Dairy women raring to make a difference

The winner will be announced at the annual conference in May.

They are Landcorp business manager Rebecca Keoghan, Westport; central West Coast dairy farmer Renee Rooney; and LIC farm solution manager Michelle Wilson, Waihi. Dairy Women's Network chief executive Zelda de Villiers says the judges had a hard time selecting the finalists for the fifth annual awards.

Rebecca Keoghan

Keoghan says she has a passion for mentoring others and that is a key aspect of the Dairy Woman of the Year award.

Keoghan manages five dairy farms, a dairy support block and a machinery syndicate for Landcorp, is a director of Westland Milk Products and plays trombone and percussion in a Westport brass band.

All facets of her personal and professional life are immersed in dairying, she says. She entered the dairy industry 10 years ago, moving to her husband's family farm near Westport after managing medical laboratories in Australia.

"My passion for mentoring others, driving the success of our sector and being a leadership role model within our industry is extremely important to me," Keoghan says. "Receiving this award would mean the world in recognising that I have in some small way been successful in inspiring other dairy women to lead, grow and develop in our industry."

Keoghan farm milks 200 Jersey cows on 120ha with all young stock raised at home. Farm production volumes have grown at least 10% per year for the last five years with no change in costs, she says. They have three times won the Westland Dairy Awards for the most production from pasture for the last five years.

"Our system change in this 2016 season to once-a-day milking all season to [survive lower] milk prices has proven successful."

Before Landcorp, Keoghan was operations manager for the Holcim cement plant for eight years, while studying for an advanced business management diploma and an International Institute for Management Development (IMD) leadership diploma from Switzerland. She is team leader for the NZ Dairy industry awards and a member of the OSPRI committee (northern South Island).

With Landcorp she leads 55 staff and oversees quality production across 5000 dairy cows, 4000ha and 2500 young stock.

"This senior management role with Landcorp provides an excellent platform to combine my leadership and business skills business within the industry I am fiercely passionate about."

She has been involved in Dairy Womens Network for four years, having helped a friend set up a local group because there wasn't one in Westport.

"We've got to encourage more dairy women to step outside their comfort zone. We have fantastic knowledge and great multi-skills and we should be out there involved in the industry... to encourage those who are perhaps a bit shy and need help and backing to get out.

"If I succeed in encouraging only one more dairywoman to step outside into governance and leadership roles in our industry, that would be fantastic."

Michelle Wilson

Wilson believes the Dairy Woman of the Year winner becomes an ambassador for the dairy industry.

Wilson is an LIC farm improvement manager and was chair of Dairy Womens Network for four years to 2014. That included nine months of holding the joint positions of chair and chief executive while recruiting a new chief executive.

After farming in Southland from 2002 she and husband Pete moved back in 2014 to his home area of Bay of Plenty and downsized farms from 650 to 120 cows currently.

She says the Dairy Woman of the Year title is an opportunity to lead by example and be an ambassador for the dairy industry.

"At first the award was about profiling women in dairying and not just about gumboots and overalls. We are running multi-million dollar businesses at the same level as urban corporates.

"We had the community leadership award which is celebrating women inside the farmgate and in their communities, and this award is for those of us going to the next level and showcasing that."

As an example, the 2012 inaugural winner Barbara Kuriger (now an MP) has inspired many people to step up in their communities and nationally because it highlighted her role in the industry, says Wilson. She already was prominent in the industry but winning Dairy Woman of the Year gave her a wider voice.

"If I [win] I think my knowledge of the Dairy Womens Network and the contribution it makes to the industry will help me influence change in the business communities regarding their perception of agriculture.

"The Global Women programme allows you to work alongside globally focussed women in leadership roles and allows that conversation to happen."

A visit to China with Global Women to the APEC Women in Leadership Forum in 2013 showed her how much we need to all look outside our own sphere. "The award gives the opportunity to work alongside globally focused women and influence their way of thinking about how the dairy industry contributes to NZ Inc and our communities."

The award each year shows a different dimension of what the dairy industry is doing. "It highlights that we as an industry band together and work through things together and support each other. That is unique and it's what I love about the industry."

The award creates a talking point and positivity about the industry.

Over the past 15 years Wilson has held trustee/director positions in not-for-profit organisations. She chaired a community medical trust that held four contracts with the Southland District Health Board to deliver a variety of medical services in western Southland.

Wilson was a finalist in the Institute of Directors' Aspiring Director Award 2013 Otago / Southland Branch.

She is a graduate of the Agri-Women's Development Trust Escalator Programme 2015, the NZ Institute of Directors, Certificate In Company Direction 2011 and holds a Diploma Agri-Business Management.

Renee Rooney

Rooney wants to belong to a team that shapes the future of the dairy industry.

She is co vice-president of Federated Farmers West Coast and chairwoman of the dairy section. The Rooneys run 530 cows on their 320ha equity partnership farm near Lake Brunner.

"I was humbled to get the nomination and it was a massive surprise to get into the finals," says Rooney.

"Dairy is an industry I want to stay in, and it must be sustainable and profitable. A successful dairy industry contributes much to successful rural communities, a successful economy and New Zealand.

"The whole intergenerational aspect is important to me -- what it will look like for the next 25 years. In my leadership journey, wherever it takes me, I want to belong to the team that will shape our industry. It is a long term thing for me: governance and strategic thinking excite me."

The Dairy Woman of the Year award promotes a positive image of the dairy industry because it is important to NZ, she says.

"It doesn't matter what milk processor you supply or what part of the country you live in, the contest is about the NZ industry as a whole and being successful, sustainable and profitable.

"I don't know the answers but I can have a jolly good crack at making the road a little less lumpy through my own experiences and where we've come from."

Rooney says her Feds role has taught her that grassroots dairy farmers need a voice at the table, to get their message to the decisionmakers at the top.

She has grown a lot in the Feds role; though it wasn't planned, the Lake Brunner environmental challenges of farming with restrictions cemented for her the need to get involved.

"I shouldn't say I am just a dairy farmer but I am. Farming where we do, I [found that] my leadership journey was kicked off by circumstance – from living and farming where we do, by getting involved."

She values her role on the local school board of trustees, and she encourages dairy women to look at that opportunity. "It gives a good grounding – a good way to learn systems and gain governance knowledge. It is a really good way to be involved in the local community."