Jacqui Hahn has three challenging years ahead as Waikato Federated Farmers new president.
The region’s farmers are grappling with new environmental rules from local and central government, rates rises and the ongoing economic and social fallout from covid-19.
The Rangitoto dairy and drystock farmer is well versed in those issues, having served as the organisation’s provincial vice-president for the past three years under Waitoa dairy farmer Andrew McGiven.
Before that she was vice-chairwman of the provincial dairy section and is one of 15 DairyNZ climate change ambassadors.
On top of mind for the region’s farmers is the Waikato Regional Council’s plan change 1, the Health Rivers.
She says the federation will comprehensively appeal against the new rules designed to improve water quality in the Waikato and Waipa Rivers.
The proposed regulations could stifle good farming practices if on-farm decisions are taken out of farmers’ hands and put in the hands of consent officers who do not have practical on-farm experience, she says.
The new rules for stock movements on certain classes of land are seen as the most troublesome for farmers.
Her involvement with the federation came when she began attending local meetings.
“I suppose I always had a natural interest in politics. I just joined and the next thing I knew I was dairy chair for Waitomo. It just grew from there.”
For Hahn good leadership at Federated Farmers comes down to listening to what farmers are saying and echoing their opinions.
“It doesn’t have to be about your opinion at all. If you find that it’s about your personal opinion you’re going down the wrong track because everyone’s got to come on board.”
Issues affect drystock farmers differently to dairy and cropping farmers. Bringing forward those opinions to discussion might seem provocative but they have to be aired, she says.
“When I’m throwing something in the pot – that’s what I’m doing. It sounds like I’m really stirring but I’m just bringing these other opinions forward to be discussed. Unless you have that broad discussion you come up with some silly answers.”
In dealing with difficult people she says, “Some people have ego issues but everyone has something to add. You’re not expected to change people.”
Having a good team, particularly in policy, who are also good representatives of the industry is also key.
“You want farmers on the board who are also good farmers themselves.”
Any changes to farming needs to be at a pace where people can mentally cope with it, she says.
But she does not like dwelling on the past. Farmers and the industry have to keep moving forward.
The federation still has an important role advocating for farmers despite falls in membership in recent years as farms amalgamate.
“Politicians still come to us. People still come to us and there’s occasions where you think they might have gone somewhere else but they have gone to feds because we’re pan-sector.”
The federation has also questioned the roles of Beef + Lamb and DairyNZ taking on more advocacy.
Hahn feels her background gives her a good grounding in being able to understand how such issues affect different farming groups.
She grew up on a sheep and beef farm and also worked as a shepherd at Tirau for a year and has also worked as both a packer and farm manager in the kiwifruit industry and at a piggery while on an agricultural exchange in Denmark.
Soon after marrying husband Sofus she also helped on one of his parents’ neighbour’s dairy farm.
When asked if she thinks if it is more difficult to farm now than it was five to 10 years ago she says “I think it’s harder to think you can farm and not keep yourself up to date with everything that’s happening. You are at much more risk of getting in trouble than you ever were. That’s the difference.”
For family-run farms it remains a challenge to keep on top of new regulations while maintaining a viable business. Many farmers are also more accustomed to keeping information about their business in their heads rather than having it recorded.
“Putting it down on paper is quite a hard transition because there’s a lot of farmers that have learning problems in putting pen to paper. Dyslexia is quite prevalent in farmers.
“We have asked questions because their role is to lead best practice but you’ve got to get there. So, when you take everyone’s view and appreciate where everyone’s at then you can make appropriate rules to get there.
“You can’t say this is where our best farms are at and we must all be doing exactly this because those people who are further behind have got too far to go and get mentally stressed about it all.”
Jacqui’s and Sofus’ farming operation spans four farms. The 680-hectare home block near Rangitoto, just east of Te Kuiti has two side-by-side dairy farms, both 170ha and System 2 and an adjacent 290ha sheep and beef farm, running dairy-beef and 300 ewes.
The balance is in bush, retired land and wetlands including one which is in a QEII covenant.
The farm belonged to Jacqui’s parents who farmed it as a sheep and beef property before she and Sofus took it over in the late 1990s and converted it to dairy.
When she was younger her parents told her she could have the farm if she wanted it, which she did, after buying out her two sisters’ share after meeting Danish Sofus while travelling.
“We looked to see if we could convert this farm to dairy because it wasn’t financially viable. It was barely viable for my parents and it certainly wasn’t for another family to join.”
They briefly considered and rejected farming in Denmark because of the tough regulatory environment in the Scandinavian country.
“We did think about it but the opportunity was always greater here,” she says.
Neighbouring blocks and lease blocks soon came up for sale, which they bought, allowing them to expand further. In 2012 they bought the 317ha sheep and beef block.
There is also a third, 300ha effective, dairy and beef farm near Benneydale bought in 2015 and run by a contract milker.
“My husband gets bored and buys more land,” she laughs.
They work the two dairy units in tandem with each other. The herds are calved on the easier land on one of the farms. Once they are halfway through calving, about mid August, 500 of the cows go to the other milking platform and are milked through the shed on that farm.
For Jacqui good farming from an environmental and profit perspective comes down to being as efficient as possible. It is what has driven the industry to being the most efficient producer in the world.
“It’s about being efficient with shed use, people use and because colostrum cows tend to make more of a mess, so we like them to be on the flatter ground.
“The more efficient you are, generally you drive down your emissions and if you can keep your costs down you can become more efficient.
“We have to make sure we stay efficient and not distort things by going into a way of farming that relies heavily on carbon and fossil fuels, which is the risk when trying to reach other environmental targets.”
Sofus oversees the day-to-day management of the farms and six staff, not including the contract milker at Benneydale.
She looks after the paperwork, fencing and other maintenance and the calves until they are yearlings. She describes herself as the Girl Friday on the farm.
“He just yells something out when he wants something done.”
