She has been farming for eight years and before that was an event manager running multisport events in Bay of Plenty and Wellington.
She is a passionate Dairy Women’s Network leader in east Waikato where she enjoys connecting with and providing learning opportunities for dairy women to build connections and develop their own farming businesses.
Jodie says the opportunities the network has given her have been fantastic and as a result she has developed health and safety and finance modules and delivered them to DWN groups throughout the North Island.
Jodie also chaired the DWN annual conference earlier this year in Rotorua.
She works part time off the farm meeting farmers to get their Dairybase data and is also training for a quarter ironman in December.
1 What motivates or drives you?
I am motivated by achieving goals. I like to challenge myself then work towards achieving it. I am motivated by seeing other people develop and grow. I really enjoy working with our farm staff to help them achieve their goals. Also, I am motivated by building our own business and achieving our farm goals. And at the moment I am really motivated by seeing happy, healthy calves grow each day.
2 What philosophy do you live by?
To enjoy life, to work as a team to achieve more and to be better than yesterday – and by doing this achieve our goals and build our equity.
3 Why dairying? What attracted you to the industry?
I grew up on a dairy farm but then met my husband while we were both living and working in Wellington. He had studied outdoor recreation and wanted to give dairying a go so I completely supported, if not perhaps pushed a little bit, for him to do it. I loved growing up on a farm and we have never looked back. We can work together in our business while also raising a family.
4 What are some of the biggest challenges you face this season?
Need I say it … Mycoplasma bovis. Whether you believe it can be eradicated or not it has been a wake-up call for the whole industry. We have had a really good look at our biosecurity on farm and tightened up on everything. Being sharemilkers, the herd is our everything so we have focused on trying to keep the girls safe.
5 Future goals
Definitely farm ownership. We are not sure exactly on how we are going to get there as yet. We like to keep our options open. We love the job we have with great owners, a beautiful farm, fantastic staff so we would like to stay here for a while yet and then maybe buy our own farm from here.
