All Articles

My daily commute is filling up with glittering signs proclaiming pointless slogans from airbrushed, friendly-looking wannabe politicians angling for my vote. The news is full of stories about the Opportunity Party, while Labour is saying very little, presumably hoping National will lose before they put their foot in their mouth. Election season must be upon us. Most policy announcements from the major parties seem to focus on health and the cost of living, which is presumably

Recently, I had an experience that reminded me that not everyone is happy for you when you reach important personal or professional milestones. This particular milestone was proof that I had worked hard, studied hard and pushed myself to my limits. The person in question, through their dismissive, cutting comment, showed me something important: living with meaning will sometimes provoke people who aren’t living with theirs. It also reinforced some of the findings in my recent

Another question from our European Rural Exchange students that stopped me and got me thinking. What is a good bugger? I don’t think it is the same thing as being nice. Nice can be manners. Nice can be smiling, saying the right thing, being pleasant to deal with. A good bugger can be blunt, scruffy, sarcastic and not especially polished. I think the thing with good buggers is that they notice. They notice what is happening around them, what other people need, what is about to

You’ve had another successful year on the farm: your accountant does the maths, tells you how much belongs to IRD, and you (willingly? begrudgingly?) write the cheque. Sound familiar? That’s certainly one option. But farming income is rarely consistent from one year to the next. The milk price moves, the next “100-year” weather event hits, or perhaps the price of diesel teeters at $3.80 a litre. Fortunately, our tax system contains provisions designed with that volatility

Give farmers more certainty, and less impractical regulation, and they’ll continue to deliver for export earnings and New Zealand’s economy. I think that’s the headline message to take from our latest Farm Confidence Survey. It’s telling that a third of farmers named cutting regulation and compliance costs as their number one priority for the next government to deal with. That level of concern outstripped the second and third-ranked priorities, economic and fiscal policy chan

Recently, someone with many years in media gave me a piece of advice. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard it. “Be careful not to have too many women in one issue.” Really? Because in all my years doing this job, nobody has ever warned me about having too many men. Well. Hold my gin. Because this issue is full of women. And unapologetically so. October 15 is International Day of Rural Women, and 2026 is also the International Year of the Woman Farmer, so it seemed like the perf

Rural accounting isn’t a career known for its social calendar, but I’ve recently found myself at a few networking events. There were name tags, stainless steel urns of hot coffee and, of course, allocated mingling time. I appreciate that for many, the thought of compulsory social interaction sounds like a waking nightmare. But anyone who knows me will tell you I’ll rarely turn down a coffee and a chat. For me, networking is a chance to connect with other rural professionals

As I wrote about in Calf Chronicles last month, every Friday, we have lunch with two other farming couples. We usually take turns hosting at each other’s homes. It is not elaborate, yet it has been one of the greatest gifts in helping me properly settle and thrive in farming life. I often say I am lucky to have found my tribe and experience that level of connection. I am, but some of that luck was actually intentional. I met one of the ladies at a course. We shared a bond ove

Our farmers work every day to maintain healthy soils, protect waterways, and care for animals — often under intense regulatory, financial, and climatic pressure. Yet online, the public often sees only a narrow slice of this reality. Selective images of muddy paddocks, wet weather events, or isolated moments taken out of context circulate widely, shaping perceptions in ways that feel deeply unfair to the people who live this work. I’ve seen our own animals basking in mud, with

As politicians ramp up rhetoric and roll out the policy ahead of the November election, most New Zealanders want to hear what their solutions are for getting the cost of living down. Whether you’re a farmer out in Stavely or you’re living in the middle of Ashburton, we’re all interested in cutting out things that unnecessarily add to costs. In the last few years, a big focus of Federated Farmers has been to encourage central and local government to streamline and simplify res

Growing up on a farm, the dangers that came with working in our sector were ingrained in us from a young age. We all had near misses, even as children. It was almost a rite of passage. On quad bikes, driving the farm ute, working in the yards and discovering very quickly what happens when you get on the wrong side of a sheep. Most of the time, they were just that. Near misses. Sadly, some weren’t. We lost young members of our community in farm accidents in relatively quick su

Once upon a time, I was sent to a Management 101 course to learn how to do the job I was meant to already be doing. Over lunch, I met a lovely lady who managed a team supporting minority women to engage with women’s health services. She spoke about how a core part of their job was simply chatting with small groups of ladies within their own communities, creating safe spaces with women who understood them and their backgrounds, breaking down the educational, social and cultura

My husband and I recently returned from a holiday in Vietnam. I found myself thinking about culture. Not the big obvious parts of culture, like language, history or food, the tiny unwritten rules people just know. In Vietnam, one of those rules is crossing the road. A raging river of scooters, cars, bikes, people and horns greet you at any road. The first instinct is wait for a gap. Except, there is no gap. On our first day I ended up messaging a local friend to ask how one

There’s nothing quite like an anniversary to make you step back and reflect on the twists and turns life has thrown at you, and to humble you with the illusion that we have total control over the events that shape our lives. Ten years ago, we were enjoying our carefree adult lifestyles with disposable income, a house that stayed clean for more than a day, and time to waste doing fun, non-productive things like hobbies or sleeping in. We made plans assuming we were in control

Succession. A sensational television show of the late 2010s? Absolutely. But for farming families, it’s also an inevitability reality every business will face. In March 2025, Rabobank published a white paper estimating that, over the next ten years, more than half of all New Zealand farm and orchard owners will reach retirement age. As a result, $150 billion of New Zealand farming assets is expected to change hands. Rabobank referred to this “changing of the guard” as what

A frighteningly long time ago, I subscribed to a weekly newsletter that provided updates on the latest science and innovations in the food safety space. One issue reported new research confirming the potential exposure risk of Campylobacter from raw eggs as 1 in 20,000. Given how dangerous I thought raw eggs were at the time, the information was a revelation. My immediate reaction was, “I’d have to eat 20,000 eggs before I got sick, therefore eggs are safe.” Then my boss said

As the financial year draws to a close, now is often the time to revisit that to-do list and those jobs you’ve been putting off all year start getting another look. Whether it’s a tractor that has become increasingly temperamental, a set of yards that have seen better days, or a project that’s been sitting on the wish list for months, the question is often the same: should I repair what I already own, or replace it altogether? The Investment Boost has added another layer to

The mornings are slow to lighten. The grass slows. Trees stand bare against grey skies. The ground is heavier underfoot, and evenings draw us indoors earlier. Across many dairy farms, cows are dry and calf sheds are empty between seasons. Elsewhere, there are wintering animals arriving, stock to feed and mud to manage. But winter carries a different rhythm. The natural world does not apologise for this. It contracts and gathers itself before the next burst of growth. Paddocks

There is a concept in leadership that most people need to “see to be.” Before we can imagine ourselves in certain spaces, we often need to see someone else stand there first. For me, that moment was spring 1999. I was a university commerce student in Wellington when Theresa Gattung became chief executive of Telecom. At the time, Telecom was one of the largest companies in New Zealand. Suddenly, a woman was visible at the head of corporate New Zealand. I remember thinking, if

“Can’t you just make it work?” are familiar words my colleagues across NZ will be all too used to hearing. As rural accountants, we understand that the numbers aren’t the reason you get out of bed each day, and when you dreamt about farming growing up, we doubt you pictured yourself sitting at a computer trying to sort your annual accounts & taxes. However, the software and systems available today mean shoeboxes filled with faded receipts are no longer the standard in terms o