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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

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

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

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