October 31, 2023 • 24 mins
Lynley and her husband Matt own Spring Valley farm in Kaituna Valley, in the Wairarapa. The business has won several agricultural awards, including Wairarapa Hill Country Farm Business of the Year, Greater Wellington Balance Farm Environment Awards, Wairarapa Gate to Plate, the NZ Golden Lamb Awards and the Allflex NZ Sheep Industry Award for Innovation.
While raising their two sons, now both teenagers, Lynley owned and operated a hairdressing salon for 11 years before Spring Valley became her focus while in a rapid growth phase.
Lynley co-founded Wairarapa Rural Women Incorporated, a rural business discussion group set up to strengthen agri-business by bringing together women who are fundamental partners in their rural businesses. Lynley is also a Zanda McDonald judge, something that she is extremely passionate about.
One of her favourite achievements is providing a platform for agri-women to learn, teach, share ideas and foster leadership, self confidence and friendship.
Lynley speaks to us about fostering the younger generation into becoming confident leaders, the importance of a cohesive partnership and what it means to be a good leader.
Thank you so much to Lynley for taking the time out of her busy schedule to chat to us!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to season six so the Black Heels and Tractoris
podcasts brought to you by us in Real Women, New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This season, on the podcast, we are interviewing the ogs,
the badass ladies of the agricultural world, the ones who,
in my case, you might see at a conference get
all nervous and flustered, might embarrass yourself in front of them,
because that's that amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
The theme of this season is the big stuff, the
juicy topics, like how they got into leadership positions, what
it means to be a CEO, how you add value
around a board table, and has the agricultural industry actually
changed does it even like females? All these things and
more this season and these ladies do not hold back.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Look, we would love to hear from you, and even more,
we would love for you to sign up as a
member of Rural Women New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So check us out on my socials, give us a
Google hit the join bud it and help us make
more of a difference for rural women across New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Lovely, tell us a little bit about yourself in the
sense of your background and why you are.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
Who you are.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
What are the founding values or your founding experiences that
have shaped you to be who you are today.
Speaker 6 (01:18):
Yeah, goodness, Okay, so well thrust and foremost, I am
a shed and bee farmer in the Whited Upper. My
husband and I have a business called Spring Valley Enterprises,
and we're farming two thousand, four hundred hectares right along
the total Ranges and the Wide Upper, so extremely wet
at the moment, like a lot of the country. But
(01:41):
that probably probably defines who I am actually quite a
bit too, is being able to make abound in.
Speaker 7 (01:47):
As much rain and as much mud and muck as
you like.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
So probably some of my really cool values that I
was probably brought up with, we could go all that
way back, was honesty.
Speaker 7 (02:00):
That was probably one of the really big things that.
Speaker 6 (02:02):
If you didn't tell the truth, you're in a lot
of trouble as a kid, and I hold my kids
really strongly to that and the people around me.
Speaker 7 (02:10):
I need to be able to trust people around me.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
You know, we're working in an industry that you know,
the media can get hold of so quickly, and we
can be dragged down so quickly, so we need to
be able to trust what people are telling us. We
need to be able to trust ourselves and what we're
learning and what we're understanding. So it's probably really yeah,
probably one of the fundamentals.
Speaker 8 (02:30):
Actually in my.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Life, there's there's some big things, aren't they, And particularly
I think in the agriculture sector as well, those really
classic core values are so important for a myriad of
reasons which you've outlined, but also when you're really remote
and isolated even more so you've got to really hone
in on what's really important and what makes the team
take So with your with your career as such, can
(02:54):
you just give us a bit of an industry an overview,
a very brief history on like when did you start
out and how did you get to you know, spring
Belly as it is today.
Speaker 8 (03:06):
Gosh, brief, you asked me to be brief.
Speaker 7 (03:08):
I don't know that I can be brief on this one.
So well, I was born and bred a farm girl.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Okay, so I'm actually six generations on one of the
farms that met and I actually owned, So so you know,
I've been born bread grass, beared.
Speaker 8 (03:22):
Into the industry and I.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Was actually probably well, I was a little kid in
the eighties and we were taught back then, you know
that times were pretty tough and farming was pretty tough,
and my mother obviously often encouraged us not to go
into agriculture as one of three girls. So I quickly
at the age of about seventeen, wasn't enjoying my last
(03:47):
year of high school and began a head dressing apprenticeship.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
Actually, so I spent twenty years.
Speaker 8 (03:54):
In the headdressing and beauty industry.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
For the last eleven of that I actually owned my
own so during the boys while they were little, that
was a really big part of our lives, but it
was also.
Speaker 8 (04:07):
A good part of.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Our financial wellbeing that I had to work as well
as you know, support the farming business. I had to
bring in an income at the same time from something
completely off the farm. Probably six seven years ago, now
I became a little bit unwell and I couldn't hear
dress anymore, so it was back to being full time
(04:30):
on the farm.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
And at that.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
Stage we were looking for a lot of growth opportunities
and the farm was getting bigger and I couldn't juggle
both like she couldn't juggle three things from.
Speaker 7 (04:41):
Family farm business, sell on business. So it was a
really good time for me.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
Just to come back, be back full time on the farm,
work on that, and from there the farm has just
grown and we've just met And when I say we,
I mean Matt and I. We've just formed a really
really tight cohesive partnership. We were often actually moving in
quite opposite directions when I was working on my own business,
(05:06):
so we weren't very united and we probably weren't performing
as well as we could. That having us both together
on the farm has been really successful for us.
Speaker 8 (05:17):
It's been a great partnership.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I love that sense of being a cohesive partnership. But
one of the things I really wanted to pack up
on early on is your What I can see anyway,
is that you have quite a way about being kind
of at the forefront of the industry, like we looked
on Beef and Lamb and all of your videos and
(05:39):
Advisor across that.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
So one of the.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Things I wanted to talk a bit about is like, one,
why you take that position in the industry, why you
desire to take that position, and also to what things
are you saying in terms of being out of leafage
that knowledge into growing your businesses.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
Yeah, well, first and foremost, putting ourselves out there to
be leaders in the industry.
Speaker 8 (06:04):
Was I don't know.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
It was very challenging at the start, but it was
also very rewarding.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
We had a lot of great ideas.
Speaker 6 (06:12):
We needed expertise and inputs from industries like beef and
land New Zealand to help us grow those ideas and
those thoughts. But at the same time we learned that
other people actually wanted to learn those things at the
same time, so we went afraid at putting ourselves out there.
(06:32):
Both Matt and I fairly confident at public speaking. We
were probably quite confident in our knowledge. We do our research,
we own our opinions.
Speaker 8 (06:43):
We don't back down from.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
Constructive criticism or feedback.
Speaker 8 (06:48):
We'll own that. We take it all on board.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
So I guess in a way he just being confidence,
confident with what you're doing and what you know, was
a big part of that leadership and leaning into that.
It was also a really good way for us to
give back to the industry. So many people had given
to us. You know, we wouldn't be here if it
went for a lot of people that surrounded us and
(07:12):
supported us right back when we were twenty four and
twenty five and buying our first bit of dirt.
Speaker 8 (07:19):
So yeah, giving back.
Speaker 7 (07:21):
Is really really important to us.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So, touching on that cohesive partnership comment that you made,
what does that mean and why is that important?
Speaker 6 (07:31):
I think for Matt and I we both have very
very supporting roles in the business. Matt often jokes that
he works on the income and I work on expenditure,
and he always says that so long as he's working
harder than I am, we should just be fine.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
You know, we should be all right.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
But in all seriousness, I think he has a lot
of skills that I don't have, and I have a
lot of skills.
Speaker 8 (07:53):
That he doesn't have.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
So by being really in triune with each other and
each other's skills and strengths and weaknesses, because we have
those two, that actually really brings us together in.
Speaker 7 (08:04):
A strong cohesive partnership.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Yeah, that's pretty much in a nutshell, what that sort
of looks like for us.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Like the cose of partnership must be super important to growing.
So tell us about the farm journey, because I can
imagine having that, you know, being on the same track
and having to make that decision from when you are
owning the salon to where you are now and really
(08:33):
working in with Matt and going on the same journey.
It must be key to your success and expanding your operations.
Speaker 7 (08:42):
Yeah, so we bought out Spring Valley.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
So what we call our home funds is where we
are now, is where the magic happens. In two thousand
and two, we weren't even married. We were engaged, but
not even married, and the opportunity came up and we
grabbed it.
Speaker 8 (08:59):
That's stage.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
We both knew that we didn't want to work for
other people for very much longer.
Speaker 8 (09:06):
We were twenty four and twenty five.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
So we knew both deep down that we actually wanted
our own, our own piece of dirt. We wanted our
own business, We wanted to.
Speaker 8 (09:17):
Grow and expand our own skills.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
So that's pretty much how it started.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
We both had very strong ideas and very strong opinions,
and we both still do to be perfectly on us
and they didn't always see eye to eye, but it's
a matter of being able to bring us to either
and compromise and find a common ground in the middle.
Speaker 7 (09:35):
Yes, we both had the support of both.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
Our farming families around us as well, and they managed
to kick our butts at times and keep us on
the straight and narrow.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I'd love to talk to you a little bit about
leadership and how you have been able to.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Empower and support women in your districts.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So, as I understand it, you founded the Wided Up,
a women Incorporated So that was I believe discussion group
talking about strengthening a group business, bringing women together who
are partners and their own businesses. And I obviously here
at Rural Women, we're always interested in how that works.
So I'd love to hear the story of that and
(10:18):
why you set it up and what that does for
the community.
Speaker 8 (10:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:23):
So I was lucky enough to be doing one of
the every Woman's Development Courses first Steps.
Speaker 8 (10:30):
It was the very first one. I was really really lost.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
This is when I had just wrapped up hair dressing.
I didn't know where my skills fully would sit inside
of Spring Valley as the farming business. So I went
on one of the AWDT courses and on that was
another really good friend of mine, Ellie Cranswick, and another
one Lucy Thornycroft. And once we finished that course, we
(10:54):
actually sort of we had a coffee probably one day
and we went, you know what's next? We need something else?
We will all in a similar position. Ellie was a
agre consultant in Masterton here and Lucy was in a
similar sort of situation to me and just starting out
in her agriy journey as well, and he had little kids,
and we both thought there's got to be something else.
(11:16):
But we needed it to have some soft skills, and
we needed it to have some practical skills. We needed
it to work around our businesses, our children, our families.
So we came up with this idea that we would
bring together rurally connected woman and the wided Upper and
from that we developed a purpose. And our purpose was
(11:38):
basically to strengthen agribusiness through rurally connected women. So that
could be women on the farm, it could be egre,
rural professionals, didn't really matter. But we wanted to encourage learning,
encourage development and leadership. We needed to build trust, friendship
and lots of opportunity basically for people to grow and
(12:02):
to do what they could within their businesses and within
their skill sets.
Speaker 7 (12:07):
So that's pretty much how it started.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
We've been going now, gosh, we could be we're about.
Speaker 7 (12:14):
Eight nine years now. We keep going from strength to strength.
I think we've got about fifty fifty two current members.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
They do come and go because we have babies and people,
you know, leave different roles and things and it changes.
Speaker 7 (12:27):
But that's what.
Speaker 8 (12:28):
We're all about.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
We're all about just come and go as you please.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
And yeah, going from there really so.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
You wear a lot of hats clearly. So you've got this,
You've got the farming business, You've got a family. I
understand your sons and our teenagers. Yes, how is that
going age?
Speaker 7 (12:45):
Life's life is great.
Speaker 8 (12:47):
I love it.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
I do.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
I truly honestly love it.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
So our eldest son, Alexander, he's eighteen, he's left home
now and he's in his second year of a cadection
but Smedley Station and.
Speaker 7 (13:01):
Our youngest son is sixteen year eleven and he's there.
Speaker 8 (13:05):
Amazing.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
They man, they keep us on our toes and they
keep us young, and yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
They're pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
It's awesome. I've got something to look forward to. Then,
being being in the in the trenches a little bit.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
At the moment.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Is tough.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
But it gets better, believe me, it really does.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, I'm starting to see glimpses of light at the end,
which is which is really nice. So so one of
those hats that you wear is on the judging side
of things, from what I understand. Do you want to
tell us a little bit about the Zander.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
Okay, the Zonder McDonald ward. That's uh, it's a real
passion for me. That's one of those little things in
your life that gives you all the all the warm
feels right. So Sunder McDonald was the late Xander McDonald.
He was tread be killed in a farm accident in
Australia about ten years ago now, so the Sandon McDonald
(14:05):
Ward was founded in his memory. He was really instrumental
in the success of the beef industry in Australia and
promoting and supporting young people and mentoring young people in
the a sector in Australia. Was also incorporated in New
Zealand because we had a really amazing farming group called
(14:26):
the Platinum Primary Prodressers Group and it was a culbination
of New Zealand and Australian sort of movies and shakers,
I guess you could say.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
So it was brought together by a lot of great
minds in that group.
Speaker 8 (14:41):
Judging side of it that that came out of the blue.
Speaker 6 (14:45):
I was fined by the then Chief executive at the time,
Ratchard Rains, And yeah, he just asked me if i'd
be interested in being on the judging panel. Met and
I had hosted a lot of the previous winner on
the farm and would also been heavily involved in coordinating
the mentor trip which goes between New Zealand and Australia.
Speaker 8 (15:09):
So we organized the New Zealand side.
Speaker 7 (15:10):
Of it and we just yeah, I don't know, we
just loved it.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
And yeah, they just approached me and said how about
having a crack at being on a judging panel.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
And I've done that for four years now and it's incredible.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Getting to meet all of the bright young minds in
New Zealand agriculture.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
That's it's a pretty awesome thing.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And you know when you say, like it's your passion
teaching and supporting young people to get into the industry,
it's something that's just super super important.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
And I'm interested in your.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Perspective on this because fundamentally, Santa McDonald's around growing young leaders.
What do you think is a good leader, what does
it mean to you, What do you think you would
like to be or you are, and what things you
see in other people that you really admire.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Being a good leader is it's not only you know,
we don't know everything. We might think we know everything,
but as people, it doesn't matter how long you've been
in an industry or how long you've been on the planet.
We're always learning and we're always developing, and good leaders
are always doing that as well. We know when we
(16:23):
need to step out, We know when we need to
go out and seek support for ourselves as well as
giving support so to those who have.
Speaker 8 (16:30):
Asked us for it.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Yeah, I just think we never stop learning and never
stopped developing. And that's a huge part of the eggery
industry because we've got so much technology being thrown out
at us and so many rules and regulations now, so
we've always got to be taking that on board, but
understanding when we take that on board to help those
(16:52):
who possibly are struggling with some of these things that
are thrown at us.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
The thing about leadership, I guess, is that it's okay
not to have all the answers because leadership evolves depending
on your circumstances, right, and the situation that you're in.
So that's been one of the key themes that we've
found as We've talked to a lot of these. We're
calling them the ogs or the badass bosses in the
(17:20):
agri space.
Speaker 9 (17:21):
Rights as circumstances have changed, the way that you lead
people and lead yourself has to change as well and
adapt to those current circumstances or scenarios or the particular.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Challenge that's throwing its way. So there's something to be
said for always wanting to.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
Learn, absolutely, And I think you know, Matt and I
have been working on this on ourselves at the moment,
a bit of personal development.
Speaker 8 (17:48):
We've been doing the.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
Good to great course, and we have our own mentors
and things, and we are we're in numbered forties now
and so all of our farm team are under thirty,
and there's more of them than there are of us, right,
so we have to look inwards and we have to
look at ourselves and go, okay, so we need to
change to keep up with those guys. They're asking us
(18:11):
for more technology, they're asking us for you know, this
and that and that coming to us with ideas and
we need to take those on board because what we
did yesterday isn't.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
What we'll be doing next week. You know, it can change.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
And so we're really looking inwards at ourselves and hoping
that that we can use those guys and they're they're
you know, their initiative and their passion and foster their.
Speaker 7 (18:37):
Goals in their dreams, you know, beside ours.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
That's really cool that you're doing mentoring and you're investing
in PD.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
Yeah, that's but like leadership, it's ongoing, right. Like I
said earlier, we don't We don't know everything. It doesn't matter,
you know what skills you've got. We're always developing and
that sort of stuff. And one of the things about
having a farm business. We didn't go into farming to
(19:06):
manage people. We went into farming to manage land and
environment and animals and you.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
Know, the business. But with that, as you get bigger and.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
You grow and you develops team and employees, and that
takes a lot of learning. It's not something that came
naturally to Matt or I, and we understood that we
probably weren't the greatest bosses right off the bat, I'll
be pretty honest about it. But we've learned and we've
developed and we've changed, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
It's positive and I think it's awesome that you can
recognize that too, because I think plenty of people go
out there and go where the bus listen to us,
and you know, all of the things I'm interested in
from you and your perspective is given that you do
hold a really well respected role and a few different.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Parts of the sector.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
What are your thoughts around and the future of agriculture,
what might be coming for us, where our opportunities are,
and how.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
We can all be successful in future.
Speaker 8 (20:09):
Right now, it's pretty obvious times are tough.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
So the short term, I think those who tighten their
belt and tighten it fast are probably going to come
out the other side of this little little rough patch
that we're in at the moment in a better space
and they'll be able to just be in the box
seat basically and just get into the next steps. I
think opportunities will come out of this this really hard
(20:34):
stuff for some people.
Speaker 8 (20:35):
Looking further afield.
Speaker 7 (20:38):
We're always going to need food, right, We're always.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
Going to need to nourish and feed our bodies and
the world. Let's face that New Zealand has the most
incredible diverse egg resector and we need to showcase that
to the world. And I think we're doing that better
and better all the time.
Speaker 8 (20:59):
In the the.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Long term, I'm pretty confident that I'll be seeing you know,
probably my grand children are still in this industry.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, it's pretty challenging right now, isn't it. So I
love other points that you've just made, and so I guess, Linley,
the question is what's what's in line for you going forward?
You personally, what are you looking to do achieve? Like,
if we're talking to Lindley in ten years, what do
you think she might look like?
Speaker 7 (21:29):
Gosh, ten years time?
Speaker 6 (21:30):
Okay, in ten years gosh, I still want to be farming.
Not done yet, that's for sure. Even though I think
our boys are starting to look at us and think,
you know, come on, mom and dad, off you go,
you know, start deeping aside.
Speaker 8 (21:47):
I think it's funny. I'm really really content with my life.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
I'm content with what I've achieved. I'm content with what
I'm achieving.
Speaker 8 (21:57):
I would for our business.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
I really want to have a long term, sustainable, profitable
business that could support the next generation and even the
next one. I get a real kick out of the
environmental work that we've been working on here at Spring Valley,
and in ten years time, i'd like to be able
(22:21):
to walk through some of those eco corridors and these
trees will be, you know, two or three times the
size of me, and.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
I'll be able to say I plundered that I grew,
that I made.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
That amazing space.
Speaker 7 (22:33):
Yeah, I just I think, I just I just want
to be happy.
Speaker 6 (22:36):
I want to keep doing what I'm doing with the women,
rural women in the whided upper. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
I think one.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
Of the other big box tickets for me would be
some travel.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
We were pretty broke when we were young and borrowed
our first millions, so we haven't done a lot of
overseas travel. So if I was being a little bit spoilt,
I would say that would be something that.
Speaker 8 (23:01):
Literally's going to go out there and do, just go
to see the world.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
I love that. Yes, I think I think too.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Everybody's sort of rushing out at the moment to go
traveling because we've been all in lockdowns and things for
the last couple of years. So it's definitely a little
bit more attractive. But I think we're probably yeah, we're
probably out of time.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
And thank you so much for your insight.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
It's just so cool to hear you fizzing about the industry,
about your part in it about how you're growing and
learning and always doing so and looking after the people
that work with you as well as the other women
in your area as well. So we just love that
and yeah, well celebrate it as well.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
So thank you so much for joining us tonight. Yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
You're very welcome, my pleator, and thanks for getting in
touch you that. It's been great chat.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Well that was it.
Speaker 8 (24:01):
That's the podcast.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
That's us for today.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
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Speaker 5 (24:07):
Comments or questions. We would love to hear from you.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
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Speaker 5 (24:18):
A member of a Women New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
We promise you you'll have some fun.
Welcome to season six so the Black Heels and Tractoris
podcasts brought to you by us in Real Women, New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This season, on the podcast, we are interviewing the ogs,
the badass ladies of the agricultural world, the ones who,
in my case, you might see at a conference get
all nervous and flustered, might embarrass yourself in front of them,
because that's that amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
The theme of this season is the big stuff, the
juicy topics, like how they got into leadership positions, what
it means to be a CEO, how you add value
around a board table, and has the agricultural industry actually
changed does it even like females? All these things and
more this season and these ladies do not hold back.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Look, we would love to hear from you, and even more,
we would love for you to sign up as a
member of Rural Women New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So check us out on my socials, give us a
Google hit the join bud it and help us make
more of a difference for rural women across New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Lovely, tell us a little bit about yourself in the
sense of your background and why you are.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
Who you are.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
What are the founding values or your founding experiences that
have shaped you to be who you are today.
Speaker 6 (01:18):
Yeah, goodness, Okay, so well thrust and foremost, I am
a shed and bee farmer in the Whited Upper. My
husband and I have a business called Spring Valley Enterprises,
and we're farming two thousand, four hundred hectares right along
the total Ranges and the Wide Upper, so extremely wet
at the moment, like a lot of the country. But
(01:41):
that probably probably defines who I am actually quite a
bit too, is being able to make abound in.
Speaker 7 (01:47):
As much rain and as much mud and muck as
you like.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
So probably some of my really cool values that I
was probably brought up with, we could go all that
way back, was honesty.
Speaker 7 (02:00):
That was probably one of the really big things that.
Speaker 6 (02:02):
If you didn't tell the truth, you're in a lot
of trouble as a kid, and I hold my kids
really strongly to that and the people around me.
Speaker 7 (02:10):
I need to be able to trust people around me.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
You know, we're working in an industry that you know,
the media can get hold of so quickly, and we
can be dragged down so quickly, so we need to
be able to trust what people are telling us. We
need to be able to trust ourselves and what we're
learning and what we're understanding. So it's probably really yeah,
probably one of the fundamentals.
Speaker 8 (02:30):
Actually in my.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Life, there's there's some big things, aren't they, And particularly
I think in the agriculture sector as well, those really
classic core values are so important for a myriad of
reasons which you've outlined, but also when you're really remote
and isolated even more so you've got to really hone
in on what's really important and what makes the team
take So with your with your career as such, can
(02:54):
you just give us a bit of an industry an overview,
a very brief history on like when did you start
out and how did you get to you know, spring
Belly as it is today.
Speaker 8 (03:06):
Gosh, brief, you asked me to be brief.
Speaker 7 (03:08):
I don't know that I can be brief on this one.
So well, I was born and bred a farm girl.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Okay, so I'm actually six generations on one of the
farms that met and I actually owned, So so you know,
I've been born bread grass, beared.
Speaker 8 (03:22):
Into the industry and I.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Was actually probably well, I was a little kid in
the eighties and we were taught back then, you know
that times were pretty tough and farming was pretty tough,
and my mother obviously often encouraged us not to go
into agriculture as one of three girls. So I quickly
at the age of about seventeen, wasn't enjoying my last
(03:47):
year of high school and began a head dressing apprenticeship.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
Actually, so I spent twenty years.
Speaker 8 (03:54):
In the headdressing and beauty industry.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
For the last eleven of that I actually owned my
own so during the boys while they were little, that
was a really big part of our lives, but it
was also.
Speaker 8 (04:07):
A good part of.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Our financial wellbeing that I had to work as well
as you know, support the farming business. I had to
bring in an income at the same time from something
completely off the farm. Probably six seven years ago, now
I became a little bit unwell and I couldn't hear
dress anymore, so it was back to being full time
(04:30):
on the farm.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
And at that.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
Stage we were looking for a lot of growth opportunities
and the farm was getting bigger and I couldn't juggle
both like she couldn't juggle three things from.
Speaker 7 (04:41):
Family farm business, sell on business. So it was a
really good time for me.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
Just to come back, be back full time on the farm,
work on that, and from there the farm has just
grown and we've just met And when I say we,
I mean Matt and I. We've just formed a really
really tight cohesive partnership. We were often actually moving in
quite opposite directions when I was working on my own business,
(05:06):
so we weren't very united and we probably weren't performing
as well as we could. That having us both together
on the farm has been really successful for us.
Speaker 8 (05:17):
It's been a great partnership.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I love that sense of being a cohesive partnership. But
one of the things I really wanted to pack up
on early on is your What I can see anyway,
is that you have quite a way about being kind
of at the forefront of the industry, like we looked
on Beef and Lamb and all of your videos and
(05:39):
Advisor across that.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
So one of the.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Things I wanted to talk a bit about is like, one,
why you take that position in the industry, why you
desire to take that position, and also to what things
are you saying in terms of being out of leafage
that knowledge into growing your businesses.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
Yeah, well, first and foremost, putting ourselves out there to
be leaders in the industry.
Speaker 8 (06:04):
Was I don't know.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
It was very challenging at the start, but it was
also very rewarding.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
We had a lot of great ideas.
Speaker 6 (06:12):
We needed expertise and inputs from industries like beef and
land New Zealand to help us grow those ideas and
those thoughts. But at the same time we learned that
other people actually wanted to learn those things at the
same time, so we went afraid at putting ourselves out there.
(06:32):
Both Matt and I fairly confident at public speaking. We
were probably quite confident in our knowledge. We do our research,
we own our opinions.
Speaker 8 (06:43):
We don't back down from.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
Constructive criticism or feedback.
Speaker 8 (06:48):
We'll own that. We take it all on board.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
So I guess in a way he just being confidence,
confident with what you're doing and what you know, was
a big part of that leadership and leaning into that.
It was also a really good way for us to
give back to the industry. So many people had given
to us. You know, we wouldn't be here if it
went for a lot of people that surrounded us and
(07:12):
supported us right back when we were twenty four and
twenty five and buying our first bit of dirt.
Speaker 8 (07:19):
So yeah, giving back.
Speaker 7 (07:21):
Is really really important to us.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So, touching on that cohesive partnership comment that you made,
what does that mean and why is that important?
Speaker 6 (07:31):
I think for Matt and I we both have very
very supporting roles in the business. Matt often jokes that
he works on the income and I work on expenditure,
and he always says that so long as he's working
harder than I am, we should just be fine.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
You know, we should be all right.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
But in all seriousness, I think he has a lot
of skills that I don't have, and I have a
lot of skills.
Speaker 8 (07:53):
That he doesn't have.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
So by being really in triune with each other and
each other's skills and strengths and weaknesses, because we have
those two, that actually really brings us together in.
Speaker 7 (08:04):
A strong cohesive partnership.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Yeah, that's pretty much in a nutshell, what that sort
of looks like for us.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Like the cose of partnership must be super important to growing.
So tell us about the farm journey, because I can
imagine having that, you know, being on the same track
and having to make that decision from when you are
owning the salon to where you are now and really
(08:33):
working in with Matt and going on the same journey.
It must be key to your success and expanding your operations.
Speaker 7 (08:42):
Yeah, so we bought out Spring Valley.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
So what we call our home funds is where we
are now, is where the magic happens. In two thousand
and two, we weren't even married. We were engaged, but
not even married, and the opportunity came up and we
grabbed it.
Speaker 8 (08:59):
That's stage.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
We both knew that we didn't want to work for
other people for very much longer.
Speaker 8 (09:06):
We were twenty four and twenty five.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
So we knew both deep down that we actually wanted
our own, our own piece of dirt. We wanted our
own business, We wanted to.
Speaker 8 (09:17):
Grow and expand our own skills.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
So that's pretty much how it started.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
We both had very strong ideas and very strong opinions,
and we both still do to be perfectly on us
and they didn't always see eye to eye, but it's
a matter of being able to bring us to either
and compromise and find a common ground in the middle.
Speaker 7 (09:35):
Yes, we both had the support of both.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
Our farming families around us as well, and they managed
to kick our butts at times and keep us on
the straight and narrow.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I'd love to talk to you a little bit about
leadership and how you have been able to.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Empower and support women in your districts.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So, as I understand it, you founded the Wided Up,
a women Incorporated So that was I believe discussion group
talking about strengthening a group business, bringing women together who
are partners and their own businesses. And I obviously here
at Rural Women, we're always interested in how that works.
So I'd love to hear the story of that and
(10:18):
why you set it up and what that does for
the community.
Speaker 8 (10:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:23):
So I was lucky enough to be doing one of
the every Woman's Development Courses first Steps.
Speaker 8 (10:30):
It was the very first one. I was really really lost.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
This is when I had just wrapped up hair dressing.
I didn't know where my skills fully would sit inside
of Spring Valley as the farming business. So I went
on one of the AWDT courses and on that was
another really good friend of mine, Ellie Cranswick, and another
one Lucy Thornycroft. And once we finished that course, we
(10:54):
actually sort of we had a coffee probably one day
and we went, you know what's next? We need something else?
We will all in a similar position. Ellie was a
agre consultant in Masterton here and Lucy was in a
similar sort of situation to me and just starting out
in her agriy journey as well, and he had little kids,
and we both thought there's got to be something else.
(11:16):
But we needed it to have some soft skills, and
we needed it to have some practical skills. We needed
it to work around our businesses, our children, our families.
So we came up with this idea that we would
bring together rurally connected woman and the wided Upper and
from that we developed a purpose. And our purpose was
(11:38):
basically to strengthen agribusiness through rurally connected women. So that
could be women on the farm, it could be egre,
rural professionals, didn't really matter. But we wanted to encourage learning,
encourage development and leadership. We needed to build trust, friendship
and lots of opportunity basically for people to grow and
(12:02):
to do what they could within their businesses and within
their skill sets.
Speaker 7 (12:07):
So that's pretty much how it started.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
We've been going now, gosh, we could be we're about.
Speaker 7 (12:14):
Eight nine years now. We keep going from strength to strength.
I think we've got about fifty fifty two current members.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
They do come and go because we have babies and people,
you know, leave different roles and things and it changes.
Speaker 7 (12:27):
But that's what.
Speaker 8 (12:28):
We're all about.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
We're all about just come and go as you please.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
And yeah, going from there really so.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
You wear a lot of hats clearly. So you've got this,
You've got the farming business, You've got a family. I
understand your sons and our teenagers. Yes, how is that
going age?
Speaker 7 (12:45):
Life's life is great.
Speaker 8 (12:47):
I love it.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
I do.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
I truly honestly love it.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
So our eldest son, Alexander, he's eighteen, he's left home
now and he's in his second year of a cadection
but Smedley Station and.
Speaker 7 (13:01):
Our youngest son is sixteen year eleven and he's there.
Speaker 8 (13:05):
Amazing.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
They man, they keep us on our toes and they
keep us young, and yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
They're pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
It's awesome. I've got something to look forward to. Then,
being being in the in the trenches a little bit.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
At the moment.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Is tough.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
But it gets better, believe me, it really does.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, I'm starting to see glimpses of light at the end,
which is which is really nice. So so one of
those hats that you wear is on the judging side
of things, from what I understand. Do you want to
tell us a little bit about the Zander.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
Okay, the Zonder McDonald ward. That's uh, it's a real
passion for me. That's one of those little things in
your life that gives you all the all the warm
feels right. So Sunder McDonald was the late Xander McDonald.
He was tread be killed in a farm accident in
Australia about ten years ago now, so the Sandon McDonald
(14:05):
Ward was founded in his memory. He was really instrumental
in the success of the beef industry in Australia and
promoting and supporting young people and mentoring young people in
the a sector in Australia. Was also incorporated in New
Zealand because we had a really amazing farming group called
(14:26):
the Platinum Primary Prodressers Group and it was a culbination
of New Zealand and Australian sort of movies and shakers,
I guess you could say.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
So it was brought together by a lot of great
minds in that group.
Speaker 8 (14:41):
Judging side of it that that came out of the blue.
Speaker 6 (14:45):
I was fined by the then Chief executive at the time,
Ratchard Rains, And yeah, he just asked me if i'd
be interested in being on the judging panel. Met and
I had hosted a lot of the previous winner on
the farm and would also been heavily involved in coordinating
the mentor trip which goes between New Zealand and Australia.
Speaker 8 (15:09):
So we organized the New Zealand side.
Speaker 7 (15:10):
Of it and we just yeah, I don't know, we
just loved it.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
And yeah, they just approached me and said how about
having a crack at being on a judging panel.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
And I've done that for four years now and it's incredible.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Getting to meet all of the bright young minds in
New Zealand agriculture.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
That's it's a pretty awesome thing.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And you know when you say, like it's your passion
teaching and supporting young people to get into the industry,
it's something that's just super super important.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
And I'm interested in your.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Perspective on this because fundamentally, Santa McDonald's around growing young leaders.
What do you think is a good leader, what does
it mean to you, What do you think you would
like to be or you are, and what things you
see in other people that you really admire.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Being a good leader is it's not only you know,
we don't know everything. We might think we know everything,
but as people, it doesn't matter how long you've been
in an industry or how long you've been on the planet.
We're always learning and we're always developing, and good leaders
are always doing that as well. We know when we
(16:23):
need to step out, We know when we need to
go out and seek support for ourselves as well as
giving support so to those who have.
Speaker 8 (16:30):
Asked us for it.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Yeah, I just think we never stop learning and never
stopped developing. And that's a huge part of the eggery
industry because we've got so much technology being thrown out
at us and so many rules and regulations now, so
we've always got to be taking that on board, but
understanding when we take that on board to help those
(16:52):
who possibly are struggling with some of these things that
are thrown at us.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
The thing about leadership, I guess, is that it's okay
not to have all the answers because leadership evolves depending
on your circumstances, right, and the situation that you're in.
So that's been one of the key themes that we've
found as We've talked to a lot of these. We're
calling them the ogs or the badass bosses in the
(17:20):
agri space.
Speaker 9 (17:21):
Rights as circumstances have changed, the way that you lead
people and lead yourself has to change as well and
adapt to those current circumstances or scenarios or the particular.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Challenge that's throwing its way. So there's something to be
said for always wanting to.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
Learn, absolutely, And I think you know, Matt and I
have been working on this on ourselves at the moment,
a bit of personal development.
Speaker 8 (17:48):
We've been doing the.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
Good to great course, and we have our own mentors
and things, and we are we're in numbered forties now
and so all of our farm team are under thirty,
and there's more of them than there are of us, right,
so we have to look inwards and we have to
look at ourselves and go, okay, so we need to
change to keep up with those guys. They're asking us
(18:11):
for more technology, they're asking us for you know, this
and that and that coming to us with ideas and
we need to take those on board because what we
did yesterday isn't.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
What we'll be doing next week. You know, it can change.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
And so we're really looking inwards at ourselves and hoping
that that we can use those guys and they're they're
you know, their initiative and their passion and foster their.
Speaker 7 (18:37):
Goals in their dreams, you know, beside ours.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
That's really cool that you're doing mentoring and you're investing
in PD.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
Yeah, that's but like leadership, it's ongoing, right. Like I
said earlier, we don't We don't know everything. It doesn't matter,
you know what skills you've got. We're always developing and
that sort of stuff. And one of the things about
having a farm business. We didn't go into farming to
(19:06):
manage people. We went into farming to manage land and
environment and animals and you.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
Know, the business. But with that, as you get bigger and.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
You grow and you develops team and employees, and that
takes a lot of learning. It's not something that came
naturally to Matt or I, and we understood that we
probably weren't the greatest bosses right off the bat, I'll
be pretty honest about it. But we've learned and we've
developed and we've changed, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
It's positive and I think it's awesome that you can
recognize that too, because I think plenty of people go
out there and go where the bus listen to us,
and you know, all of the things I'm interested in
from you and your perspective is given that you do
hold a really well respected role and a few different.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Parts of the sector.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
What are your thoughts around and the future of agriculture,
what might be coming for us, where our opportunities are,
and how.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
We can all be successful in future.
Speaker 8 (20:09):
Right now, it's pretty obvious times are tough.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
So the short term, I think those who tighten their
belt and tighten it fast are probably going to come
out the other side of this little little rough patch
that we're in at the moment in a better space
and they'll be able to just be in the box
seat basically and just get into the next steps. I
think opportunities will come out of this this really hard
(20:34):
stuff for some people.
Speaker 8 (20:35):
Looking further afield.
Speaker 7 (20:38):
We're always going to need food, right, We're always.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
Going to need to nourish and feed our bodies and
the world. Let's face that New Zealand has the most
incredible diverse egg resector and we need to showcase that
to the world. And I think we're doing that better
and better all the time.
Speaker 8 (20:59):
In the the.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Long term, I'm pretty confident that I'll be seeing you know,
probably my grand children are still in this industry.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, it's pretty challenging right now, isn't it. So I
love other points that you've just made, and so I guess, Linley,
the question is what's what's in line for you going forward?
You personally, what are you looking to do achieve? Like,
if we're talking to Lindley in ten years, what do
you think she might look like?
Speaker 7 (21:29):
Gosh, ten years time?
Speaker 6 (21:30):
Okay, in ten years gosh, I still want to be farming.
Not done yet, that's for sure. Even though I think
our boys are starting to look at us and think,
you know, come on, mom and dad, off you go,
you know, start deeping aside.
Speaker 8 (21:47):
I think it's funny. I'm really really content with my life.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
I'm content with what I've achieved. I'm content with what
I'm achieving.
Speaker 8 (21:57):
I would for our business.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
I really want to have a long term, sustainable, profitable
business that could support the next generation and even the
next one. I get a real kick out of the
environmental work that we've been working on here at Spring Valley,
and in ten years time, i'd like to be able
(22:21):
to walk through some of those eco corridors and these
trees will be, you know, two or three times the
size of me, and.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
I'll be able to say I plundered that I grew,
that I made.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
That amazing space.
Speaker 7 (22:33):
Yeah, I just I think, I just I just want
to be happy.
Speaker 6 (22:36):
I want to keep doing what I'm doing with the women,
rural women in the whided upper. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
I think one.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
Of the other big box tickets for me would be
some travel.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
We were pretty broke when we were young and borrowed
our first millions, so we haven't done a lot of
overseas travel. So if I was being a little bit spoilt,
I would say that would be something that.
Speaker 8 (23:01):
Literally's going to go out there and do, just go
to see the world.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
I love that. Yes, I think I think too.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Everybody's sort of rushing out at the moment to go
traveling because we've been all in lockdowns and things for
the last couple of years. So it's definitely a little
bit more attractive. But I think we're probably yeah, we're
probably out of time.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
And thank you so much for your insight.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
It's just so cool to hear you fizzing about the industry,
about your part in it about how you're growing and
learning and always doing so and looking after the people
that work with you as well as the other women
in your area as well. So we just love that
and yeah, well celebrate it as well.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
So thank you so much for joining us tonight. Yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
You're very welcome, my pleator, and thanks for getting in
touch you that. It's been great chat.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Well that was it.
Speaker 8 (24:01):
That's the podcast.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
That's us for today.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
We hope you enjoy the yarns and please don't let
us know if you have any.
Speaker 5 (24:07):
Comments or questions. We would love to hear from you.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Look, it really does make all the difference. Please hit
the button to follow us like the podcast, click on
the button to join as.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
A member of a Women New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
We promise you you'll have some fun.
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