The Country 01/05/25: Rowena Duncum talks to Jamie Mackay

We catch up with “Roving Ro” at the Dairy Women’s Network Conference in Hamilton, where the 2025 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year will be crowned tonight.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just a wrapping of the show off to Hamilton, Rowena,
don't come, just reminding her if you want to win
the Kaiwaker storm Force jacket, text the keyword win and
how many seasons you've been farming to five double O nine,
don't forget your name? And where you're listening from. Rowena's
listening from Hamilton. The dairy Woman of the Year will
be crowned tonight, Rowena. Who's it going to be?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Oh, I don't know, Jamie. It's yeah, it's always a
tricky one and I'm looking forward to finding out. You know,
this started back in twenty twelve when Barbara Kuruger won it.
Other winners have included the lanks of Kasey Milne, who
was the first female president of Federated Farmers. So yeah,
it's always great to have a gala dinner with a
couple of hundred women all dressed up to the nines

(00:40):
and crown someone who's pretty inspirational to the industry. But hey, look,
it is a miserable day in Hamilton here today, some nice, misty,
drizzly rain, So hopefully farmers out there need it because
it's pretty miserable.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Otherwise, is this an equal opportunities function tonight. Can blokes
turn up?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, absolutely, Jamie, We are definitely not discriminatory in Queenstown.
You could have come along and I bet you you
would have had a ball. We could have put a
nice pink scarf on you and you could have had
a photo boost photo with me and embraced it. Well.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Good old John mcavin, he never fails and never disappoints
me at all. He's he's wanting a dairy Man of
the Year.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh well, I guess we could look into doing that.
You know, has he got some nominations for me? We
could form a committee, have a meeting about a meeting
and make it happen.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Hey, have you got the finalists for this year's dairy
Woman of the Year in front of you? Perchance?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I don't actually, but I think it as Lara Sutton,
Francis beats In and Joe Sheridan's so yeah. Francis is
based in mid Canterbury, I think from memory. Lara's based
in the White Cuttle and so Joe as well. She's
the manager of our farm. Lara works for Dairy and
Z and Francis has just really been quite inspirational in

(01:53):
her community. From what I remember, I know she does
more than that, but you've put me on the spot. Jow.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Okay, right, well, I'm out of time, Rowena, thank you
very much. We'll talk to the dairy woman of the
Year on tomorrow's show.