RL2024 Archives | Page 2 of 3

Realising Leadership Potential in New Zealand’s Food and Fibre Sector.

From a concept that originated nearly two and a half years ago, a new leadership report draws on extensive research and from hundreds of perspectives of people working in food and fibre.

‘A Path to Realising Leadership Potential in Aotearoa NZ’s Food and Fibre Sector’ is the result of a collaboration between Food and Fibre Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) and the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust (Rural Leaders).

The report, enriched by the concepts of Te Ao Māori and of Pacific cultures, does not claim to provide a definitive answer to leadership, but instead offers a principles-centred model for leading in the Sector, encouraging leaders to find their personal leadership approach and to embark on their own path.

Recognising that leadership development is not a linear path and acknowledging the diversity and complexity of the sector, the research proposes a dynamic, living ecosystem. An ecosystem that can be interacted with, leveraged, adapted, shared, and yet retain a common essence that can be spread across the way we work, interact with others, and envision the future.

“A sustained flow of capable and self-aware leaders is critical to the Food and Fibre sector remaining vital and vibrant into the future. The Sector needs leaders that are continuously developing themselves and the teams they work with”, said Lisa Rogers, CEO, Rural Leaders.

This latest report follows previous research which looked at the state of leadership development in NZ, and also proposed a principles-centred leadership model for the Sector.

The report synthesises the thinking from the first two reports and provides a framework for the Sector to develop a flow of prepared leaders to step into ever more impactful roles.

“This work is an important step in the pathway to providing a tangible framework for leadership development for the whole of the Food and Fibre sector, which will not only be for the betterment of our sector’s people but for the betterment of the country,” said Kate Scott, Chair, NZ Rural Leadership Trust.

Dr Lilla du Toit, Portfolio Manager, Food and Fibre CoVE commented, “This research project holds immense importance for the Food and Fibre sector, significantly shaping the development of leadership roles across all the industries it serves. It will also play a crucial role in fortifying two other key leadership initiatives, namely the Horticulture NZ Leadership Programme redesign by Rural Leaders, and the Food and Fibre CoVE and Muka Tangata backed Food and Fibre Māori Leadership Development Framework.”

Rural Leaders wish to sincerely acknowledge the authors for their tireless work on this report, and acknowledge too, project collaboration partners, Food and Fibre CoVE, and the generous support of Strategic Partners DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, FMG, AGMARDT, Mackenzie Charitable Foundation, and Programme Partners LIC, Farmlands Co-operative, Zespri, MPI, FAR, Horticulture NZ, and Rabobank.

You can download the latest report here.

Campbell Parker – Leading with authenticity in a fast-changing sector.

Farmers Weekly Managing Editor Bryan Gibson speaks to Campbell Parker, Chief Executive Officer at DairyNZ.

Campbell discusses his involvement with the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme and how leading with authenticity can go a long way to helping us achieve big things in a time of rapid change.

Listen to Campbell’s podcast here or read the transcript below.

Bryan Gibson – Managing Editor of Farmer’s Weekly.

Kia Ora, you’ve joined the Ideas That Grow podcast, brought to you by Rural Leaders. In this series, we’ll be drawing on insights from innovative rural leaders to help plant ideas that grow so our regions can flourish. Ideas that Grow is presented in association with Farmers Weekly.

Bryan Gibson, Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly.
You’re with Ideas That Grow, the Rural Leaders podcast. I am Farmers Weekly Managing Editor, Bryan Gibson, and with me today is Campbell Parker, Chief Executive of DairyNZ. G’day Campbell, how’s it going?

Campbell Parker, CEO DairyNZ
How are you, Bryan? Yeah, I’m pretty good, thanks.

BG: Now, you’re not an alumnus of the Kellogg or the Nuffield Programmes, but you have been called upon to work with some of the Kellogg cohorts, to talk to them about leadership. What does that involve?

Sharing leadership experiences with Kellogg scholars.

Image: Campbell Parker with 2024 Programme One Kellogg Scholars (K51).

CP: I had the opportunity in the end of January to go down and talk to the most current cohort. They were looking for a view around the dairy industry. Obviously, I’m CEO of DairyNZ, but that was where it started.

Ultimately, what you find in those conversations is that you start talking about the Sector, but then you start talking about leadership. The conversation with them ended up in a very interesting space around what are some of the challenges the sector has and where does leadership fit in.

What I also find interesting with a group like that is they’re interested in your own personal leadership journey and where they are in their own journey. How do we learn together and what is the role of leadership? You always find those sessions really stimulating; when you get to talk about what that is and what are we all trying to achieve from a leadership perspective.

BG: Leadership is an interesting thing. For myself, I hold a leadership position in our business. But to tell you the truth, a while back, I wouldn’t have thought leadership was for me. I’m a quiet person. I’m a listener, like journalists often are.

You quite often don’t marry that to what you stereotypically look for in a leader. What do you think about how leadership has evolved over time and what qualities are important?

Leading well starts with understanding yourself.

CP: I think leadership is an evolving subject, and it continues to evolve. But one of the things I’ve seen, I think people have a frame around what they think leadership is. I personally believe everyone can be a leader. First of all, you’ve got to lead yourself. That’s where it starts.

Some of the best leaders I’ve worked with aren’t necessarily the gregarious and outgoing people. But to sum it up, I think one of the most important traits around leadership is authenticity and being really clear about who you are as a person, what your impact on others is, and how you try and lead people.

It does start with having a good understanding of yourself, what motivates you, what drives you, how you react to certain circumstances, and then ultimately, how do you lead people to be the best that they can be. To me, that authenticity is not necessarily about corporate messages, because the people that have the ability to take people with them are the people that are trusted and are authentic. They have very honest conversations around where things need to be.

If I had to put it down to one thing and one word, I would say authenticity is one of the most important things.

BG: Yeah, I guess people are more likely to believe in and get in behind someone who they feel personally, or in a business sense, has their back, that you’ll be listened to, and that you have the chance to thrive on your own as well as within a collective. That’s really important, isn’t it?

Authenticity is key in a sector with little appetite for BS.

CP: It is. I think I was asked a question by the board when I was going through the interview process for this role. They asked me a question around what are the things you’re most proud of in your career. I said to them, and I was very genuine around this, it’s not an event or something, there’s been lots of those. But what I’m most proud of is the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with and the things that we’ve been able to achieve together. To me, that’s the important part of leadership, because when you work with teams and people, and you achieve something you didn’t think was possible, that’s inspirational.

I remember one person that I worked with externally who used to often say, the biggest limitations are those that we put on ourselves. I think we’re all a lot more capable of things from a leadership perspective than what we think we are. It’s through time and experience that you gage those things and you learn from them. If you’re a continuous learner, you want to continue to grow as a human being – I think if you can do that and do that well, then leadership can be really enjoyed and enjoyable

BG: You don’t know what you’re capable of until you give it a go, I guess. That lifelong learning thing.

CP: And sometimes you’re put into situations that are really challenging. Ultimately, you have to be prepared to make a decision and then live with those decisions, but you also need to be, I think, open enough to reflect on and admit when you didn’t get things right or be vulnerable enough to then change. Because, again, back to that point around authenticity and trust, that gives people the ability to trust you and then come with you.

The one thing I would say in our sector, in agriculture, and particularly with farmers, they’re pretty good at reading the ‘BS’ barometer, and that level of authenticity is incredibly important.

Remaining positive about the Sector’s future.

BG: Now, you mentioned you talked to the Kellogg cohort earlier in the year about some of the issues in our food production sector at the moment. Obviously, it’s been a time of rapid change. We’ve had global events, pandemics, that sort of thing, and also lots of regulation come down from government in the previous term. What do you think is the path going forward? How do we align ourselves to make sure we’re doing the best we can do for our sector?

CP: I think one of the things that we really need to make sure that we continue to do is respect all the really good work that have been done by farmers. This is something that’s really important. It’s not just dairy farmers, that’s all farmers. When I look across the Sector and I look at the progress that farmers have made over the last 10 years, we’re in a very different place today than what we were 10 years ago, particularly when you go to things like on-farm practices, and in the environmental space. You get into animal welfare, all those really important, which are quite big global topics and are not going to go away.

It’s really important that as a sector, we continue to have progress around that because it’s expected, whether it be from global players who buy our products or consumers, ultimately. But equally, when you talk to farmers, farmers care deeply about animals on the land, and they ultimately want to leave it better than what they found it. I think hope around that is really important. This sector contributes so strongly to New Zealand from a GDP, but it’s not just that. It’s not just the financial, it’s the communities.

When farming is doing well, communities thrive, and when communities thrive, towns do well. The whole impact on our nation is incredibly important. Yes, we’ve had some tough times. We’ll go through cycles, and we always have in terms of economic cycles and political cycles. But I think we’ve got to have the courage to continue to be passionate and positive about what our future is, because the world needs high-quality food produced in a way that’s sustainable for the environment.

Our farmers ultimately also need economic returns for that to remain viable themselves. It’s an industry that I certainly find not hard to get out of bed every day and get excited about because it’s got a really, really important role to play.

BG: Just a year or two back, it seemed we had a bit of a flash point, I guess, in terms of rural leadership. It was over the emissions pricing process. A lot of farmers and people in rural communities got the feeling that they hadn’t been communicated to well enough by the people who were advocating for them inside the beltway. That led to changes in leadership in various places. That communication and gaining and representing a mandate, that seems to be really important as you go and represent your community outside of it, if you know what I mean.

Learning from the past.

CP: I agree, and I think it is. I think the reality is if you’re talking around things like He Waka Eke Noa processes and things like that. Look, a lot of people put a lot of effort into those processes and tried to communicate things. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a void, and I think it’s important we learn from that because out of that comes this distrust and this concern around what are we advocating for.

It’s interesting because since being in the role, I’ve talked to a lot of dairy farmers, and a lot of farmers have raised that issue with me. When you reflect back on it and say, well, the alternative was we went straight into the ETS, we ended up with pricing, and we didn’t end up with a split gas approach, do you think we should have played that role? They unequivocally say, Absolutely, you should have. Somehow it got lost in translation. I think we do have to learn and reflect on that. I think we do have a role, particularly as industry good organisations to stand up and be clear about what we do stand for and be prepared to take a leadership position.

I know that from my predecessors and people in the business, that absolutely was the case. Somehow that got lost.

Getting the mojo back.

BG: You mentioned farming being not just a driver of economic wealth, but of social well-being. Often when you hear about farming, though, outside of the likes of the Farmer’s Weekly or that sort of thing, it seems to be always on the defensive, if you know what I mean? Farmers have been accused of this and here’s such-and-such from Federated Farmers to defend themselves. It seems we need to maybe front foot things a bit more and believe in what we are and what we bring and that sort of thing and change the conversation a little bit?

CP: I think as farmers and the industry, should be incredibly proud of what we do as a sector. Also, and look, times are tough. When you look directionally through and not just at the financial, the impact that the sector has on communities, people growing, schools, all those things should not be lost sight of.

If I cast my mind forward, I’m 54, if I go back to when I left school in 1987, post the share market crash, everyone said the agricultural sector was a sunset industry. It has certainly not played out that way, and it’s been really, really important for New Zealand. If I cast my mind then forward, I go, absolutely, will it be important in 15- or 20-years’ time? Absolutely. Can we balance both environmental and profitable outcomes? Absolutely. Lots of farmers are doing that. But somehow, we have to try and have a positive voice and get our mojo back.

BG: It does relate to a top-down approach with the likes of Government regulation, that leaves farmers in a place where they don’t feel in control of their own destiny. They’re being given rules with no contextual meaning. Whereas if, say, the likes of the current process of driven plans around scope-three emissions, they lead to premiums. There’s information from customers around the ‘why’. That seems to be a better way to do things in some ways.

CP: I think you’ve always got to understand the context of what you’re trying to drive in. Self-regulation is always better than regulation. I think as an industry, we’ve got to take responsibility for our role to play in those pieces. We’re signed up to things like the Paris Accord. That’s all okay. We’ve just got to make sure that we are contributing and take ownership for our issues.

I think one of the observations I would make, Bryan, in talking with politicians, whether it be regionally or centrally now, is they don’t only want to know what the problems are, they want to know what the solutions are.

We see ourselves as being part of those solutions. But to your point, when people are uncertain, and that’s why we need enduring policy, that’s fear and pragmatic and can be implemented. We did get too much complexity into some of that space. Some of that’s got to be undone. But we need enduring policy that also gives farmers confidence to invest in the things that they need and to continue the direction of travel. If we don’t have that, then it becomes very hard. Confidence is a really important part of anyone’s psyche.

When you feel good about what you’re doing and you’re upbeat about where things are going, you’re more likely to have a positive mindset.

Kellogg - for leaders who want to make a difference.

BG: Just going back to your work with the Kellogg Programme, that must have been… I’ve been to a couple of their alumni events, and they’re amazing events because they’re just full of a wide range of people from all different backgrounds, all different professions. But they’re all just incredibly excited about the Programme, about being with each other and what they’re doing. How did you find it?

CP: They’re always energising. You get in a room with this year’s intake. In January, there was probably 20 people in the room. They’re all passionate about what they do. They ask good questions, which is good and challenging. But they’re there for a reason because they want to make a difference, ultimately.

They also want to challenge themselves to grow as leaders. I think any of those programmes that galvanise people towards that, but more importantly, that self-reflection around where you are and how do you grow and how do you learn from others, is a really good thing to be part of.

The alumni piece around how they continue to connect themselves up; I talked with one of our directors, Tracy Brown, and she remembers doing Kellogg 20 years ago, when she was in her early 20s, and the people she went through at that point. She’s gone on to do a Nuffield and sits on our board, and sits on a number of boards. Some of that started with Kellogg. I think that’s where sometimes the passion gets ignited, but they get drawn to do the Programme, generally, because they’re drawn towards doing it for a deeper personal reason.

BG: Thanks for listening to Ideas that Grow, a Rural Leaders podcast in partnership with Massey and Lincoln Universities, AGMARDT, and FoodHQ. This podcast was presented by Farmers Weekly.

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

Kerry Worsnop, Matt Iremonger, James Allen and Kylie Leonard – 2023 Nuffield reports.

(Image. Left to right: Kerry Worsnop, Kylie Leonard, Matt Iremonger, James Allen).

After over a year of immersion within the global Nuffield network; whether that be on the key programme milestones such as the GFP, CSC or on research travel, the 2023 Nuffield Scholars’ have completed their reports.

A brilliant group of people, a pleasure to spend time with and all great at what they do. Check out the report titles/summaries below or take a closer look at their reports here.

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Here are the report summaries.

Kerry Worsnop – The mountain we need to climb. Designing agricultural policy for a future in farming.

Kerry’s report addresses those in leadership, agricultural policy makers and others with an interest in how we deliver better outcomes for those on the land and for the land itself. Kerry’s report hopes to bring into focus what we need to comprehend about our operating environment if we are to navigate agricultural policy well.

Go to Kerry’s report.

James Allen – Redefining excellence in agribusiness advisory. The role of the rural advisor in the modern world.

James’ report explores the challenges faced by the rural advisor in a farming world striving to feed an ever-increasing population whilst also reducing its environmental footprint. This report gives guidance as to how the rural advisor might continue to add value to farmers in this fast-changing context.

Go to James’ report.

Matt Iremonger – What’s the beef? Opportunities for beef on dairy in New Zealand.

Over 1.8 million non-replacement calves are slaughtered annually at 4-7 days.
Matt’s report looks at the opportunity for beef on dairy to shift the value chain from dysfunctional to functional.

Go to Matt’s report.

Kylie Leonard – Boots on the ground are part of the solution. Transitioning agriculture towards sustainability together.

A reduction of Greenhouse gases is being demanded through our value chains. Kylie’s report focuses on the need for farmers to be at the table of this change (not on the menu) in order to steer agriculture toward greater sustainability outcomes.

Go to Kylie’s report.

The NZRLT board welcome Jack Cocks, Associate Trustee.

The NZRLT Board and Leadership Team are pleased to announce Jack Cocks’ appointment as Associate Trustee.

Jack replaces Olivia Weatherburn. As the role is for one year, Olivia now steps aside after her exemplary service on the board. Olivia’s positivity, energy and contribution has been valuable – and valued.

Jack now joins Kate Scott, Chair, and Rebecca Hyde, Murray King, Steve Wilkins, Trustees, and Hamish Fraser and Paul Crick, Independent Trustees.

“The board is excited to welcome Jack to the role of Associate Trustee. Jack brings a diverse background in farming, consultancy and the importance of personal resilience to his passion for developing others”, says Kate Scott, Board Chair.

Jack is an Otago high country farmer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in farm management from Lincoln University and a masters in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois. Prior to farming Jack was a Dunedin based agribusiness consultant.

Jack suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm eleven years ago which saw him spend eight months in hospital over six years and undergo fifteen major surgeries. Following this experience he has studied and researched how ‘Resilient Farmers Thrive in the Face of Adversity’ through the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.

He has been asked to do many talks to corporate, farmer, and student groups on his ideas around how farmers can be more resilient to thrive in the face of adversity.

“It’s a real privilege to join the NZRLT board for the next twelve months. I’m looking forward to the opportunity. I’m sure I will learn a huge amount, and I hope to add value to the organisation”, says Jack Cocks.

The Associate Trustee role offers valuable governance in practice experience to those appointed, while providing the opportunity to contribute to the Board’s objectives and to the wider sector in a meaningful way.

Jack’s first official NZRLT board meeting will be 3 July.

John Daniell Memorial Trust – supporting Kellogg.

The John Daniell Memorial Trust has kindly agreed to support two Kellogg Rural Leadership course participants annually.

This support comes in the form of two scholarships per year of $5,000.

Successful applicants will be expected to present to the trust either in person or online within three months of the conclusion of their Kellogg research project.

Learn more about the Trust and applicant eligibility below.

Aims of the trust.
To perpetuate John Daniell’s enthusiasm, love and philosophy in all aspects of pastoral farming.

To further promote and assist in achieving his long-held objective of increasing research effort into hill country and pastoral farming.

To recognise John Daniell’s significant contribution to the NZ farming industry.

Objectives of the trust.
To encourage or promote any idea, activity or project that is seen as capable of furthering understanding, knowledge or appreciation of any aspect of farming practice.

To encourage places of learning, person, organisations or government departments to participate in research and demonstration associated with specific farming projects.

To provide and/or assist in the provision of scholarships, bursaries, lectures, seminars, trophies and other benefits of incentives.

To promote research and demonstration of means of achieving the maximum volume and value of products consistent with the maintenance of a high standard of animal and pasture management.

To promote research and the demonstration of management systems to enable pastoral farmers to achieve optimum production and profitability on an ongoing basis.

The advancement of education in the farming of pastoral property.

To invest in any farming resource which will enable the research and demonstration of modern farming practices.

Eligibility.
1). Scholarships will be awarded to those who are focused on practical pastoral livestock farming or leadership in the pastoral livestock farming

2). Preference is be given to participants from the Wairarapa region in the first instance

3). Applicants must be NZ citizens

4). Applications to be lodged with the intended start date of the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme

5). The scholarship will be paid by the trust direct into the applicants nominated bank account at the commencement of the course.

Applications.
Applications for a John Daniell Memorial Trust Scholarship to attend Kellogg Programme One 2026, will need to be submitted to Delwyn Pringle at the email below by Sunday 5 October 2025.

NB. You will need to submit your Kellogg application by this date as well. Please indicate on your application that you are applying for this scholarship.

To start the process please email Trust Secretary Delwyn Pringle for an application form at delwyn@bakerag.co.nz

New Energy – The 2024 Nuffield Biennial Conference.

New Energy, the 2024 Nuffield Biennial Conference.

There’s just a little over a month to go until the Nuffield Biennial begins.

Open to Nuffield alumni and their partners, this key event runs 23-26 May.

The Nuffield Biennial features a stellar line up of new technology and innovation, networking opportunities and the best produce from the Taranaki region. Take a look at the planned schedule below.

Contact Annie Chant at Anniechant@ruralleaders.co.nz for any queries.

Or book here now.

The Conference schedule at a glance.

Arrival Day (Thursday 23 May)
2022 Scholar presentations and panel.
Drinks and networking dinner.

Day Two (Friday 24 May)
2020, 2021 Scholar presentations and panel.

Field Trips
Option One, Energy supply chain
Ross Dingle (CEO) Port of Taranaki site visit, Q&A energy sector leaders.

Option Two, Branching out
Michelle Bauer, Venture Taranaki.
Medicinal and Botanic growth followed by a visit to the Marae for a presentation with Meat to You and Michelle Bauer on Taranaki’s regional diversity.

Option Three
Taranaki Gardens visit with Ainsley Luscombe.

Later – Gin tasting with Juno Gin and buffet dinner.

Day Three (Saturday 25 May)
2023 Scholar presentations and panel.

Field Trips
Option One, Emissions and Efficiency
Rotary Cow Shed – Shane Arden.
Solar on Farm – Philip Luscombe, Matt and Roger.
Nestle Net Zero pilot dairy farm – Dairy Trust Taranaki.

Option Two, Got Milk
PKW Sheep Milk –Spring Sheep Milk.
Tawhiti Museum.

Later – Egmont Honey talk, seated dinner and band ‘Avalanche’.

Nuffield Biennial details at a glance.

Where: The Devon Hotel, New Plymouth (we have held some rooms here, though these are booking out).
When: Starts 3pm, Thursday, 23 May.
Register below by Wednesday, 1 May.

Fee: Registration is $475 + GST. Registration fee includes most catering, field trips and the Conference.

Jen Corkran – Trust, truth and how we learn.

Farmers Weekly Managing Editor Bryan Gibson speaks to Jen Corkran, Senior Animal Protein Analyst at Rabobank and a 2023 Kellogg Scholar.

Jen discusses her day job to provide red meat insights to clients and farmers. Jen also reveals what her Kellogg research tells us about trust, truth and the way farmers take on information.

Listen to Jen’s podcast here or read the transcript below.

Bryan Gibson – Managing Editor of Farmer’s Weekly.

Bryan Gibson, Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly.
You’re with Ideas That Grow, the Rural Leaders podcast. I’m Farmers Weekly Editor, Bryan Gibson, and with me today is Jen Corkran, a Kellogg Scholar. G’day Jen, how’s it going?

Jen Corkran, 2023 Kellogg Scholar, Senior Animal Protein Analyst at Rabobank.
Hi, Bryan. It’s good here. How are you?

BG: Yeah, pretty good, thanks. To get started, tell us a little bit about your background. Where are you from?

Foundations in rural Hawkes Bay.

JC: I grew up in rural Central Hawkes Bay, in a little town called Waipukarau. My mum was a teacher at a primary school there, Flemington School, so right in the heart of sheep and beef country in Hawkes Bay.

I grew up and went to primary school there and I think from that grew this really in-depth passion for the agriculture industry in New Zealand. Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a farmer. So, I think that background set me up well for that.

BG: Did that follow through to higher education or your first jobs, that sort of thing?

JC: Yeah, it did. After high school, I went to Massey in Palmerston North and studied agricultural science down there for three years, which was good fun. From there, I went farming in mid-Canterbury for a couple of years on a big beef farm. This is early, mid-2000’s, before the dairy boom. There was still a lot of sheep and beef country down that way. Before this farm did end up converting to dairy, it was all flood-irrigated beef, and spent two years down there as stock manager, which was great fun, especially coming straight out of university and not actually growing up on a big farm.

We did have a lifestyle block there in the Hawkes Bay with 70 odd sheep and a few cattle. But this gave me that real, in-depth understanding of farming, and through the seasons, and the longer term understanding of what it takes.

From that, I got inspired to go back to uni to do some post-grad. I did an honors year in Pastoral Science and Sheep and Beef Farm Systems. After that, it was great coming back into that, having spent some time farming as well. Then after few years in the UK I moved back to New Zealand.

Senior Animal Protein Analyst, Rabobank Research Team.

BG: Yeah. And you’re with Rabobank right now. What do you do there?

JC: Yes. I’m the Senior Animal Protein Analyst in the Rabo Research Team. So our job in Rabo Research is pretty much to provide insights and understanding around what’s happening in the markets in that global picture. My area in animal protein is red meat, for New Zealand, so sheep and beef. We cover all the commodities. In the team I sit in, we’ve got dairy in New Zealand, and sheep, beef, and then we’ve got a whole bunch of other Rabo Research analysts who sit out of Sydney and Australia and cover off a whole bunch of other stuff.

So great to be part of a global team as well. There are analysts all around the world for Rabobank. We’ve got real global reach to find out what’s going on in other markets, what’s driving some of the things that we’re seeing down here in New Zealand. We provide that insight to clients and farmers in New Zealand, arming people with good information so they can make the best decisions for their farming businesses.

BG: We enjoy getting your guys insights across our desks here at the Farmers Weekly. They usually turn into good stories. Now, talking today about your Kellogg Scholarship Programme. Tell us a little bit about what you decided to study?

Kellogg Programme research on pastoral farmer learning preferences.

Image: Jen Corkran speaking in Rabobank site at the Wanaka A&P, March 2024. (Rabobank’s Scott Levings in blue looking on).

JC: My research for Kellogg was on farmer learning preferences, pastoral farmers, to be specific. I was with Barenbrug New Zealand for over 10 years before starting with Rabobank. So, when I did Kellogg last year, I was still with Barenbrug. As a Pastoral Seed Company, they really wanted to understand how farmers are learning and getting information; pastoral is our bread and butter here in New Zealand. We turn grass into saleable protein.

How our farmers learning anything to do with harvesting homegrown feed? So, we know that the most profitable farm systems in New Zealand harvest the highest amounts of homegrown feed because it’s the cheapest form of feed, and they turn that into milk or meat. So, I guess Barenberg is a business, and I really was quite passionate about this topic, too, because at the time, I was in a pasture specialist role around helping farmers get the best from their grass and crops. How do they learn? How do they prefer to get information? And from that, what do they do with it, basically?

It was essentially more of a social science topic in terms of adult learning preferences. And some interesting results came out of that. It was a challenging project, but certainly understanding people and what makes them work is part of what we all do every day, too. So, yeah, it was great.

BG: That issue of tech and knowledge transfer through to the boots on the ground in the farming sector is one that has had lots of people scratching their heads over time. What were the key findings? How do farmers like to learn things.

What the Kellogg research revealed.

JC: So, there’s a lot to it. I had to go right back to the start to understand some of what’s already been done in that space. So, a big literature review in terms of what do we already know about how our farmers learn? You can look overseas, but really we’re quite a unique here in New Zealand, and we want to know how we, as more outdoor feed systems, are doing things.

So, yes, a big literature review in terms of what’s already been done. There’s a lot of work that’s been done, but it’s quite complex. But the real interesting findings came with actual farmer interviews. Just talking to farmers all around New Zealand, both in the dry stock, red meat sector, and also dairy, cropping, arable, whatever it might be, to find out how they learn. What we found was these two broad pillars, when it comes to learning, there’s a purely learning aspect, and then there’s a social aspect. They’re both equally as important as each other. And when it comes to learning, there’s information. People need to know what it is that they’re after. They also have to make a decision.

But before all of that, they need to be aware of what the thing might be. So for example, a new type of crop that might suit a certain area of New Zealand, say a summer crop where it’s summer dry, and this thing’s going to provide protein over that time. Before a farmer is even going to think about putting this new crop in, they’re going to be aware that it even exists and then understand how it works. What overlies that is understanding it through information, so whether it’s data or science or trials or your neighbour tried it, to make a decision to whether it will work for them. So that’s understanding their own farm business and seeing if it’s relevant.

Relevance is hugely important. But what overlays basically everything is this social aspect around trust and trusting the information that they’re getting is both true and relevant to them. Also, I guess, having a yarn about it with other people, as farmers in New Zealand, like to do. So this whole networks, trusted networks, trust is really key to farmer learning.

The other big one, I guess, that overlays the learning aspect is relevance to farm system. So, a dairy farmer is not going to necessarily be selling the same pasture and using it in the same way as a sheep farmer who struggles with more dry or harder conditions or in different soil types. They were the key pillars, I suppose. Obviously, in interviews with farmers, it was just so interesting to see all the themes lining up – networks and trust, those two words came up-time and time again.

Building trust takes time.

BG: Obviously, trust is the key. It doesn’t really matter where that trust lies. It could be different for different farmers, say, friends or colleagues or catchment group members, or it could be the seed rep or someone else. As long as there’s that relationship there, is that the thing that drives any evolution?

JC: Yeah, 100 %. What I basically did with the interviews is get a transcript and look for themes – a thematic analysis of themes. Some of the keywords that kept coming up were ‘trust takes time’, and trust doesn’t have to be for a person necessarily. It could be for a brand or a company or a business or a thing. But building trust takes time and has to be something that’s proven. I think a lot of farmers, and it’s something we hear as people in the industry all the time, you can’t just assume that you meet someone and then they’re going to trust what you’ve got to say. You have to earn it. And ‘earning trust’, I think, was one of the key things that kept coming up again and again. A business can become a trusted business within the inc of New Zealand also, and so can individual people.

Often, farmers said, they might have an agronomist who works for X company, and it’s the agronomist that they trust, and they’re going to follow that agronomist wherever they go through their career or their seed rep, or whoever it might be. Or it might be that they trust this particular brand, and they’re going to follow that. It could be whatever, but it has to be earned. I guess, backed up by some positive that they’re seeing. A lot of us work in the same way. We want to trust what we’re doing, and it becomes easier to make a decision if you trust that it is a safe one, I suppose.

BG: Farm owners hold a lot of the purse strings in terms of the wider industry, so they’ve got a lot of people coming down the driveway trying to sell them the newest and best thing. They do have that detector to go, ‘well, is this going to work for me. Or is this just someone trying to sell me something new and unproven or a one-size-fits-all approach?’ They really need to have that filter on, don’t they?

Trust in rural New Zealand.

JC: It was really interesting, because with the Kellogg Programme itself, we do the research project as one part of it. And then the other part of it that’s within the actual course itself in the in-person phases, is learning for all of us on the course. A lot of this was around critical thinking. How do you get to a place of trust, asking the right questions, critically thinking about things so that you are asking the right curious questions to find out if something is true or not.

We live in an age where there’s so much information out there. You type something into a little square on your computer screen, and you can come up with scrolls of information. But what’s actually true and what’s not, and how do we trust it? So, it was really interesting. Some of the stuff we learned about misinformation and disinformation and critical thinking on Kellogg really paralleled a lot with what the farmers were naturally saying and doing.

Some of the most experienced business people are farmers, right? They have to be across so many different things. And so for me, doing a leadership course and seeing it tie in naturally with these amazing farmers around New Zealand was really cool.

They naturally have this ‘right, can I trust you or can I not?’ And a lot of them said, it sounds negative, but they didn’t mean it in a negative way. I’ll always start from a place of distrust trust and then move to trust. It’s not necessarily that you’re going to have trust straight away. So good thing to think about, I guess, for anyone dealing in rural industries in New Zealand.

The Kellogg experience.

BG: Yeah, for sure. How was your experience going through the Kellogg Programme?

JC: It was great, Bryan. You have six months, basically, where you have this tight knit group of anywhere between 18 and 24 people. There was 23 people on our course, cohort 50, we were last year. You get really close to these people. You spend the first 10 days down at Lincoln together all day, every day, learning about leadership and learning about yourself.

You’re on this journey together and so those networks that you make with the people in your cohort, you can’t really put any value on it because it’s golden. Because you’re doing the journey together, you’re in this challenging but stimulating environment. It was really, really great. And that network is for life now with those people.

Outside of the people that you’re doing your Kellogg with, I think for me, it was the leaders that were put in front of us. Seeing the characteristics that they had was really inspiring. They’re optimistic, a lot of them, there’s a lot of humility there. They’re curious, they ask questions, they’re open-minded. These are the ones that stood out to me as the most natural leaders.

They’ve obviously got all of these learnings along the way that have helped them get to this point that seems magical. You can see things in yourself that you maybe already have or that you need to work on because you’re just getting this exposure to these things that you wouldn’t necessarily get in that six month period.

Critical thinking, being curious, asking questions, keeping an open mind. There’s these themes that keep coming up over and over again. You see places for your own growth too. You see places where you’ve had challenging situations and you realise why, perhaps. So, In terms of leadership, there’s a heap of learning. In terms of that bigger picture thinking, where this tiny little export nation sitting in the South Pacific Sea, selling produce to the world, but we are affected globally by a lot of what goes on.

For me, very much in that pastoral science space at the time, it opened my mind up to this bigger picture way of thinking, which was my big learning. I did my Kellogg last year in my mid-30s. A great time to do it because I’d had a bit of life experience, a bit of career experience, but still you realise how much you’ve got to go and do. So, it was really good. Yeah, loved it.

BG: Awesome. And what’s the plan for you? Just still sinking your teeth into global protein markets, that thing?

JC: Yeah, that’s correct. Kellogg did open my mind to other opportunities and started with Rabo at the end of last year. So very much in that getting into the role space, what’s driving global protein consumption. We’re going through a challenging time right now in the red meat sector with meat prices, especially. There’s a number of reasons for that. What is the light at the end of the tunnel? When might we see it? So no, it’s really good, and I certainly, leapt right into that big picture thinking, which is great.

BG: Thanks for listening to Ideas that Grow, a Rural Leaders podcast in partnership with Massey and Lincoln Universities, AGMARDT, and FoodHQ. This podcast was presented by Farmers Weekly. For more information on Rural Leaders, the Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships, or the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, please visit, ruralleaders.co.nz

Hamish Murray podcast - Building stronger on-farm teams

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

Rural Leaders, The Board of Trustees, and Nuffield New Zealand were saddened to learn of the recent passing of Allan Pye (1982 Nuffield Scholar). We offer our deepest condolences to Allan’s family.

Many will have known, or known of, Allan, who passed away peacefully at Burwood Hospital on Saturday at the age of 83.

Allan’s funeral service is to be held on the farm at 276 Rise Road, Winchester on Friday, March 22, at 2.00pm. Messages to The Pye Family, 251 Rise Road, R D 26, Temuka, 7986.

Allan was affectionately known as ‘The Spud King’ after spending a lifetime building a large potato business on both sides of the Tasman.

Alan was always happiest working on the farm. In a recent Herald interview, he was quoted as saying, “I love sitting on a header. There’s nothing more satisfying than sitting on a header and harvesting 10 to 12 tonne per hectare crop of wheat. It’s better than anything.”

If you would like to leave a message for Allan’s family, you can leave condolences here https://deaths.press.co.nz/nz/obituaries/the-press-nz/name/allan-pye-obituary?id=54652220

Dr Matt Sowcik. Humility and finding a common purpose.

Dr Matt Sowcik is currently on sabbatical from his role as Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Education and leadership at University of Florida.

As part of his time here in NZ, he joined the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme in Lincoln. He spoke to Scholars (and Bryan Gibson) about the power of humility in leadership and its role in working together toward a common cause.

Listen to Matt’s podcast here or read the transcript below.

Bryan Gibson – Managing Editor of Farmer’s Weekly.

You’re with ideas that grow the Rural Leaders podcast. I’m Farmers Weekly Editor Bryan Gibson. This week we’ve got a guest from a bit further afield than usual. We’ve got Dr. Matt Sowcik, who is Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication at the University of Florida.

G’day, Matt. How’s it goin?

Matt Sowcik, Associate Professor, University of Florida.
It’s going great. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. Blessed to be here in New Zealand and certainly excited to talk to all the good folks out there.

BG: Now, your area of academic expertise is leadership in the agricultural space.

An American agri-leadership academic in Aotearoa.

MS: Yeah, actually it’s first in leadership. I am interested in the psychology around leadership. I got an undergraduate in psychology and then went off and got a master’s in organisational leadership, and then a PhD in leadership studies.

I had applied it to businesses for a really long time, but found that the space of ag, natural resources and fibre really needed leaders. So was excited to join a number of colleagues down at the University of Florida, to really put all my time into this context. I think it’s so important as we more forward.

BG: You’re on a sabbatical at the moment, taking in a few leadership programmes around the world. And are we the first stop?

MS: Yeah, this is the first stop. And I’m really interested in this idea of humility and how humility impacts leadership. Certainly it’s something in the States that we need a little bit more. And as I was looking across the world, New Zealand was a wonderful place to study how leadership and humility were impacting this particular context. So came to Christchurch, worked in Lincoln, certainly understanding your rural leaders a lot better from the Kellogg Programme.

Humility in leadership.

BG: I’m interested in the concept of humility in leadership. Can you just sort of unpack that a little bit for me?

MS: Yeah. One of the things we struggle with is humility. It is so important and there’s so many reasons for it, but we’ve been under this impression that humility is thinking less of ourselves or not thinking about ourselves. The truth is, it’s just not true. I think New Zealanders really do that well. Farmers really do that well. This idea of humility, having confidence in ourselves, but not overconfidence.

When you get into overconfidence, you miss a lot of opportunities to develop and grow and adapt and innovate, and certainly to be a good leader. So, my interest was in better understanding this idea of how we could have the proper perspective of ourselves, others, this larger world, and use that in a leadership capacity.

BG: The amount of academic research that has gone into how to manage teams and be a leader is massive, isn’t it? It does seem to be we embrace more of a ground-up approach to leadership these days than, what did they used to call it, arrow management, or it’s my way or the highway, type thing.

MS: That’s absolutely right. Yeah, I think that’s true. I think we started to distinguish a little bit better this idea of managing or keeping things the same and running to an idea of leadership where we need really great ideas. Those ideas don’t often just come with one leader at the top who rides in on the horse and saves the day. It’s really this idea around how do we collectively get a group of people, all of their wisdom and intelligence, and certainly skills, and utilise that to adapt and grow and change the world for the better?

BG: It’s softened to if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room, and that sort of thing.

MS: That’s exactly right. Yeah. No, you find that no one person is going to be smarter than the entire room, and if you are, you’re in the wrong room.

Sitting in on the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.

Image: Matt Sowcik speaking on Kellogg Programme One in late January.

BG: So, you’re sitting in on the Kellogg Programme at the moment.

MS: Yeah, it just wrapped-up yesterday, so I had an opportunity to sit through the nine days and to really engage myself. We’re so busy at times, we’re running with administrative stuff and doing our own programmes, that we don’t take the opportunity to learn.

I think what the University of Florida has blessed me with is this opportunity to come out, take a break from everything and just sit down and learn again and engage with this process.

So the Kellogg Programme, as humble as it is, allowed me to come in, have conversations, engage, explore the Programme, and really get to hear from some amazing academics, researchers in the private sector, certainly those who are doing the good work in farming, food and fibre. It was just a holistic experience to understand how leadership works so well here and certainly what we can bring back to the States to be better leaders there.

BG: It’s interesting you say leadership works well here. I don’t know how much you know about the recent history of New Zealand farming, but we’ve had kind of, some would say a leadership schism or something like that. Our farming leaders have really been under the pump and some of them haven’t survived the process. So we’re kind of soul searching in a way.

Working together with humility to solve the big challenges.

MS: I think it’s all about perspective. It’s this idea of the current problems, and certainly I can speak to those. The US is going through some current leadership crisis and of understanding how to engage with people.

What I saw on the Kellogg Programme made me feel positive and optimistic about the next five to ten years, especially around natural resources and farming; this idea that people are coming together. We need to move towards, in kind of a humble fashion, working together and engaging together. Those old philosophies of, ‘I have been doing this for ten years and I must have all the answers’, I didn’t see that on the Programme. What I saw was a collective effort of all of these sectors coming together.

I think that’s the positivity I talk about. I know there’s some current issues, some bumps in the road that are happening right now, but when I look at ten years out, about the leadership that’s happening here, I really feel optimistic that those engagements, those connections are being made and that folks are starting to realise, humbly, that we’re going to need to work together to be able to move forward in a positive direction.

BG: Yeah, I think some of those issues we’ve had last year or two really come down to communication. A failure of communication by government to sell its story, failure of communication by farming, leadership to report back to its stakeholders what’s happening through various processes. And if you’re not communicating well, then people will fill that gap with their own stories, if you know what I mean.

MS: I do know what you mean. I think there’s something so humbling about that, isn’t there? There’s this idea that we need people and people need us and we have to have that line of communication.

They often talk about communication as being the most important tool of leadership. If you don’t do that, if that breaks down, all of the other pieces, the innovation, the adaptation, the opportunity to move forward collectively, all really suffer from that.

The first step is to have some self-awareness, to be able to say, we have failed over the last couple of years to do this. So, how do we make sure we don’t fail in the future? How do we collectively come together even if we don’t agree? How do we have that civil discourse so we can understand eachother better?

The truth is, you’re all in the same boat here. I mean, it doesn’t matter who you are: Government, farmer, business owner, everybody’s on the same island moving in the same direction. And there’s some really important pieces of that, whether it’s exports, whether it’s understanding the changes in climate and some of the issues you’ve been dealing with around that. It’s a collective effort to be able to move that forward.

The challenge of individualism in the US and NZ.

BG: Yeah, we’ve had quite a number of discussions here about ‘carrot or stick’ in terms of getting progress going in environmental changes, sustainability, that sort of thing. I think farmers being sort of individualistic type people in a certain way, tend to want to be in control of their own destiny more and have (to be given a strong) reason why they should do something. Market driven approaches often work best, rather than government-led regulatory approaches. Is that similar in the States?

MS: Yeah, I actually think it’s probably more so. It’s not just farmers that we see that from, we’ve built our country on that idea of individualism and the ‘American dream’. Go get it! Pull your boots up! You can make it happen! What we’re finding is that sort of approach really lacks some humility.

My interest in researching that is, can we address some of these issues now? What we’re trying to understand in the States is, there are some problems where you can do that. If you think about it, there’s some issues that happen on a farm tractor breaks, you know that broken piece, you can fix that broken piece. You’re having some issue with a particular crop, you know that well enough. But, the problem with things like climate change and policy, they’re not simple fixes.

There’s this wonderful quote that I really love that talks about ‘all systems are not broken. There’s no system that’s broken. Every system is perfectly aligned to get what it gets.’ And what that means is no matter which way a system works out, it’s going to get the results you see at the end.

So the truth is you have to almost break it yourself if you want to change it, if you want to fix it. Those issues aren’t ones that are easily fixed by one person. They’re not like just changing out a gear. You have to bring people together, if we’re going to talk about things like policy and climate change. Those issues are ones that we need to have more than one person and they’re going to be issues that we’re going to have some trial and error, and mistakes on. Then as we move that forward, just continue to make it better and better along the way.

BG: One concept that has had some real wins over the years in New Zealand are catchment groups. That’s a collection of farmers and other stakeholders in say, a valley, where all the water runs into the same place. They all work together to protect the environment more, clean up the waterways, that sort of thing. What they found is that that sort of groupthink way of doing things with aligned goals, and to be honest neighbour peer pressure, really helps to get things moving in the right direction.

MS: Yeah, it just makes sense. It’s stepping back from ‘me’ being the only thing that’s important to collectively saying ‘we’re all important’ and that actually there’s this bigger purpose we’re all working towards.

Common purpose.

A lot of the research around humility has suggested that this idea of people coming together with a common purpose, which really is leadership common purpose, you start to understand not only will you achieve that purpose, but a lot of other things come along with it.

One of those is performance or outcomes. You’re more likely to achieve an outcome if everyone’s buying into it. If there is some of that social pressure, ultimately everybody kind of shares information, communicates and engages in that process.

I’m not surprised to hear that, and I think we need to do that a lot more. It’s ‘how are my problems also similar to others’ problems?’ What are they doing? How are they engaging? Instead of keeping that in and pretending that’s some market advantage.

The real market advantage here is being able to share information, because if I figure something out or you figure something out, that changing, sharing, engaging, really is a process to not only move in that direction, but then to be able to move further in a direction, because things will continue to change.

BG: Can you tell me a little bit about this leadership programme you teach at the University of Florida?

Leadership education at University of Florida.

MS: I’m very fortunate. I have a kind of three-pronged responsibility at the University of Florida. Certainly, teaching is one of them. We teach the undergraduate level for the entire university. We offer a certificate and minor in leadership studies to undergraduates to get them started or interested in leadership.

We teach a masters and PhD in leadership in ag and natural resources. So that’s an opportunity to bring those folks in who are interested in doing some consulting in the area or going off and teaching leadership for land grant universities. That’s just one part of what I do.

I also do research. We’re a research one institution. So, looking at how we build organisational leadership programmes within different ag industries. I’m real interested in this idea of how do we build great capacity in those who are going to take over farms, who are going to work in those communities and engage in that process? How do we start to develop that young talent? But my favourite part of my job is what we call extension, and this is going out and practicing it. So, here I run two leadership programmes myself.

One is for our county commissioners. We have 67 different counties in Florida, usually a board of five. Folks kind of oversee that when they get elected, they come to our programme and they start to learn a little bit about leadership. They start to learn a little bit about the practice of leadership in that government setting and we help them better understand how ag and natural resources are impacting their job in a way that they can lead better from that government seat and work together as a board.

Then I also will go out to different ag and natural resource industries and provide training and engagement. Really those three approaches are my job and it leads to what I think is a healthier Florida and certainly a Florida that really appreciates ag and natural resources as we move forward.

Experiential leadership education with Rural Leaders’ Kellogg Programme.

Certainly speaking of the Kellogg Programme I think the things that I learned there is this is an extraordinary programme where individuals from different industries have an opportunity to come and communicate, engage with each other. What I really loved about the Programme is that they consistently, and in a very humble way, said, you’re going to get ‘a little bit’ out of what we talk about.

But the power is collectively coming together. And when we talk about communication, when we talk about humility, it is the folks in the room having access to each other, to share, to engage, and that’s really the power of the Kellogg Programme. Besides all the wonderful speakers and opportunities, it’s that ability for individuals in the Sector to be able to come together and communicate.

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

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