Women in agribusiness – Kerryn Zander

A very dairy series of events

By Cheyenne Nicholson

A Waikato farmer has written and published a book for Kiwi children based around dairying and plans are in the pipeline for more to come.

Are you ever in the shed and out of nowhere an idea hits you? You scrabble to find a bit of paper not covered in mud, dig around for a pen that’s still got some life left in it and scribble it down on paper. And, often, that bit of paper gets lost or forgotten about.

But imagine what could happen if you didn’t lose or forget about that bit of paper and actioned your idea?

Waikato farmer Kerryn Zander often has little stories pop into her head, jots them on paper and they are promptly forgotten about. Until recently, her sole audience were her husband Liam, their son Riley, three, and her stepchildren Wills, eight, and Lilly, 10. One day she decided to act on her idea and now one of her stories has turned into a physical book for everyone to enjoy.

In October, she launched her first children’s book A Very Dairy Christmas and what started as an idea to publish just one book, has turned into plans for a larger series.

“I’ll be honest and say it probably took me about 15 minutes to write A Very Dairy Christmas,” Kerryn says.

“Poetry and writing come easily to me and I’ve always loved to write so combining that with my love of farming felt like a smart idea. Any time I have a story idea, I tell my husband and kids and if I get laughs, I know I’m onto a good one.”

The Zanders are contract milking a 300-cow System 4 farm at Tahuna near Morrinsville. They are autumn calving, which is a great fit for their family and allows them the flexibility to make the most of summertime and forgo (mostly) the wet weather gear during calving.

“We have a really nice, healthy crossbred herd here. It’s just the two of us working the farm. Liam does most of the farm work and I do most of everything else, as well as some milkings and the calves,” she says.

Although she grew up on a dairy farm, she bounced around a few different industries before returning to dairy. A vet nurse by trade, she’s also worked as a personal trainer and in several corporate jobs. When she met her husband she made the move from Auckland to the Waikato and back to farming.

“I was working at a vet clinic part-time when I first moved here. We got married, then had our son and now we are contract milking. It’s been a big learning curve for me because I was out of the industry for quite a while,” she says.

“Liam has been working in it for 15 years so has a lot of experience under his belt. I’ve been doing Primary ITO courses on the side to pick up

Waikato farmer Kerryn Zander often has ideas pop into her head and sometimes jots them down but often forgets about them. She has now turned one of those ideas into a children’s book, which she hopes to turn into a series.

“I loved the way Henry was able to put my words into pictures. I started by just getting him to illustrate a few pages and I quickly knew I wanted to work with him.”

extra knowledge as well.

“We love the farm we’re on and the autumn calving is perfect when you’ve got a small child. Unfortunately, the farm is for sale so we are looking for our next opportunity,” she says. experience

Looking back at the past year and her journey to get her story on paper, she says it’s been a bit of a ride but she’s proud of her first book and is already starting work on the next books in the Very Dairy series. *After having the initial idea to create a book out of one of the many stories floating around in her head, she set to work to figure out the how. Having no experience in writing, publishing or marketing, she decided her first step was to connect with others who could help.

“I joined a Facebook group for authors and that was a place (where) I got a lot of information and resources. I knew I wanted to publish the book to fit within my budget. One of my first tasks was finding an illustrator,” she says.

Scrolling through the group one day, she came across 19-year old newbie illustrator Henry Cooper. She instantly liked his style and liked the idea of two newbies teaming together to create a book that she hopes will entertain and help others understand the dairy industry a bit more.

“I loved the way Henry was able to put my words into pictures. I started by just getting him to illustrate a few pages and I quickly knew I wanted to work with him,” she says.

“He put little touches in like

Illustrator Henry Cooper came on board to illustrate a Very Dairy Christmas and added little touches like a bird for kids to find on each page.

Continued page 34

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Kerryn often bounces her story ideas off her family and if she gets some laughs, she knows she is on to a winning idea. Kerryn, Liam, Lily, Willis and Riley (front), out on the farm.

a bird for kids to fi nd on each page and was so easily able to visually get across what I was writing about.”

With words and illustrations sorted, fi guring out how to get it published was the next step. While selfpublishing books is becoming increasingly popular, the price tag and risk can be daunting and there are many things to consider and get right. She got in touch with another rural mother who’s been down the publishing route before to get some advice.

“She helped me out a lot and I utilised the author’s Facebook group to get recommendations. I searched through a lot until I found one that fi t my budget and what I wanted. I really wanted to work with someone local. That was important to me,” she says.

After going through the publisher’s different packages, the deal was struck and she was a step closer to becoming an o cial author. A quick Google search put her in touch with an editor to ensure her story fl owed and had good grammar and spelling.

“My publisher has been great through the whole process. They’ve helped guide me on fonts, sizing all those sorts of things. There’s a lot more to the whole process than you could ever think, and I’ve learnt a lot,” she says.

When it came to marketing and distribution, she wanted to do it all herself to help keep the whole experience authentic to her and retain ownership over the process. She is utilising social media to help market her book, having already had immense interest from her Instagram page. Despite it making her want to throw her laptop out the window on many occasions, she has also set up a website with the help of a friend who was integral to getting it off the ground. Her fi rst run of books is around 300 books and, pending the uptake, will plan more in future.

No venture is without its challenges and like many other rural women running businesses, the balancing act between the farm, children and business has been one of the toughest. During autumn calving this year, she says she played a bit of tag team with her husband for childcare to do meetings, meet deadlines and juggle the rest of her responsibilities on-farm.

“Our youngest son got sick this calving, which made things trickier but somehow we fi gured it out and came out the other side. Don’t ask me how, though. When you’re passionate about something, be it farming or writing, you just make it work,” she says.

When things got really busy, and even now, something she relies on a lot is meditation. It helps her to sort out all of the open tabs in her brain and make some order.

“My biggest piece of advice for anyone juggling life is to tackle one thing at a time. Do that one thing well and then move on to the next.”

“My biggest piece of advice for anyone juggling life is to tackle one thing at a time. Do that one thing well and then move on to the next. It can be so easy to jump in and out of tasks, but for me at least, I wasn’t producing my best work doing that. Also make lists. All the lists,” she says.

“I won’t lie. A few loads of washing had to go through a few times because they were forgotten about in the machine, many ‘quick’ dinners and other things, which is totally okay.”

She says that it’s essential to connect with other people in your field. During her publishing journey she utilised her mum as a sounding board, got chatting to the author of the Tractor Dave books Rachel Numan for advice and did as much research as she could to help guide her decisions.

Out of everything, shipping proved to be the biggest thing to tackle. Knowing her target audience is rural and wanting them to be able to buy books without spending half the book price on rural delivery, she spent a lot of time looking at options for shipping but thinks she’s found the best option.

“Like my return to farming, it’s been one big, steep learning curve. I have some things I’d do differently next time to make the process smoother, but I think just knowing what to expect next time will make a huge difference,” she says.

As for what’s next, she is working on the next book in her series and she and Liam are on the hunt for their next farming opportunity, which they hope will bring them closer to their goals of 50:50 sharemilking.

For now, she’s relishing in her accomplishments and is excited for her book to be out in the world and to be read by our future farmers. She’s also quite glad she didn’t forget about that bit of paper. n Kerryn grew up on a dairy farm but trained as a vet nurse, worked as a personal trainer and in several corporate jobs before moving to Waikato to go back farming.