WOMEN IN AGRIBUSINESS
Lessons in leadership By Cheyenne Nicholson
A Canterbury dairy farmer found her natural calling for leadership through teaching. Now, she’s on a mission to help farmers around the country tap into their leadership potential by focusing on wellness and communication.
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rowing up on her parents’ dairy goat farm on the Hauraki Plains, Tania Burrows always wanted to be a teacher. She wanted to make an impact on the world and help grow the next generation, a sentiment that would follow her into her career as a farmer and now leadership coach. “I have a real passion for helping people grow, and that began back when I decided I wanted to be a teacher. Looking back now, I wish I had had more of an interest in farming because, through my dairying career, I’ve come to see how amazing it is. But I loved being a teacher and it’s put me on the path I’m on now,” Burrows says. After completing her early childhood qualifications, she took up teaching positions in Rotorua and Tauranga and during her career, she quickly discovered her natural ability as a leader. She worked her way into management roles,
Tania Burrows says leadership coaching is relatively new, so she is still working on what will add value for farmers. at one point being responsible for up to 150 children, their families and a team of seven teaching staff. “I got the opportunity to do various leadership courses as part of professional development, and I found myself really enjoying it. It’s not something I thought I would enjoy, but I began to realise that I could have a bigger impact on the children and their families by being in those leadership roles,” she says. During her teaching years, she met her now-husband Johno, who also came from a dairy farming background. The couple made the big move from North Island to South Island and officially
started their dairying careers together in 2011. Today they have three children and are lower order sharemilkers farming 1000 head of stock between their dairy farm in Mid Canterbury and runoff block and employ up to seven staff each season. In the early days of their farming careers, she continued teaching and juggled farming, new babies, and teaching positions for a few years. After their third daughter was born, the couple decided it was more beneficial for her to transition to working on the farm fulltime. “It was tough driving backwards and
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35
35 years, Generations of
Experience
DAIRY FARMER
February 2022
