Thursday, March 28, 2024

She’s the boss

Neal Wallace
It takes very little prodding for new Federated Farmers president Katie Milne to identify that her number one priority is reconnecting urban and rural New Zealanders.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

That split was the root of many accusations levelled at farmers over water quality and environmental issues as well as deterring people from pursuing careers in agriculture, she said.

“Because of all the flak we’ve been getting lately from Greenpeace etc, NZ needs to remember that farmers produce great food, which is important economically and to the sustainability of local communities.”

Milne, 47, a fifth generation West Coaster, was the first female national president of the farmer lobby group in its 118-year history.

She said her age and ability to speak in simple terms should help get the message across to urban NZ that farming was about producing great food and feeding families.

That communication skill was identified while attending a governance and leadership course.

The 2015 dairy woman of the year, Milne was one of 38 women attending the course as part of her prize but was the only farmer.

A hands-on dairy farmer, she found herself having to explain aspects of farming and why farmers did what they did to her course colleagues, prompting them to ask why she wasn’t speaking on behalf of the sector.

“That got me thinking and understanding about how we need to be telling our stories.

“Farmers then began asking me to maybe think about taking this a bit further and stand for the presidency and it made me start to think ‘why not?’”

The fact Milne was the first woman to lead the federation was incidental but the magnitude of her achievement had since dawned on her.

“It’s hit home for me. I’ve had women from all walks of life coming to me and saying sincerely that this is great for women.”

Milne viewed her elevation as an extension of what happens on farms already, given that women were involved in all aspects of farming from labouring to ownership.

“Another great aspect of farming is that we don’t think about gender. We get out and do what we have got to do.

“When you go to conferences it is male-dominated but the reason they can do that is because often they have got a great partner in the business overseeing what is going on and often it is a rural woman.”

Her motivation had always been a passion for the industry and getting a fair deal for farmers.

Born to West Coast sheep and beef farmers, Milne was educated in Greymouth and worked on farms and in the Anzco Kokiri meat works as an inspector and in quality control.

She met her partner Ian Whitmore and about 25 years ago they bought a dairy farm at Lake Brunner, inland from Greymouth. They also ran a small contracting business.

Milne said the Resource Management Act was being introduced at that time and she had to understand the consequences for their farm.

Since then she became increasingly involved in issues affecting farming, especially when the Lake Brunner catchment was identified as sensitive, which meant management restrictions were imposed and farm plans were required.

On her way to the top of the federation Milne was West Coast dairy section and provincial chairwoman and a national board member for five years.

Her daughter Andrea had a science degree and returned with her husband to the West Coast where she had just finished the first season milking the family’s 200-cow Jersey herd.

Milne succeeded Dr William Rolleston.

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