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 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.

About 50ha of the Hahns’ home block has been retired or is in bush or wetlands.

“You can’t say this is where our best farms are at and we must all be doing exactly this because those people who are further behind have got too far to go and get mentally stressed about it all.”

Jacqui’s and Sofus’ farming operation spans four farms. The 680-hectare home block near Rangitoto, just east of Te Kuiti has two side-by-side dairy farms, both 170ha and System 2 and an adjacent 290ha sheep and beef farm, running dairy-beef and 300 ewes.

The balance is in bush, retired land and wetlands including one which is in a QEII covenant.

The farm belonged to Jacqui’s parents who farmed it as a sheep and beef property before she and Sofus took it over in the late 1990s and converted it to dairy.

When she was younger her parents told her she could have the farm if she wanted it, which she did, after buying out her two sisters’ share after meeting Danish Sofus while travelling.

“We looked to see if we could convert this farm to dairy because it wasn’t financially viable. It was barely viable for my parents and it certainly wasn’t for another family to join.”

They briefly considered and rejected farming in Denmark because of the tough regulatory environment in the Scandinavian country.

“We did think about it but the opportunity was always greater here,” she says.

Neighbouring blocks and lease blocks soon came up for sale, which they bought, allowing them to expand further. In 2012 they bought the 317ha sheep and beef block.

There is also a third, 300ha effective, dairy and beef farm near Benneydale bought in 2015 and run by a contract milker.

“My husband gets bored and buys more land,” she laughs.

They work the two dairy units in tandem with each other. The herds are calved on the easier land on one of the farms. Once they are halfway through calving, about mid August, 500 of the cows go to the other milking platform and are milked through the shed on that farm.

For Jacqui good farming from an environmental and profit perspective comes down to being as efficient as possible. It is what has driven the industry to being the most efficient producer in the world.

“It’s about being efficient with shed use, people use and because colostrum cows tend to make more of a mess, so we like them to be on the flatter ground.

“The more efficient you are, generally you drive down your emissions and if you can keep your costs down you can become more efficient.

“We have to make sure we stay efficient and not distort things by going into a way of farming that relies heavily on carbon and fossil fuels, which is the risk when trying to reach other environmental targets.”

Sofus oversees the day-to-day management of the farms and six staff, not including the contract milker at Benneydale.

She looks after the paperwork, fencing and other maintenance and the calves until they are yearlings. She describes herself as the Girl Friday on the farm.

“He just yells something out when he wants something done.”

Michelle Clarke has made a career from her art and is now running a full-time business while fitting in farm work. Michelle with her pet cow Penelope, the subject of her latest children’s book.

The art of Michelle Clarke

A Canterbury farmer who is a self-confessed creative type says it hasn’t been the easiest of roads turning a passion for art into a fully-fledged business but she has done just that and is drawing inspiration from rural life. Cheyenne Nicholson reports.

CANTERBURY farmer Michelle Clarke has trod a rather wobbly career path and even when she settled on art it very nearly didn’t happen.

But now she has forged a successful art career that has grown her business, The Art of Michelle Clarke, into a fulltime job. Her photographs and artwork grace the pages of magazines and walls all around the country and more recently she has turned her hand to writing and illustrating a children’s book.

Michelle and husband Stephen Tuck manage on a 224-hectare dairy farm at Hororata where they milk 750 cows.

“We’ve only recently moved to this farm as we found it quite late in the season and it wasn’t in our original plan but with lockdown it came along at just the right time,” she says.

“Because art is a full-time job my time on the farm can be limited but I generally do the calf rearing on the farm each year, which I really enjoy and can fit it in around creating art.”

A keen artist throughout her school years she knew a career in the arts was slightly unrealistic. She dabbled in a few different jobs like riding racehorses, bartending and vet nursing before deciding to study art.

“I honestly thought it would get me to where I wanted to be in life. I loved art and creating so I thought yeah let’s do a fine arts degree.

“My ambitions were promptly stomped on though.”

She flunked all her assignments and exams and nine months in was told by a professor she should drop out because she didn’t stand a chance of passing the end-of-semester exams.

“I was basically told that I was terrible at the one thing I didn’t think I was terrible at. I did not pick up a paintbrush for two years after that and I grew to hate everything about the art world.”

She dropped out toward the end of the first year after lecturers speculated she might have learning difficulties but didn’t offer extra help or guidance.

“I was never diagnosed with anything and I’m not sure their speculations were entirely accurate as I’ve never been the most academic person.

“I always wanted to be a vet from as early as I could remember but in later years of primary school I started

having some learning difficulties show, particularly in maths and science, so the dreams of becoming a vet faded the older I became.”

With the tertiary education system failing her she switched gears and focused on photography and competing her horses in show jumping while maintaining a full-time job as a veterinary administrator at a small animal clinic in Redcliffs. The job was hands-on and she learned a lot under an encouraging boss and was even able to step into nursing roles in small surgeries.

“When I was in high school I made a Facebook page where I’d upload my photography and I just sort of kept doing that on the side. After a while I did get back into painting. I started small and posted my work on my social media. I’d sell the odd thing here and there but it was very much a side hustle for a long time.”

“I’m very much a creative type of person. I don’t like thinking about admin stuff, business or marketing so I never really thought about how I could turn it into a business. I just painted because I love to paint. Then I met my husband Stephen and he’s one of those people who is good at everything. He loves the business side of things and really encouraged me to give it a go.”

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Michelle Clarke draws inspiration from her rural life in some of her art. She is now turning her hand to writing and illustrating children’s books.

Michelle Clarke always wanted to be a veterinarian but was not good at academic subjects so dabbled in riding racehorses, bartending and vet nursing before deciding to study art.

Not knowing much about business or marketing and having lost faith in traditional education she decided to teach herself the basics. Everything from setting up a website through to learning how to market herself properly.

“There’s honestly so many resources out there to utilise, a quick Google search and you’re away.”

I was basically told that I was terrible at the one thing I didn’t think I was terrible at.

She has also learned a lot from Australian business strategist and human performance specialist Kerwin Rae and others who put out information and workshops on small business marketing.

“In a way I’ve learned to love that side of things, I guess because it affects my business and I like to figure out how to apply what I’ve learned to my business and test what works and what doesn’t.”

She puts a lot of her success down to the support and encouragement from Stephen and says that like many businesses, social media plays a huge role in the ongoing viability of her small business.

With more than 7000 followers on Instagram and 13,000 on Facebook she shares many aspects of her life online and treats it as a virtual diary of sorts. Steering clear of the more typical hard sell, she has built a rapport with her followers by keeping things authentic and down to earth.

From life on the dairy farm with her pet cow Penelope to show jumping events with her horses as well as art projects and commissions – her social media pages showcase not just art but also rural life.

“I think that’s the key to using social media for business. It’s finding a way to connect with your audience and let them get to know you as the person they’re purchasing a product from.

“I basically have to post something every day if not twice a day as well as going on Instagram stories. From a post someone might go to my website and buy a print so it’s been a way to create a passive income.

Social media plays a huge role in the ongoing viability of Michelle Clarke’s business and she has more than 7000 followers on Instagram and 13,000 on Facebook.

“If I go dead on social media my whole business slows down, which means there’s always this pressure to post things, even when I’ve had enough of social media.”

In 2019 she branched into new territory by writing a book. A Horse Named Sydney is a children’s book based on the real-life adventures of her horse Sydney, which she has written, illustrated and selfpublished. Following that book’s success she is working on her next one, A Calf Named Penelope, based on the life and times of her calf, a fan favourite on her social media pages.

“I learned a lot with the Sydney book so I feel more polished coming into this one.

“Mostly I figured out what worked with illustrations and what doesn’t so I’ve spent time figuring out sizing and drafting things.”

With plans to enhance and expand her creative offerings Michelle says her focus will continue being to create affordable artwork she enjoys creating and keep showing others you don’t need a degree to be successful. “I’m a bit of an advocate for not going to university if you want to make a career out something like art or photography.

“With any business you have to be willing to put in the time and effort and realise that it won’t become a success or a full-time job overnight. It takes time and commitment.” n

Overseas trials have shown feeding the native red seaweed asparagopsis armata to livestock has reduced greenhouse gas emissions in cows and sheep by up to 80%.

Climate change confuses farmers

The New Zealand Agricultural Climate Change Conference has been replace by a series of webinars. Gerard Hutching zoomed in to listen.

FARMERS are confused about climate change but the science showing it is occurring is irrefutable, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says.

Speaking to a webinar on moving towards a low-emissions future O’Connor said the Government is committed to helping the primary sector.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on our environmental initiatives and management and therefore we have to be at the forefront of including agriculture in emissions reduction and coming up with techniques that can help the rest of the world.”

One of the key reasons for including agriculture in the Emissions Trading Scheme was to give New Zealand momentum in free-trade agreements it is negotiating with the European Union and Britain.

Both jurisdictions are proud of what they have achieved with measures to combat climate change.

Kiwi farmers have five years to adjust to the fact of the ETS and since emission prices will still be discounted by 95% initially it is a huge concession, O’Connor said.

Asked about the role of gene editing in lowering emissions he said the country needs to have a mature discussion about the issue because gene editing is a reality.

The Primary Sector Council has not ruled out using the technology.

However, more work needs to be done on what our customers want.

“We may be able to produce lower emissions milk through geneticallymodified organisation but what’s the relative value of that compared to our pasture-based, non-GMO milk. We haven’t been very good at doing that

In a general sense our pastoral systems are close to what they would call regenerative in the US.

Damien O’Connor

market analysis of how it affects the value chain.”

Exporters could take a leaf out of Zespri’s book and replicate the way in which it went into supermarkets and