They are last year’s Dairy Woman of the Year Jessie Chan-Dorman and this year’s just crowned Loshni Manikam. They are two shining examples of the value farming gets from having so many women involved at all levels.
Chan-Dorman told the Pioneer conference she fears making money in the dairy sector is being driven by a management culture giving staff recipes for how to do it, rather than just the ingredients, is smothering entrepreneurship and risk taking. Contrastingly she also believes in nurturing as well as risk-taking, saying something is wrong if some one’s priority is to earn six figures to buy a boat. She talks about chasing profit in a vicious cycle with farm systems stretched beyond their capabilities with stress on people, infrastructure, animals and the environment. She worries that more of the human side of farming will be lost with the increasing corporate ownership. And let’s face it, many farmers are probably farmers because a life in the corporate rat race didn’t appeal to them.
Manikam is a South African turned Kiwi, lawyer turned farmer turned development coach who wants to grow people’s leadership abilities but also wants to change the headspace farmers operate in. But she talks equally of non-financial and financial benefits. Manikam is also involved in Farmstrong, for which this newspaper is a champion. Farmstrong is not just about dealing with people who are having trouble dealing with problems. That’s shown by the series, also in this issue, by All Black Sam Whitelock talking about all the things farmers can do to improve their lives and their mental and physical wellbeing.
It’s all those intangible benefits that make farming an attractive proposition for many people. Yes, money is important, but its just the bit that allows us to use all our other abilities to enjoy life to the full and get the most out of farming while we’re making that money.
Stephen Bell
