September 7, 2025 • 10 mins
Wearing lipstick while bringing the lambs in, why not? Hawke’s Bay farmer and former world shearing record-holder, Ingrid Smith, aka The Made Up Farmer, is inspiring Kiwi women to look good, feel good and hold their own on the farm. Ingrid has built a large following on social media with her witty content, showcasing life on the farm. She also happens to wear makeup while doing so.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I read a wonderful story over the weekend, and I've
got to give credit to Rebecca Greeves, who's a journalist,
former radio broadcaster. She's with Farmers Weekly, and she wrote
a wonderful story about Ingrid Smith. The other half, the
better half, many would say of famous sharer Roland Smith.
But Ingrid, if you don't mind me saying so, and
I don't want to sound patronizing, but you're more than
(00:22):
just a pretty face, because you're a world champion sharer yourself.
And we're going to move back to your face in
just a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Hey Jamie, good for you.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Well, thank you for taking time to chat to me today.
In true farming fashion, you're on the end of the
hand piece today. You're taking time out to chat to
me while your husband, Roland, world champion sharer, former world
champion sharer, eight times Golden Shear's champ, he's off drilling
peace he is.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
He's sitting under us in the tractor and I'm in
the wolfstoo kritchen dirty sheep.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So how does that work?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
No, I actually don't mind it. I quite like the
physical physical work. Musically find me driving track do that's
for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, yeah, you with your mother, because this is another
wonderful story as well. In two thousand and nine, you
and your mother Mark Baines set a women's eight hour
two stand lamb sharing world record.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
How cool was that? It was probably one of the
proudest days of my life.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Not surprisingly, talk to me about your background because your
university educated. I think you met Roland while you were
both sharing overseas, so you've worked in many fields I have.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, So when I started, I actually went to school. Sorry,
I went to university after sixth form, and I'd been
working to Risington Breeline in the summers and I sort
of wanted to go into that animal breeding genetics field,
so I studied animal science for three years, and then
straight after that I decided to take sharp turn and
go sharing for a couple of years. So I travel
(01:51):
to America twice, England twice and Australia once. And then
after that I thought I probably should put my tens
of thousands of dollars worth of the university education to you.
So I got a job with Waggy Breeders, worked for
them for a year, then went to was the National
(02:12):
Bank back then and did two years of rural banking
and then met roly and we were doing long distance
at that stage. He was in hawks Bay and I
was in Rhodoru, so that was quite tough. And then
a job came up with Ravenstown and Hawk's Bay, so
I got that job, moved here and the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Really, Sharing's obviously in the blood, it is.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, both mum and dad sharers. Yeah, both very capable sharers.
So well, there's five of us children. We all learnt
to share in various forms, and some of us have
done it as a job and some of us just
know how to get the war.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well, you talked about Risington and their genetics program. I'd
hate to think what you and Roley have come up
because you've got what three kids? Have you are they
on the hand paced yet? Are they old enough?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Not yet? Not yet. I think their time will come.
They are definitely on the broom and on the press,
so that it could start, always start at the bottom.
And the sharing, she'd reckon.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, I don't think sitting around watching television or playing
computer games is on the menu in your house. I
wouldn't imagine.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
No. Unfortunately, not for them. Often I'll pick them up
at the bus stop. And I'll be in the yute
and I'll be like, ah, are we going on the farm,
And yep, they're like ah, So there's spent plenty of
time on the farm. I don't always love it, but
they always come along and help.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, that's their time A much better use doing that
than sitting in front of a screen, Rebecca Greaves, as
I said in Farmers Weekly, and I'll give Farmers Weekly
a plug. It's a very good publication. It'll be in
the mailboxes this week. And her starting shot here is
wearing lipstick while bringing the lambs and why not hawks
by farmer Ingrid Smith aka the made Up Farmer is
(03:48):
inspiring Kiwi women to look good, feel good and hold
their own on the farm. And that's why I said,
and I didn't mean to sound patronizing Ingrid, that you're
not just a pretty face.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No, na. I feel like I present myself well every day.
But I also am not afraid of getting grubby and
getting sweaty and doing the hard work like I just
I don't some people think that, you know, you can't
possibly wear lipstick or have nail polish and do all
the things you need to do. But I'm struggling to
see the logic in.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
That you've built up quite a large following on social
media as the made up farmer.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, yes, so that's been a labor of love. So
I started the makeup business in twenty nineteen, and as
it says in the article, I was a you know,
mum of three young children. Has gone from being a
professional earning a paycheck for basically earning nothing, and I
just wanted to be able to help put some money
back into our family. And yeah, over time, I've sort
(04:52):
of realized that the farming content resonates better with my followers,
So I just sort of do entertaining stories about what
I'm up to and do some lip sinking and the
shed out of some people who want to tell me
I can't do what I'm doing. So yeah, it's been
quite a learning process. I've learned that I don't like bullies.
(05:12):
I don't like that people can hide behind the keyboard
and say things that they would never say to your face.
And I love entertaining people. Like a community of like
minded women, whether it's that they are just on the farm,
whether it so we make up on the farm, whatever,
just a community of women that support each other in
(05:32):
doing awesome stuff as rural ladies.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Tell me about how you got into the lipstick business
to start with, because I think initially your company was
called Kei We Kisses.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It was yeah, so I quite like alliteration and it
was Yeah. The lipstick was the product that got me
into it. So it's called Lipsynse and a friend of
mine in America was showcasing it and she was like,
it just doesn't come off, and I'm like, they can't
be real. So I ordered some tried it and I
was like, holy shit, this actually works. And so it
(06:07):
wasn't available in New Zealand at the time. The company's
called SYNERGYMS, and so I was emailing the CEO asking her,
you know, could you sell it in New Zealand. She
was like, no, We're not doing that. You know. Fast
forward a couple of years they did launch in New
Zealand and I just dived straight in. On the first day,
I found my name Keywiknisses. New Zealand makeup was kind
of the idea behind it. But yeah, as I said,
(06:29):
that's evolved over time from being someone who wears makeup
and as a farmer to someone who is a farmer
who also wears makeup. So it's kind of evolved into
all farming a little bit makeup with.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Your social media profile as the made up farmer, and
you're getting a growing audience. Have you been able to
monetize that yet?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Not yet? Obviously I sell the product and make money
out of that. I did sign up for something the
other day, but I have no idea what I'm doing
in that space. I need someone to tell me how
to do that.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, there's plenty of bright young things who can tell
you that. You've just got to create the content and
keep grafting. I want to quote something else from this story,
and I know Rollie's I was going to say a
work aholic. That's probably not fair, but he's an absolute grafter.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
You don't.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I mean, those guys are all freaks, and you women
as well, who do those world record sharing attempts. You've
got to have an unbelievable work ethic. But I'm just
quoting Rebecca yet again. This is when you had young
kids and that ROLEI was working really hard. He'd get
up at two am and share here on the home farm,
come in for a shower at six am, and then
(07:37):
go off sharing elsewhere for the day. Does he still
I know he loves tinkering around with his toys and
diggers and tractors. Does he still do those sort of
ridiculous hours.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
He hasn't this year. Luckily, we're now at the point
where our farming businesses just scaled up so much in
the last two years that we need we need him
here so and he just he can't physically survive doing
those kind of days. He I don't know how he
(08:09):
did it. I don't. I honestly he and I don't
mean to sound like I don't know. He's just to me,
he's the hardest working person I know. I've never seen
anyone work so hard. He never complains. He just gets
up and he does what needs to be done. And
I really admire that about him. But he's just he
(08:29):
cannot physically do what needs to be done on the
farm and and the tractors worth the twenty four hours
a day. So he's had to give up on those
sort are you know, thirty seven hour day a little bit.
But during the season, obviously he'll work as hard as
he needs to. But now it's the shorter, sharpest season
or seasons, I should say, and he's back to helping
(08:51):
me on the on the hand pace or.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So, I know, you've got a twenty five hector home block,
you're leasing another six hundred and seventy five hectares, you
grow peace, You're doing all sorts of contracting and that
here's the question for you. I don't know if you
have you retired from competitive sharing yourself.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yes I have. Yeah, I did it the Women's of
Antiquity a few years ago. But I just don't do
enough now to be competitive and it's too hard to
train for that kind of thing, which you were the
kids and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Well, I know how incredibly focused he is. We've already
discussed that next year and mastered and correct me if
I'm wrong. Golden Shares and World Championship. Has he got
one more Golden Shares title in him or more importantly,
one more World Championship title in them?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Now that there is a question I have been asking
him for the last six months, I will tell you
that he's got an entry to the Golden Shares and
that is as much as I know. So I'm just
going to be in behind him whatever he decides to do.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, you're both champions, You're both grafts. Absolutely wonderful and
inspirational Ingrid Smith, thank you very much for your time.
Your business is called the Made Up Farmer. People can
go online, look you up and buy some of that
lipstick that doesn't wear off at all. You can look
glam on the Farm and read all about it and
Farmers Weekly. I'll give them a shameless plug because it's
(10:10):
a wonderful story. Great to catch up.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Appreciate Jamie, thank you.
I read a wonderful story over the weekend, and I've
got to give credit to Rebecca Greeves, who's a journalist,
former radio broadcaster. She's with Farmers Weekly, and she wrote
a wonderful story about Ingrid Smith. The other half, the
better half, many would say of famous sharer Roland Smith.
But Ingrid, if you don't mind me saying so, and
I don't want to sound patronizing, but you're more than
(00:22):
just a pretty face, because you're a world champion sharer yourself.
And we're going to move back to your face in
just a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Hey Jamie, good for you.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Well, thank you for taking time to chat to me today.
In true farming fashion, you're on the end of the
hand piece today. You're taking time out to chat to
me while your husband, Roland, world champion sharer, former world
champion sharer, eight times Golden Shear's champ, he's off drilling
peace he is.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
He's sitting under us in the tractor and I'm in
the wolfstoo kritchen dirty sheep.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So how does that work?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
No, I actually don't mind it. I quite like the
physical physical work. Musically find me driving track do that's
for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, yeah, you with your mother, because this is another
wonderful story as well. In two thousand and nine, you
and your mother Mark Baines set a women's eight hour
two stand lamb sharing world record.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
How cool was that? It was probably one of the
proudest days of my life.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Not surprisingly, talk to me about your background because your
university educated. I think you met Roland while you were
both sharing overseas, so you've worked in many fields I have.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, So when I started, I actually went to school. Sorry,
I went to university after sixth form, and I'd been
working to Risington Breeline in the summers and I sort
of wanted to go into that animal breeding genetics field,
so I studied animal science for three years, and then
straight after that I decided to take sharp turn and
go sharing for a couple of years. So I travel
(01:51):
to America twice, England twice and Australia once. And then
after that I thought I probably should put my tens
of thousands of dollars worth of the university education to you.
So I got a job with Waggy Breeders, worked for
them for a year, then went to was the National
(02:12):
Bank back then and did two years of rural banking
and then met roly and we were doing long distance
at that stage. He was in hawks Bay and I
was in Rhodoru, so that was quite tough. And then
a job came up with Ravenstown and Hawk's Bay, so
I got that job, moved here and the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Really, Sharing's obviously in the blood, it is.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, both mum and dad sharers. Yeah, both very capable sharers.
So well, there's five of us children. We all learnt
to share in various forms, and some of us have
done it as a job and some of us just
know how to get the war.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well, you talked about Risington and their genetics program. I'd
hate to think what you and Roley have come up
because you've got what three kids? Have you are they
on the hand paced yet? Are they old enough?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Not yet? Not yet. I think their time will come.
They are definitely on the broom and on the press,
so that it could start, always start at the bottom.
And the sharing, she'd reckon.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, I don't think sitting around watching television or playing
computer games is on the menu in your house. I
wouldn't imagine.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
No. Unfortunately, not for them. Often I'll pick them up
at the bus stop. And I'll be in the yute
and I'll be like, ah, are we going on the farm,
And yep, they're like ah, So there's spent plenty of
time on the farm. I don't always love it, but
they always come along and help.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, that's their time A much better use doing that
than sitting in front of a screen, Rebecca Greaves, as
I said in Farmers Weekly, and I'll give Farmers Weekly
a plug. It's a very good publication. It'll be in
the mailboxes this week. And her starting shot here is
wearing lipstick while bringing the lambs and why not hawks
by farmer Ingrid Smith aka the made Up Farmer is
(03:48):
inspiring Kiwi women to look good, feel good and hold
their own on the farm. And that's why I said,
and I didn't mean to sound patronizing Ingrid, that you're
not just a pretty face.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No, na. I feel like I present myself well every day.
But I also am not afraid of getting grubby and
getting sweaty and doing the hard work like I just
I don't some people think that, you know, you can't
possibly wear lipstick or have nail polish and do all
the things you need to do. But I'm struggling to
see the logic in.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
That you've built up quite a large following on social
media as the made up farmer.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, yes, so that's been a labor of love. So
I started the makeup business in twenty nineteen, and as
it says in the article, I was a you know,
mum of three young children. Has gone from being a
professional earning a paycheck for basically earning nothing, and I
just wanted to be able to help put some money
back into our family. And yeah, over time, I've sort
(04:52):
of realized that the farming content resonates better with my followers,
So I just sort of do entertaining stories about what
I'm up to and do some lip sinking and the
shed out of some people who want to tell me
I can't do what I'm doing. So yeah, it's been
quite a learning process. I've learned that I don't like bullies.
(05:12):
I don't like that people can hide behind the keyboard
and say things that they would never say to your face.
And I love entertaining people. Like a community of like
minded women, whether it's that they are just on the farm,
whether it so we make up on the farm, whatever,
just a community of women that support each other in
(05:32):
doing awesome stuff as rural ladies.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Tell me about how you got into the lipstick business
to start with, because I think initially your company was
called Kei We Kisses.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It was yeah, so I quite like alliteration and it
was Yeah. The lipstick was the product that got me
into it. So it's called Lipsynse and a friend of
mine in America was showcasing it and she was like,
it just doesn't come off, and I'm like, they can't
be real. So I ordered some tried it and I
was like, holy shit, this actually works. And so it
(06:07):
wasn't available in New Zealand at the time. The company's
called SYNERGYMS, and so I was emailing the CEO asking her,
you know, could you sell it in New Zealand. She
was like, no, We're not doing that. You know. Fast
forward a couple of years they did launch in New
Zealand and I just dived straight in. On the first day,
I found my name Keywiknisses. New Zealand makeup was kind
of the idea behind it. But yeah, as I said,
(06:29):
that's evolved over time from being someone who wears makeup
and as a farmer to someone who is a farmer
who also wears makeup. So it's kind of evolved into
all farming a little bit makeup with.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Your social media profile as the made up farmer, and
you're getting a growing audience. Have you been able to
monetize that yet?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Not yet? Obviously I sell the product and make money
out of that. I did sign up for something the
other day, but I have no idea what I'm doing
in that space. I need someone to tell me how
to do that.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, there's plenty of bright young things who can tell
you that. You've just got to create the content and
keep grafting. I want to quote something else from this story,
and I know Rollie's I was going to say a
work aholic. That's probably not fair, but he's an absolute grafter.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
You don't.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I mean, those guys are all freaks, and you women
as well, who do those world record sharing attempts. You've
got to have an unbelievable work ethic. But I'm just
quoting Rebecca yet again. This is when you had young
kids and that ROLEI was working really hard. He'd get
up at two am and share here on the home farm,
come in for a shower at six am, and then
(07:37):
go off sharing elsewhere for the day. Does he still
I know he loves tinkering around with his toys and
diggers and tractors. Does he still do those sort of
ridiculous hours.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
He hasn't this year. Luckily, we're now at the point
where our farming businesses just scaled up so much in
the last two years that we need we need him
here so and he just he can't physically survive doing
those kind of days. He I don't know how he
(08:09):
did it. I don't. I honestly he and I don't
mean to sound like I don't know. He's just to me,
he's the hardest working person I know. I've never seen
anyone work so hard. He never complains. He just gets
up and he does what needs to be done. And
I really admire that about him. But he's just he
(08:29):
cannot physically do what needs to be done on the
farm and and the tractors worth the twenty four hours
a day. So he's had to give up on those
sort are you know, thirty seven hour day a little bit.
But during the season, obviously he'll work as hard as
he needs to. But now it's the shorter, sharpest season
or seasons, I should say, and he's back to helping
(08:51):
me on the on the hand pace or.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So, I know, you've got a twenty five hector home block,
you're leasing another six hundred and seventy five hectares, you
grow peace, You're doing all sorts of contracting and that
here's the question for you. I don't know if you
have you retired from competitive sharing yourself.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yes I have. Yeah, I did it the Women's of
Antiquity a few years ago. But I just don't do
enough now to be competitive and it's too hard to
train for that kind of thing, which you were the
kids and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Well, I know how incredibly focused he is. We've already
discussed that next year and mastered and correct me if
I'm wrong. Golden Shares and World Championship. Has he got
one more Golden Shares title in him or more importantly,
one more World Championship title in them?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Now that there is a question I have been asking
him for the last six months, I will tell you
that he's got an entry to the Golden Shares and
that is as much as I know. So I'm just
going to be in behind him whatever he decides to do.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, you're both champions, You're both grafts. Absolutely wonderful and
inspirational Ingrid Smith, thank you very much for your time.
Your business is called the Made Up Farmer. People can
go online, look you up and buy some of that
lipstick that doesn't wear off at all. You can look
glam on the Farm and read all about it and
Farmers Weekly. I'll give them a shameless plug because it's
(10:10):
a wonderful story. Great to catch up.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Appreciate Jamie, thank you.
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