DAIRY CHAMPION
Jacqui Hahn and husband Sofus have four farms on their 680-hectare home block, including two dairy farms and a drystock farm.
you come up with some silly answers.” In dealing with difficult people she says, “Some people have ego issues but everyone has something to add. You’re not expected to change people.” Having a good team, particularly in policy, who are also good representatives of the industry is also key. “You want farmers on the board who are also good farmers themselves.” Any changes to farming needs to be at a pace where people can mentally cope with it, she says. But she does not like dwelling on the past. Farmers and the industry have to keep moving forward. The federation still has an important role advocating for farmers despite falls in membership in recent years as farms amalgamate. “Politicians still come to us. People still come to us and there’s occasions where you think they might have gone somewhere else but they have gone to feds because we’re pan-sector.” The federation has also questioned the roles of Beef + Lamb and DairyNZ taking on more advocacy. Hahn feels her background gives her a good grounding in being able
DAIRY FARMER
July 2020
to understand how such issues affect different farming groups.
If you find that it’s about your personal opinion you’re going down the wrong track because everyone’s got to come on board. Jacqui Hahn
She grew up on a sheep and beef farm and also worked as a shepherd at Tirau for a year and has also worked as both a packer and farm manager in the kiwifruit industry and at a piggery while on an agricultural exchange in Denmark. Soon after marrying husband Sofus
she also helped on one of his parents’ neighbour’s dairy farm. When asked if she thinks if it is more difficult to farm now than it was five to 10 years ago she says “I think it’s harder to think you can farm and not keep yourself up to date with everything that’s happening. You are at much more risk of getting in trouble than you ever were. That’s the difference.” For family-run farms it remains a challenge to keep on top of new regulations while maintaining a viable business. Many farmers are also more accustomed to keeping information about their business in their heads rather than having it recorded. “Putting it down on paper is quite a hard transition because there’s a lot of farmers that have learning problems in putting pen to paper. Dyslexia is quite prevalent in farmers. “We have asked questions because their role is to lead best practice but you’ve got to get there. So, when you take everyone’s view and appreciate where everyone’s at then you can make appropriate rules to get there.
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