The Country 25/06/25: Bridie Virbickas talks to Jamie Mackay

Winner of the Emerging Leader Award at the PINZ Awards. A dynamic young agriculture leader and dairy farmer milking 850 cows in the Bay of Plenty.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the country, the winner of the Emerging
Leader award, and she spoke really well last night as
Bay of Plenty, Dairy Farmer, Dynamic Young egg Leader Bridy
for Bickus, and we're trying to work out who your doppelgangers.
We'll come back to that. I think we've decided for
Todd Charteris, we're going with Will Ferrell, comedian, and I

(00:22):
think that's not bad. I think Todd's abby to take that.
He's just having a look at the website now with
Michelle Bridy. You must have been very proud winning that
award last night because people were talking about you as
a future leader of Federated Farmers.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, Hi, Jamie, Yeah, it was. It was a real
shock actually to get that award. But it was really
really nice to be recognized by all of my peers
with Infederated Farmers in the egg industry, and they thought
that I was deserving of it. So it's really cooe.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
What's your involvement with Federated Farmers.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm the Bay of Plenty cheer Farmer chair.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
You're milking eight hundred and fifty.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Cows yes this coming season?

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, well, yourself sort of kind of you're running myself,
aren't you.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yes, I'm running the ship. So it's myself and three staff.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, so tell us about your family setup. Now I
need to delve too deep into it. But this morning
we were talking about farm succession and I knew you
were going to be following on from Todd Charters there
and I quoted something you said to me when it
came to your family. I think three three children or
three siblings, two are going farming and one isn't. And

(01:30):
you brought someone in completely independently to have a look
at the farming setup.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah. So yeah, So there's three daughters in my family,
and my sister Heather, she's farming with her husband on
the home farm, and then I'm on my piece. And
then my sister Colleen, she's living in a hopee in
the Sunny Hope. So yeah, we got an our real
coach to help us with the succession. My parents really

(01:57):
didn't want to be in a situation where there would
be any uncertainty if they were to pop their clogs early. Yes,
so we got in real coach and it was a
really interesting process. It was it was really neat to
really feel heard. So we had independent one on ones

(02:20):
with Scott and yeah, and then we came together as
a team and we all we all had the same
thoughts and feelings about what we all kind of wanted.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
And yeah, because one of the difficult things about farm
succession is not only getting the next generation in, it's
getting the generation who owned the farm out. And they
don't want to be paupersed. So and I've seen it
where farmers have put kids in there or whatever and
probably not taken enough out themselves. So you've got to

(02:49):
make sure that you look after that generation.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, absolutely, And they've they've worked so hard for what
they've got, so the end of the day, it's it's
all of their hard works. So yeah, we're all very yeah,
very proud proud of them.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Well, you've done well. Look on your buyer when we
talked about this last night. You support fellow farmers through advocacy,
dispute resolution, and practical workshops. You're also a founding trustee
of agg Recovery. What's all that about.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, so about a year ago I came on Egg
Recovery Board as a trustee, so I represent the dairy
industry in that space. And yeah, it's something that just
really aligns with my love of the environment. It's a
really neat organization to be involved in, and just where
it's heading is really neat.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
So helping reduce farm waste nationwide. What are we talking about,
Baylor's wrap and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, a lot of small bags, so HDP bags and
drums and things, so all of those plastics in that that. Yeah,
there's obviously so much waste on farm. So having the
ability to take that to a cycling center and know
that it's going to be going into more products that
can then be recycled as well. So it's not just
about a single use after the recycling, it's about making

(04:06):
sure they're made into products that can then be recycled again,
do you reckon?

Speaker 1 (04:10):
In ten years time, we'll be talking about Bridy verbiicus
the president of Federated Farmers. I mean, Katie Milne did it?
She broke the grass ceiling?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah she did? Yeah, who knows, We'll wait and see.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
That sounds like I'm just happy to be the MP
for talonga from you. I don't know about that. A
Bridy lovely to catch up with you last night. Congratulations,
it's a real feather in your cap. To win the
Emerging Leader Award. The future of farming with people like
yourself and Tim and Emma who were going to hear
from later in the hour, is very good. Indeed, go well.
Thanks for you, Thank you so much