Women in agribusiness – Charlotte Heald

Norsewood farmer Charlotte Heald runs Wealth of Health, which she started after developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Putting yourself first

By Cheyenne Nicholson

A Norsewood farmer believes that you connect with the people you need, when you need them.

Motivated by her own health journey with rheumatoid arthritis, Charlotte Heald is on a mission to empower others to embrace their health through prioritising self-care.

Born and bred on a beef farm,

Charlotte lives with her husband Russell and three children Isabelle, Henry and William on a 170ha dairy farm at

Norsewood, with 380 cows on once-aday. Their farm will be certified organic in

November and is farmed by regenerative farming practices.

The farm reflects her values with her own business.

“The health and wellbeing of people starts with the health and wellbeing of the soil. The values around why we farm organic and the regenerative practices really align nicely with my business,”

Charlotte says.

Her passion for health and wellness started back in 2005 when she started studying to be a registered nurse. She spent the next eight years working in rural general practice, where her role encompassed a variety of primary care responsibilities. Following the birth of her third child and growing responsibilities on the farm, she left her nursing role to be home with her family.

It wasn’t until 2017 and a chance meeting with the right person, that she discovered the world of health coaching.

A health coach is a guide who helps clients explore their health concerns, set health goals and implement food and lifestyle changes to feel their best. They support and empower their clients alongside other healthcare professionals to create and sustain healthy lifestyle habits for prolonged health. Her focus is helping rural women create empowered, sustainable lifestyles so they can leave their overwhelmed, fatigue and unfulfilled life behind. She uses a three pillar approach in her coaching: selfcare, individualised and holistic, with a big focus on normalising self-care as an essential part of health and wellbeing.

“Health coaching gives me a way to share what I’m passionate about on my own terms. It means I can focus on the health promotion and wellbeing aspects of healthcare,” she says.

“Health coaching gives me a way to share what I’m passionate about on my own terms.”

“When I say on my own terms, I mean that I could work hours that fit around my family and the farm business and I can work mostly from home. It’s a really nice balance for me.”

It’s an important balance for her to have as well. During the early stages of their dairy career, Charlotte and Russell worked the farm together, but after a bit of a blow out on farm and ending up unwell for a long period of time, she had to reassess her role on farm and step into the more strategic side of the business.

“It caused me to have a bit of a reset to help me get back to full health. After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease I am conscious of looking after myself and not ending up back where I was,” she says.

She now looks after the HR and administrative side of the farming business and only helps out occasionally due to her condition.

Her journey to health coaching started back in 2017 when she connected with a friend of a friend who has trained to be a health coach. The conversation piqued

Continued page 34

Charlotte and Russell Heald used to work side-by-side on the farm until Charlotte became ill.

Calving issues staring you in the face?

“Each year I have the same issue, downer cows, yet my neighbour doesn’t. I spend a fortune on vet bills yet he doesn’t. So why are his animals healthier than mine?”

All diseases are due to mineral imbalances

Sickness occurs when living organisms have either too much, or too little, of specific minerals.

• Facial eczema is caused by an imbalance of calcium, phosphate and zinc. • Grass staggers is the result of an imbalance between calcium and magnesium levels in relation to each other.

• Bloat can be caused by too much potassium combined with a calcium deficiency. • Lameness can be due to a lack of trace elements (zinc, copper, selenium), which leads to the softening of hooves. • Mastitis is often caused by pathogens which are prevalent in the grass due to low pH of the soil (pathogens thrive in acidic conditions).

The largest portion of the minerals Calcium and Magnesium are taken up by stock via the pasture so having the correct levels of these in the soil is the first step to reducing metabolic problems.

This is usually a relatively simple task by ensuring your Calcium is at least over 60% base saturation (BS) and Magnesium above 10% BS on a soil test. This in combination with Potassium (3-5%) will go a long way to having pH over 6 and optimum nutrient uptake by stock, whether they be dairy cows, sheep, deer of any other animals on your property.

Golden Bay Dolomite provides Calcium and Magnesium in one application and is a very cost-effective way to effectively build these two vital minerals.

• Grass staggers is the result of an imbalance between calcium and magnesium

• Mastitis is often caused by pathogens which are prevalent in the grass due to low pH of the soil (pathogens thrive in acidic conditions).

So how can Golden Bay Dolomite help?

So, here’s the thing, don’t let stockhealth issues make your spring a nightmare, a phone call may be all it takes to keep everyone on their feet!

Health coach Charlotte Heald helps clients explore their health concerns, set health goals and implement food and lifestyle changes to feel their best.

Charlotte Heald and her husband Russell and their three children milk 380 cows once-a-day in Norsewood.

her interest and she decided to start the year-long training to become a health coach herself.

“I trained with the biggest nutrition school in the world, The Institute for Integrated Nutrition based in New York. It’s a year-long online course. It really complemented what I’d done in my nursing career,” she says.

After a year of studying, she kicked off her business in late 2018.

Since then she’s steadily grown the business and recently reached a big milestone of reaching client capacity. Her business primarily consists of one-onone sessions with clients, with a number of workshops and guest speaking gigs sprinkled in the mix. Looking back, she attributes much of her business growth to her use of social media.

Charlotte shares everything from recipes, tips, everyday life and resources. While at first the idea of putting herself out there on social media was scary, the payoff has been well worth it.

“When I was first starting out, no one really knew what health coaching was. I got into it a little before its time I guess. It’s more well-known now and I’ve got more comfortable with the social media side of things,” she says.

With her business largely being a one-woman band, she sought early on to seek out other like-minded people to surround herself with and found that with a women’s marketing support programme.

“I’ve been part of a transformational coaching programme for myself run by a man in the US, through that I’m part of this women’s marketing group and the support I get there is just amazing. It’s the one thing that I think has made a huge difference to my business. The group supports entrepreneurs and helps them to position themselves in the market,” she says.

Charlotte says the main drivers of her success are tools she uses in-job: self-talk and self-belief.

“I talk about this a lot with my clients; I genuinely believe in what I do and in what I can do and I tell myself that all the time,” she says.

The other key piece of the puzzle is a solid support system. Russell is a big source of support and backs her every step of the way.

“It’s challenging to achieve big and exciting things if you don’t have lots of support and I’ve been so fortunate to have him right by my side the whole way through,” she says.

Reflecting back on the past few years of business, she says she’s a big believer in keeping it simple.

“One piece of business advice I know now that I wish I knew when I was starting out is just to keep it simple and let it be easy. That relates to many areas of life too,” she says. “I often see it in women, we get so stuck in our head, overthinking and we end up blocking the flow of creativity.”

As a busy mum, farmer and entrepreneur, Charlotte admits that sometimes she is challenged to practice what she preaches, but is constantly astounded by the ripple effect that occurs when women prioritise their own needs.

“If you’re going to come anywhere but last, you have to put yourself first,” she says. n

More Time With Family

“It is making it a lot easier, especially with a young family”

Jason Laurence and his family farm just outside of Te Aroha in Springdale area, the Waikato.

“We are milking 215 cows and do around 450 solids per cow on a system 3 farm.”

“We have had a few issues with bulls, so to make it a little safer on farm, my wife and I decided to put a monitoring system in and AI right through.”

“Now if I want to have a night off it is a lot easier to put a relief milker in and know they won’t need to draft out the bulls.” “We wanted to find a less intrusive system and the tags to us seemed not as invasive on the cows as what a collar would be.”

“We don’t need to worry about tailpaint or scratchies we just get there on the first day and it is all go.”

“Especially with a young family, we don’t need to worry about having someone look after the kids”

CowManager health alerts. “Sure enough, if the cows are a little off colour, we can treat them early.”

“After you have treated them you can actually see them getting better on your phone, rumination and movement is increasing with more activity.”

“That is the aim of the game, isn’t it?”

“The happier and healthier the cow the better living it is for both you and the cow”

Scan to watch Jason’s full farmer story video