Dairy in her DNA

By Ross Nolly

A fourth-generation Taranaki dairy farmer has been named Fonterra 2023 Dairy Woman of the Year.

Winning the Fonterra 2023 Dairy Woman of the Year award came as a bit of shock for a Taranaki farmer who says she is “humbled” by the award.

Donna Cram owns a 107 effective hectare farm with husband Phillip at Awatuna, south Taranaki. They have recently leased 42ha to run their calves, heifers and dry cows and are planning to milk 290 cows. As well as dairy farming, Cram is often busy with various projects and in governance roles.

She is heavily involved in her community as the Taranaki Catchment Communities Inc chair and founder, is a DairyNZ dairy environment leader, a Taranaki Federated Farmers executive, a trustee of Dairy Trust Taranaki and a Taranaki Regional Councillor.

She was recognised by the judges as “an outstanding woman who has contributed to the dairy sector with passion, drive, innovation and leadership”.

“I was shocked to hear my name announced because I’d talked myself out of it. I sat there like a stunned mullet; they probably wondered where I was. It was all a blur after that,” Cram says.

Winning was incredibly humbling for her and she’s been overwhelmed by the flood of message she has received – some from people she once worked with at Kiwi Dairies and hadn’t seen for 20 years.

“I’ve met many new people through winning this award. Hopefully, the award will enable me to pursue something that is important to me and the farming community. I really care about our rural communities and put everything into what I do.”

Cram received a Fonterra scholarship of up to $20,000 for an approved and personally chosen development programme, or a professional/business coaching and/or learning experience.

She’s still deciding what to do, but it will probably be in the leadership realm. She would like it to be an overseas opportunity to allow her to look at big picture issues. It’s a very exciting opportunity, but she’s not sure when it’ll happen.

“The other women who were vying for the award were amazing, so I feel pretty lucky. I’ve been touched by so many amazing people, many probably don’t know how much they’ve helped me,” she says.

“Starting an organisation like the Taranaki Catchment Communities from scratch was a major undertaking. Everyone who took on the leadership of the catchment groups supported me, probably without realising just how much.”

Cram, whose initiation into governance began with playcentre and primary school boards, is very proud of the dairy industry she represents. She feels that the industry must enable more connections with the urban population so they can see exactly what happens on New Zealand’s farms.

“We talk about telling our story, but I’m not quite sure whether we’ve got it right yet,” she says.

Cram is conscious of being authentic in what she does. She aims to live her values, and strives to not lose sight of the outcomes she’s aiming to achieve. It’s not about who she rubs shoulders with, it’s about achieving the correct outcomes for her agricultural communities.

She continually questions her intentions and the reason she takes on projects. The day following her award she wrote down her aims so that she wouldn’t lose sight of the opportunity to make a difference for the industry.

“The awesome thing to come out of the award night was that dairy was celebrating. Two weeks later we celebrated the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards. Both events celebrated the good food we produce, the great people in the industry, and the new people coming through. I wish we could’ve had 10,000 farmers at those events.”

When Cram takes on a project or a governance role, it needs to involve an organisation, people and an outcome she feels passionate about.

Cram is a fourth-generation dairy farmer who grew up on her parents’ Taranaki dairy farms, before embarking on an accounting degree at Massey University.

She worked for the Audit Office in Palmerston North for two years before returning to south Taranaki to work as an accountant. She met her future husband, Phillip, who was from England and contracting in New Zealand. They travelled to the United Kingdom and stayed for 15 months. She worked in the auditing field.

They returned home to farm and spent two years lower order sharemilking 165 cows for her parents.

“We were never going to get anywhere with both of us on the farm, so I took on contract accounting work. I then began working at Kiwi Dairies prior to it becoming Fonterra, as a corporate accountant for two years before starting a family,” Cram says.

“When I was doing the contract work I’d milk in the mornings before driving to New Plymouth to work for the day. Looking back, it wasn’t ideal, but you do that when