Friday, March 29, 2024

DAIRY CHAMPION: A balancing act

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Dairy Woman of the Year Trish Rankin is a primary school teacher, full-time farmer and a passionate environmentalist among other things. Ross Nolly reports.
Reading Time: 6 minutes

When Trish Rankin heard her name announced as the winner of the 2019 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year award she was completely taken by surprise. 

She has always followed her passions but never set out to strategically target an award.

Entering the 2013 Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa Dairy Industry Awards and winning the 2016 Northland share farmer competition set the ball rolling for her. It brought about a realisation that people, many in the higher echelon of the dairy industry, are interested in what she has to say. 

After moving to Northland and looking at local environmental issues she discovered her passion for resolving environmental issues in the dairy sector.  

“I contacted Helen Moodie who was our local DairyNZ representative and catchment engagement leader. She visited our farm and invited me to my first dairy environment leaders forum. If I hadn’t met her and become involved in that group I wouldn’t be where I am now.” 

As well as her passion for environmental issues she has done the Kellogg Leadership Programme this year, focusing on waste minimisation on farms and aims to upskill to work in the industry’s environmental/recycling area. She feels that is where there are going to be massive opportunities for a circular economy. She has business ideas to contribute and is looking ahead to see how she can initiate them.

“The Kellogg Leadership Programme showed me that leadership doesn’t have to be the chief executive or the person at the top of an organisation. 

“If I see a problem I try to work out how to fix it. That’s what rocks my boat.”

She prefers to lead from the middle and enjoys being the person who understands the strategic decisions happening above her but can work with the people at ground level.

“The challenge for me is leading from the middle. It’s the ideal position for someone who enjoys solving problems, dealing with people and not being too far removed from the challenge.”

When asked about her weaknesses Trish realises she can be too enthusiastic and can leave people behind. Often she can see how to solve a problem when others around her haven’t seen the problem. 

She has held a number of roles including dairy farmer representative on the technical user committee doing the NAIT review from 2015-18 and is one of the 19 people in the region who have completed the dairy environment leaders programme.

Trish believes following a number of passions was the tipping factor to winning the award. To say she never expected to win the prestigious award is an understatement. She had stayed at the Dairy Women’s Network conference until 5pm before rushing off to prepare for the award ceremony.

Not one to make a big fuss she went to the ceremony in a dress borrowed from her sister-in-law and her sister’s shoes. 

“I quickly got changed, put my hair up, whipped some make-up on and sat at the back of the room not realising that there was a table for us at the front. I took off my shoes, poured a glass of wine and sat back to enjoy the night.”

Fonterra co-operative affairs managing director Mike Cronin began speaking about how, in the future, dairy women will need to contribute to their community, be involved and passionate about the environment, be keen on helping both locally and nationally and have their eye on the big picture. 

“It was at this point my sister turned to me and said ‘holy heck, put your shoes on I think he’s about to say your name’.”

“When I heard my name I thought what am I going to say? I didn’t have a prepared speech because I never dreamed that I’d win.” 

It worked out quite nicely though because she was able to walk past many of the people who had guided her and encouraged her to enter the awards. 

“By all accounts I gave a good speech. 

“I have no idea what I said. I just remember thinking holy guacamole, there’s a few hundred people out there. 

“My public speaking training kicked in and I said to myself, feet planted, hands down, breath deep and talk.” 

She turned down her first award nomination because she didn’t feel she was at that level. Another nomination prompted Dairy Women’s Network chief executive Jules Benton to phone her and ask her what she would want to get out of it. 

She decided she would accept the nomination but was still unsure whether she was at that level. Benton told her she would never know unless she entered. 

“I hadn’t picked just one thing to follow. I’d picked things that I loved to do and concentrated on doing them well. But I’ve always been prepared to discuss how to work on the things that I don’t do so well.

“It never feels difficult if you do things that you love and you’re always going to do them well. You must tackle something for yourself, your family or something that matches your values. I’ve become very selective about choosing what I’ll join and have learnt how to delegate or point someone in the direction of people who can help.”

As Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year she receives a $20,000 Fonterra scholarship for a professional business development programme.

She has contacted a number of senior women business leaders and they all advised her to do something life-changing that she could never usually afford. 

“I’m considering attending Harvard Business School or Stanford University. I’m also interested in the University of Bradford’s online MBA in circular economy and business innovation.  

“Initially, I only wanted to do an MBA. But the advice I received reminded me that an online course doesn’t necessarily allow you to make contacts. You’ve got to consciously try to get into the next strata of business people.”

When Trish attended the recent Dairy Industry Awards ceremony she talked to a number of chief executives, chairpersons and members of Parliament.

“It’s mind-boggling to think that I’m rubbing shoulders with those people and being able to do it confidently and have them know who I am. That’s what this sort of award and work can do. However, one minute you’re chatting to the Fonterra chief executive, the next morning you’re trying to sort out the kid’s bedrooms.”

She has learnt a lot and come a long way considering she did not come from a farming background.

The daughter of a policeman, she was born in Christchurch but moved to Greymouth at the age of seven. At 17 she moved back to Canterbury University and Teachers College to train for three years and began her teaching career in Christchurch. She always knew she wanted to be a teacher and has fond memories of making her family play schools. 

In 1999 she moved back to Greymouth and met husband Glen in Greymouth in 2000 when he was working for AgriQuality and she was teaching. They got married in 2003 and have four boys, Charlie, 13, Harry, 12, Tom, 8, and Patrick, 6.

In 2001 Glen decided to go dairy farming and moved to Canterbury where he was the herd manager on an 800-cow farm and Trish got a teaching job in Ashburton. Several moves later, they ended up in Northland.

That is where Trish learnt to milk, do a shed wash, drive a tractor, feed stock and put up a fence in what she calls her farm assistant job. It was a challenging farm to learn on but with super patient husband Glen she learnt what she needed to know to run the farm so Glen could have the odd days off.

 “Milking 17 rows OAD was definitely a challenge and cows will always let you know if you have done something wrong.”

She also completed an agribusiness management diploma through NorthTec.  

They are now in their second season as 45:55 herd-owning sharemilkers on a 154 hectare Parininihi ki Waitotara farm in South Taranaki milking 440 cows.

She balances teaching part time at Opunake Primary School and being on farm full time. During term three of the school year she is full time on the farm to help with calving.

A well as being an active dairy enviro leader and member of the DEL network she is also chairwoman of the Taranaki DEL group. In 2018 she was elected to the national executive for the NZ Dairy Awards. 

She says there is a stereotype that the rural sector has been slow to recognise women in the workforce but she believes the opposite is the case and women are now recognised as business partners throughout the agricultural industry. 

“A job is a job not necessarily a gender. On every media story you now see husbands thanking wives and vice versa. At the recent NZDIA we had a regional managers meeting where all the 11 regional managers discussed their memorable moments. Every guy said ‘my wife did all of this, I’m so proud of her.’ 

“DairyNZ, Fonterra and all of the many rural organisations love seeing diversity. It’s just going to get better,” Trish says. 

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