’s next for these Nuffielders?

Despite the uncertain times, the three scholars remain upbeat, and all feel the sky is the limit.

“Being a Nuffield Scholar comes with great privilege and responsibility. We are committed to learning, creating impact, and giving back to the sector that has done so much for us all,” says Parmindar.

Lucie is already planning the next trip. “We are now busy planning for the year ahead with the announcement of the border opening and being able to partake in the Contemporary Scholars Conference in Norfolk, in early March. Watch this space.”

Parmindar and Anthony acknowledged that none of this was possible without a strong and connected team and community to make a programme like this successful, particularly during these challenging Covid times.

“We want to thank everyone for their generosity of time and information. New Zealand is lucky to have such an incredible farming community. We also want to sincerely thank Rural Leaders for being so agile and committed in an ever-changing Covid world,” said Lucie.

For the team here at Rural Leaders it was pleasure meeting this new group of scholars and facilitating the first phase of their Nuffield journeys. We look forward to sharing more in the months to come.

Back to Rural Leader February 2022

Madison Pannett on GenZ in the primary sector.

Madison Pannett is a 2021 Kellogg Scholar who recently made the news with her Kellogg research on attracting Generation Z into the primary industries.

You can review her report here, Generation Z and the environment – how can we use their passion to attract them into food and fibre sector careers?

In a nutshell the report takes a close look at how and why the sector’s careers need to be more aligned with this influential generation’s values.

The interview with Radio New Zealand’s Jesse Mulligan is short and to the point. For anyone looking to bring new talent into their operation, it’s well worth the five-minute investment.

Madison speaks about the way the primary sector’s economic performance is the most common messaging theme in media, something GenZ are not generally interested in or motivated by.

According to her research, GenZ are motivated by environmental issues and their ability to make a bigger difference to them. She concludes, a job should be spoken about in terms of how it fits into the bigger picture, particularly regarding global warming – rather than in financial or economic terms.

Listen to Jesse Mulligan interview Madison below.

Radio New Zealand: Summer Times 2021/22: How to get Gen Z into our Primary Industries

You can also read an earlier article published in the Waikato Herald. In this article Madison also talks about how we might inspire young people into the primary sector.

Follow the link to read the article on nzherald.co.nz website.

Click here to go back to the Rural Leader.

Ben Todhunter: Observations from a high-country station.

Ben Todhunter is a 2006 Nuffield Scholar and High Country Farmer. He farms Cleardale Station with his family in the Rakaia Gorge, Canterbury.

Below are the closing lines from Jim Morris’s poem ‘Rewards’. They capture the spirit of the high country farmer and as such are personal to Todd. Jim Morris was from neighbouring Manuka Point Station, and is now retired.

The ranges vast are here to stay
And he’s content to spend his day,
Working in their rugged grip
His recompense – the love of it.

This is a compilation of some of Ben’s LinkedIn posts from 2021.

#1. Pressure and release.

#2. Pondering geology.

#3. Embracing technology.

#4. Perspective.

#5. Pushing too hard.

#6. Filling your soul.

#7. A river runs through it.

#1. Pressure and release

December 2021

A young calf got caught away from the main mob. Rather than applying pressure to the calf, Ben backs off, mum doubles back to bring the calf back to the mob herself.

Quoting Monty Roberts, Ben writes:

Pressure and release. It’s a fundamental tenet of moving livestock. It also applies to humans as well. As a leader, working with tension or pressure to grow someone is a balance. How do you learn to get the judgement right?

Lesley Prior, Tellenby Merino Stud, Commented:
Great example of good stock handling. Quiet, patient and ‘going with the flow,’ but with gentle direction where necessary.

Back to the start

#2. Pondering geology

October 2021

Ben observes that the rocks and stones scattered on his farm have ancient stories to tell.

Ben writes:
A collection of photos of some terminal and lateral moraine boulders. The greywacke rocks have fallen onto glacial ice and were carried up to 70km before being deposited in-situ approximately 18,000 years ago.

The greywacke was formed over a 200-million-year period as tens of thousands of metres of sediments built up off the edge of Gondwana. The sediments were eventually buried, deformed, hardened, and uplifted to become the rocks that formed the Southern Alps.

Link to ‘Te Ara – building a continent.’

It’s useful therapy to ponder the stories of these rocks when considering your significance, or lack of, in the world.

Victoria Harvey, Climate change PHD researcher, commented:
A great reminder of our place and time in this world. Plus, very clean air judging by that lichen.

Back to the start

#3. Embracing technology

November 2021

To reduce the time intensive process of matching dam with lamb, and at the same time increasing the quality of pedigree data, Ben introduced smart collars to Cleardale.

Ben writes:
Our current master shepherd (my father) is proving difficult to replicate and scale. These collars have Bluetooth technology and record proximity to other tags. If they are worn for 48 hours they provide an accurate record of the lambs and their mothers.

This is the same technology that can be used for some of the proposed contact tracing systems for disease management.

Helen Thoday, Solutions and Development at DairyNZ, commented:
That’s so much better than binoculars and spray-painted numbers.

Back to the start

#4. Perspective

May 2021

Ben observed an interesting play of light and perspective.

Ben writes:
Fascinating light on a frosty evening. They say the best time to show off livestock is in the afternoon light, but this may be taking it to extremes.

Gordon Ray, Lecturer at Grenoble Ecole de Management, commented:
On first impression, almost looks like a bubbly lava flow; when I noticed it’s sheep moving. I’ve worked with a large herd of sheep (1600) and the movement is so fluid as to almost look like slow motion water. Very cool video – thanks for sharing!

Ben comments:
Gordon Ray, large groups of animals can have real flow.

Back to the start

#5. Pushing too hard

November 2021

Curiosity or greed? A heifer gets caught in farm equipment looking for the lush grass beneath it. (the heifer was freed unharmed!)

Ben writes:
You know that time when you just go a little further than you should’ve?

Peter Stannack commented:
Boundaries are for testing. How else do you find out who you really are?

Back to the start

#6. Filling your soul

January 2021

Concepts of mindfulness, wellbeing, and connection to nature are explored in this post.

Ben writes:
There’s something deeply therapeutic, listening to and watching water.

This Awa or river, the Rakaia, is a big part of our lives and has many moods. Here it is flowing at 145 cumecs (cubic metres per second). The highest peak flow ever recorded was 5594 cumecs at midnight on January 9th, 1994.

We are involved with two groups protecting the special landscapes, flora, and fauna of The Rakaia from the gorge to the main divide. I’d like to extend that to the Coast as well. In a recent assessment the Rakaia scored the highest of all the braided Canterbury rivers to be proposed for World Heritage status.

The Whanganui River has been granted the status of a legal person. “I am the river; the river is me” affirms the deep connection of the Māori tribes of Whanganui to their ancestral river.

My connection to the Rakaia is not in that form. It is in the form of wonder, and respect, and love, and a place I can go to fill my soul. Where do you go to fill your soul?

Sam Martin, Exterior Architecture UK, commented:
Anywhere I can walk under trees works for me. Which is lucky given the situation here in London and our living so close to many commons and parks.

Back to the start

#7. A river runs through it

October 2021

“You have my full attention.” Was Mac’s response to a text last year.

This is a story about the power of story. The story of a table with a story that tells a story.

We live beside the Rakaia River. Our Awa originates in the heart of the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana from the Ramsey and Lyell Glaciers. It is a braided river coloured blue from the glacial flour at its origin. Occasionally Totara logs are carried down river from the mountains and are deposited in front of our farm.

Now Mac who was a neighbour and a top ad man, has now retired and become an accomplished luthier. He’d made me a stunning guitar from a previous piece of Totara and had expressed interest in working again with the special wood. So, when I found a suitable log, I sent a photo and immediately received the above reply.

Half an hour later he was on site thinking of possibilities. In his words “You are being trusted with an absolute gem of a tree, and you prepare it with the full respect and care that its mana demand. It was an absolute privilege to be asked to give this tree a new life.”

We then carved out a small bit suitable for guitars and kept the remainder. Maybe to build a table…

A few weeks later Mac asked if we’d like him to make a kitchen table for us.

Yes! Yes, was the response.

Mac enlisted the help of another neighbour and master wood whisperer Rob, to craft something special.

We had a few other pieces of wood from the replaced decking and guardrails of the historic Rakaia Gorge bridge and knowing the talents of these two we provided dimensions for our house and for my frame and left them to it.

Now for those who know about farm tables, a lot of business gets done around them, people are hosted, discussions are held and family times are lived around these tables. Being a storyteller Mac knew this and wondered if the table could tell a story? “Could it become a centre-piece, not just physically, but also emotionally and attitudinally? Could it have personality?”

The idea of a river table was born. A table with whakapapa.
“The idea was to re-create the tree’s relationship with the Rakaia River, representing its journey to Cleardale and the farm’s relationship with the river.”

And that is what we’ve got. Timber from the mountains, carried and battered by the river, inlaid with a representation of that braided river and held up by timbers from a bridge to the past, repurposed to create memories into the future for a family whose lives are intertwined with that Awa.

A special Taonga, which has a story, tells a story and will be part of many more stories. Thanks so much gents.

Partha Ghosal, Clean Energy, commented:
“You had my full attention.” So much so I read it twice! Never knew of Totara, let alone that it could make a stunning guitar/table. Something to do with your storytelling flair and a Luthier giving full respect maybe? Just love what you, he, and your wood whisperer achieved in the end. Your special Taonga.

Back to the start

A typical day on the Value Chain Innovation Study Tour.

Craigmore Farming Horticulture Study Trip

The Value Chain Innovation Programme is made up of three phases spanning six weeks from May 9 to June 19. You can find out more about the programme and its core elements here.

Probably the most involved point of the five-week experience is the industry immersion study tour (Phase Two).

What will a typical day on the tour look like?

A fair description would be “busy”. But here’s more about what to expect.

We should note first that this ‘typical day’ may be subject to pandemic or scheduling related changes.

Day five. In summary, there will be horticulture, food science and much more on the day. Generally, no one day will be dedicated to a particular value chain, but rather each piece of a value chain will be spread across several days.

You’ll be waking up in Central Hawke’s Bay. It’s an early start with breakfast at 06:30, and on the bus by 08:00.

On this particular day, the first destination is scheduled to be Craigmore’s Springhill Horticulture operation. You’ll arrive by 09:00.

Craigmore Springhill.

Craigmore manages farm and forest investments and was established in 2009 by two New Zealand family farmers, Forbes Elworthy and Mark Cox. Craigmore has an experienced team managing 18,000 hectares of dairy, grazing, forestry, and horticultural properties, that includes Springhill.

You can preview Craigmore’s Springhill operation in this video.

At around 11:00 the bus will depart for Massey University campus in Palmerston North, where you’ll be visiting several units. You should get there by 13:00.

The Riddet Institute.

First stop on campus is the Riddet Institute.

The Riddet Institute aims to build the knowledge and skills to tackle the challenges facing our fast-changing food sector, through discovery-led research at the frontier of food materials science.

To learn more about Riddet, watch this interview with the Institute’s Deputy Director, Professor Warren McNabb. Scroll to the section beginning 3:15sec and ending 7:40sec for some insight into their work.

Next is Massey Food Experience and Sensory Testing Laboratory (Feast).

Feast, Food Pilot, and MAF Digital Lab – Massey University.

To gain a clearer picture about the type of work Feast conduct, look at this short video covering research on the use of a holo-lens. This work was done to determine what impacts mixed-reality technology could have on a consumer’s enjoyment of food.

Still on the Massey University campus, the next stop is Massey Food Pilot.

The Food Pilot at Massey includes the largest collection of food processing equipment in the southern hemisphere. They work with innovators and organisations to provide solutions to food-related challenges.

Food Pilot is part of the New Zealand Food Innovation Network (NZFIN), it provides the facilities and the expertise to develop new products and processes, from idea to commercial success. Services can include evaporating and drying, chopping, mincing, cooking and process control, extrusion and puffing.

While the this video isn’t on Food Pilot specifically, it does give some indication as to how Food Pilot fits into the FoodHQ ecosystem. There’s also plenty of footage from inside the Food Pilot testing areas.

The next destination is the Fitzherbert Science Centre, where you will visit the Massey AgriFood Digital Lab.

The MAF Digital Lab is a solution focussed research centre developing applications in advanced technology within the primary production, agricultural and food supply chain. MAF leverages Massey University’s wide capability in precision agriculture, primary production science and horticulture supply chains, sensor technology, robotics, AI, and data science.

Later in the afternoon, you are scheduled to visit Fonterra’s Research and Development Centre (FRDC).

Home to 130 PhDs and 350 dairy patents, innovation is a key part of New Zealand Milk Products’ (NZMP), and ultimately Fonterra’s reason for being. Within NZMP, the FRDC is dedicated to dairy innovation and research.

This video gives a good introduction to NZMP and the FRDC.

Wharerata – BBQ dinner.

The next stop is your final destination for the day – Wharerata, where casual drinks and a BBQ dinner will be organised for the group. A quick week one tour review will take place before dinner at this historic homestead.

By 20:00 you’ll be at your accommodation, where you can enjoy some free time or an early night as you are up at 06:00 the next morning to hit the road again.

The schedule is intense – but it will be worth it!

If you haven’t checked out yet the following podcasts, take the time to listen to Professor Hamish Gow’s Podcast ‘Value chain thinking’, and James Parson’s Podcast ‘When value-add doesn’t add up’. They’re both excellent for further context.

Contact us with any questions, we’re ready to help.
If you would like to find out more about the programme, contact Lisa Rogers today. Either call on 021 139 6881, or email at lisarogers@ruralleaders.co.nz.

Ready to register your interest in the Value Chain Innovation Programme?

From the Mackenzie Study: The Case for Kellogg.

Work on the Mackenzie study continues with Professor Nathan Berg of the Otago Business School and the Department of Economics made possible with the support of the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation.

Since receiving the results on the gains attributable to participation in the Nuffield Scholarship, collation of results from the Kellogg Alumni survey has now begun.

While more work needs to be done to present the data, we thought we would share a series of long-form responses from the Kellogg survey. These in themselves begin to paint a picture of the value of the programme to alumni, in terms of personal development, career advancement and industry influence.

The responses have been left anonymous and any information that might reveal a respondent’s identity has been removed.

Nearly one hundred Kellogg Alumni completed the survey.

Searching for further motivation to complete your Kellogg Lincoln or Kellogg Whanganui application? You may find it here.

What have been your most important accomplishments and did Kellogg play a role?

“Critical analysis of all situations. Kellogg helped solidify this process.”

“Kellogg taught me how to deal with problem situations and be able to answer questions from media reps. Kellogg also gave me confidence to address open meetings of farmers and Iwi reps.”

“Employment positions held. Community roles held (school board, parish, sport, and service clubs). Kellogg played a role – Yes. Improved skill base particularly around communication and leadership.”

“The course helped with critical thinking and confidence.”

“My leadership career and influence. Helped me think strategically and made me match fit.”

“Understanding myself better, how I affect others. The development of networks and doors opened by the programme. Personal brand building.”

“Contributing to strengthening capability and capacity in the agricultural sector.”

“Start-up with two fellow Kelloggers – definitely a result of Kellogg.”

“Leadership roles on boards of industry specific, or primary sector education boards plus NSO boards… Had creditability and capability having done a recognised course like Kellogg. Throughout the years the networks you form with either people who did it with you or had done it at other times was helpful to open doors and connections.”

“Underway with a new company starting a new value chain. I completed my Kellogg project on this topic, so it very much helped.”

“Since being a Kellogger I went onto become a Nuffield Scholar which I regard as a real accomplishment. Following that, I have started a new farm business and [have] become more involved with local industry. Kellogg… opened a lot of doors.”

“Forming a people and training team and ensuring the business had a successful part to play in sector upskilling. My Kellogg project and the learnings around it were the catalyst for this.”

“Moving from hands-on farming to a corporate role. Kellogg gave me the networks and confidence to make the move.”

“…Enjoyed widening my social and professional network and learning of other like-minded people. Having the mix across food production was great – everything from grapes to sheep to kiwifruit to Ag IT.”

“Kellogg helped with development of governance skills and gave me confidence to get involved in a large number of initiatives.”

“Confidence and experiencing others’ opinions and ideas, and great fellowship with others on the course.”

“Kellogg helped me particularly in improving my leadership and social skillsets…”

“Networking and connecting. Having a sound understanding of the basics about how Wellington works was a highlight which I could not have done without the doors that Kellogg opened during that part of the course.”

“I have played a significant role in building biosecurity preparedness for the primary sector and being a Kellogger has contributed to this, in part by exposing me to some inspirational people – and understanding the habits that lead to success.”

“It helped me see that the people I viewed as leaders were not that different from me. It gave me confidence in who I am and whetted my appetite for more.”

“I learned a great deal as a Kellogger, and that has contributed to all I have done…It made me a better person, better equipped with insights and with the ability to consider decisions. But I wasn’t completely hopeless before!”

“Before the programme, I ran hard and fast at everything I did. This generally worked but came at a huge cost to my family life, my personal life, and my mental health.

I still push myself every day to be better, but after hearing ways others in my cohort dealt with stress, I was able to learn to keep my mind on the rails. Mainly – I don’t need to do everything on my own. My cohort was the best – heaps of us are still in touch, helping each other along the way.”

“Respect from others for having completed Kellogg and respect between alumni.”

The Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme has been developing leaders for the rural and agri-food sector since 1979.

Key Information

Our Alumni

2026 Applications

The Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarship is one of the most valued awards in New Zealand’s primary sector.

Key Information

Our Alumni

2027 Applications

Innovating for our fast-changing value chains.

Key Information

2027 Applications

Fast-track your food and fibre skills, knowledge, and confidence.

Key Information

2026 Applications

Develop horticulture-specific leadership knowledge and skills.

Key Information

2026 Applications

Popular Keywords

Categories

Adversity affects farmers from multiple sources

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

Five areas of adversity

Health

Natural disasters, climate and weather

Financial

Family

Personal loss

Resilience strategies and the ‘Resilience Triangle’

Purpose

Connection

Well-being

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

From Bluff Station to Cambridge University and back.​

Pushing your limits and personal growth.

Nuffield study and building better teams.

Building self-awareness and self-aware teams.

The Nuffield Scholarship and creating the space to grow.

The antidote to tricky times.

What to expect from ‘Know your Mindset. Lead what Matters’.

Creating a strong base from which to lead.

When, where, and how much does it cost?

Ideas That Grow: Kate Scott, 2018 Nuffield Scholar.

From dairy farming in Taranaki to environmental consulting in Otago.

The Nuffield Scholarship and gaining new perspectives.

The Nuffield Research and a global context.

Tackling agriculture’s regulatory challenges.

Sustainability and the speed of change.

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

Denitsa

How do we navigate this new world from Norfolk?

Learning from other scholars

Denitsa

Background

The UK Farming Situation: March 2022

The CSC Agenda

Learning from Global Scholars

NZ Farming vs UK Farming

New Zealand Brand Reputation

The 2022 Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference.

Sharing New Zealand with the world.

The CSC business hackathon.

Two years’ Nuffield Scholars get together.

Lucie’s post-conference travels: North England, Scotland, Shetland Islands, Norway and the Netherlands.

Building the value.

The programme delivery team.

Building leadership capability.

Bold

Innovative

Motivated

Perceptive

Community-minded

Six Alumni to help with this years’ Scholar search.

From the Catlins to Nelson – Scholars photographed doing their thing.

Kate Scott, 2018 Nuffield Scholar

Julian Raine, 1997 Nuffield Scholar

Lynsey Stratford, 2021 Nuffield Scholar

Andy Elliot, 2018 Nuffield Scholar

Desiree Reid-Whitaker, 2010 Nuffield Scholar

From Bluff Station to Cambridge University and back.

Creating a strong base from which to lead. 