FARMSTRONG
Paul Walker runs a 300-cow, 90-hectare dairy farm in Pongakawa, Bay of Plenty and says Farmstrong has made a difference to him and his farming. Paul catches up with his mate Ralph.
Taking off the blinkers Paul Walker runs a 300-cow, 90-hectare dairy farm in Pongakawa, just south of Te Puke, in Bay of Plenty. He discusses the difference Farmstrong has made to his farming.
H
ow did you get into farming? I was brought up on-farm. We’ve been here since the early 1950s and are thirdgeneration farmers. I ran around the house playing rugby as a youngster, then went to Christchurch for 10 years and spent some time in the corporate world. But the attraction of being self-employed and raising a family on-farm was big. I was just under 30, came home and took up farming as a business. What do you like about it? One of the major pros to farming is that you can see a lot more of your family. That’s a big plus for me. I also love working with animals, being on the land and contributing to this community. How’s the season been going for you so far? Good. The thing that usually worries us the most, the weather, has been playing ball. It’s something you can’t
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control and it impacts you heavily. How has your approach to farming changed over the years? When I first got into farming, I had this vision of working as hard as possible then getting out the other end and enjoying life. I had blinkers on the whole time – my life was just about trying to get the job done so I could enjoy this fantastic retirement. The big problem with that is that you don’t enjoy life and farming as you’re going along. What was the impact on your wellbeing? It led to some pretty ‘black holes’ I had to deal with. Where you literally can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and you’re missing out on so much, like seeing your kids grow up. I was just too busy rushing to get things done. And let’s face it, there’s always something you could be doing in farming. You’re quite isolated on-farm too. You
can easily get stuck in your own bubble where the only people nearby are your family and, unfortunately, they often bear the brunt of your negativity and negative thoughts. That’s not a healthy or productive space to be in. What changed your thinking? I ran across one Farmstrong’s healthy thinking workshops run by Dr Tom Mulholland. The penny just dropped that I had to learn to manage what was under my feet every day and slow down and enjoy life, otherwise before I knew it, it’d be gone. What did you change? The thing that really connected me with Farmstrong was a video I watched about how stress works. They used the example of a one litre bottle. Every time something went wrong on-farm, it filled up the bottle until there was no space left and it overflowed. That’s how stress works – there’s no space left in
DAIRY FARMER
May 2022
