November 19, 2024 • 7 mins
Tracey Henderson talks about being a super mum on the farm while balancing life in general!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
And before we wrap up on a Wednesday afternoon, we
are catching up with Tracy Henderson. Of course, her husband
Steve is on the program every couple of weeks, but
I thought today a different tect. We'll catch up with
Tracy being a working mum and just how she finds
on the farm and getting the balancing act right. She
calls it Tracy, good afternoon and welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey Andy. Thanks. I wouldn't say I get it right,
that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
No, you don't get it right, but you probably get
it right more than you get it wrong as well.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, some days it feels like it, some days it
doesn't feel like it. But yep, the tuckle is real
that it's still a good life style on the farm
despite having those easy days and then the days.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, it's probably my first question to be having the
kids and being out involved on the farmers well and
trying to make things work and just getting that flow.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
It can't be easy sometimes.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, and probably the spring has been harder. Usually you
can take them out and they can find their own
fun out on the farm on the weekends and that,
but this spring it's actually been really hard, and it's
probably it's meant I've had to go well, one I
can't get the raven to a panic, which I can
(01:28):
usually pack the kids in and have the heater on.
But it's been a balancing act, and when Steve gets home,
I'm out there on the motorbike because it's the only
sort of transport at the moment that seems to be working.
So this spring has been really tough with the juggle,
but most of the time I actually find it easy
(01:48):
because the kids usually entertain themselves and you can actually
get a bit of fair time out there and enjoy
it with them.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Country kids in particular, they're pretty adaptable to such situations though.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Aren't they. They are?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
They are this bring like those school holidays, wasn't much
of the hard days for them. But once you get
to the other side of Christmas and that outside of
the summer on the farm, they love it and it's
actually enjoyable for us because it does make being quite
easy sometimes.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Now, tell us about your farming background, Tracy.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So, I'm originally from the North Island. After sheep and
bee farm where my sister's now farming. I didn't have
the dairy experience, but then once we started contract milking,
it was Steve and I hands on full time before
we had children, So now it looks a.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Little bit different.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I'm not so much in the shed milking cows. It's
the juggle at the runoff, which I can actually work
a lot of the time between the kids at school,
and yeah, works sort of like that. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Did it take you a lot of adjusting go from
sheaping beef to dairy No?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
No, I think I just love the outdoors and the animals,
so I think any sort of farming situation I would enjoy. Yeah,
it's something that I've always grown up and I always
knew I would go back to farming in one way
or another.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
So your passion for the dairy industry is very much alike.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yes, absolutely, Yeah, it's created an awesome pathway for us
in our family. You do have your heights and loads
and your busy times, and you wonder why you're doing
things sometimes when you knee deep and mate or you're
stuck in your walking home. But there's more positive than
your negatives, and the dairy industry provides a lot of
(03:51):
cool opportunities.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I think there's a lot of different opportunities and dairy farming,
isn't there.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yes, that has, Yeah, and there's I think there's more
and more. And when people see like all farming types
at the moment it's a bit of doom and gloom,
we probably see more opportunity and I think people are
opening their eyes to different ways of doing things now,
which yeah, again can create opportunities.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
The other thing that you and Steve do particularly well
on the farm is the involvement of staff as well,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, we do try. We run sort of flexible rosters
where we have more people but their hours can be
quite flexible. It does create some problems sometimes because there's
not that consistency as such, but then it does allow
(04:50):
them to take more time off at different times, and
especially ones with kids in that if they've got concerts
or you know, different school school events, they can actually
go along to them. It's not perfect, but yeah, we try.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
It's all about communications, see where it's just paramount.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yes, correct, yep, talking communication. It was the same at
home with your family and especially the spring. That communication
has been quite important. Now.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Of course your farmer's called legendaries where you guys are
based or that's the that's the name you go by.
Was that was that your brain child idea. It's very clever,
by the way.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yeah, so I've initially started well, I started that Facebook
page mainly because my family is all in the North
Island and it was a way of showing them and
keeping them updated with what we do down here.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But it's sort of it's sort of ruined. People loved
just seeing what we were up to. It's only a
small snippet of what we do, but we're trying to
keep it as real as possible and we've only ever
had positive feedback from it, so we'll just keep continuing.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
And that's the thing that other people can relate to,
and they look on social media, Tracy and see your
posts of what's going on there. I mean, Steve is
pretty open and transparent about his stuff ups. The other
month or week or whatever it was wasn't that long
ago due to the wet season, but there was pretty
impressive the way he managed to bog some of those machines.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Oh yeah, and it's still happening. I actually got the
call up after school yesterday to go and pull a
tractor out. With the tractor and there's probably still a
couple of vehicles stuck on at the moment. It's November.
It's crazy. We shouldn't be getting stuck, but yeah, it's happening,
and you just got to laugh about it, and I can.
(06:46):
It's it's it's a communication and seeing other farmers in
their snapchats for their vessel stuck, and it all puts
them to perspective that we're not the only one that's
getting stuck.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Absolutely, Tracy, great way to look at it. Hey, Thanks,
see your time this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Been a good chat, no worries.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Thanks Andy.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Yeah, okay, laugh out loud with ag proud because life
on the land can be a laughing matter. Brought to
us by sheer Well Data working to help the livestock farmer.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Apparently you can't use beef stew as a password. Why
is that?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's not strong enough? Dad joke Wednesday. You gotta love it.
That's us for the afternoon. The Muster on Hockenwey podcast
coming up. Surely you know Heart Radio. My name's Andy Muir.
This has been the muster on hakkinw He thinks of
Peters genetics. See you tomorrow one o'clock
And before we wrap up on a Wednesday afternoon, we
are catching up with Tracy Henderson. Of course, her husband
Steve is on the program every couple of weeks, but
I thought today a different tect. We'll catch up with
Tracy being a working mum and just how she finds
on the farm and getting the balancing act right. She
calls it Tracy, good afternoon and welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey Andy. Thanks. I wouldn't say I get it right,
that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
No, you don't get it right, but you probably get
it right more than you get it wrong as well.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, some days it feels like it, some days it
doesn't feel like it. But yep, the tuckle is real
that it's still a good life style on the farm
despite having those easy days and then the days.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, it's probably my first question to be having the
kids and being out involved on the farmers well and
trying to make things work and just getting that flow.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
It can't be easy sometimes.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, and probably the spring has been harder. Usually you
can take them out and they can find their own
fun out on the farm on the weekends and that,
but this spring it's actually been really hard, and it's
probably it's meant I've had to go well, one I
can't get the raven to a panic, which I can
(01:28):
usually pack the kids in and have the heater on.
But it's been a balancing act, and when Steve gets home,
I'm out there on the motorbike because it's the only
sort of transport at the moment that seems to be working.
So this spring has been really tough with the juggle,
but most of the time I actually find it easy
(01:48):
because the kids usually entertain themselves and you can actually
get a bit of fair time out there and enjoy
it with them.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Country kids in particular, they're pretty adaptable to such situations though.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Aren't they. They are?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
They are this bring like those school holidays, wasn't much
of the hard days for them. But once you get
to the other side of Christmas and that outside of
the summer on the farm, they love it and it's
actually enjoyable for us because it does make being quite
easy sometimes.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Now, tell us about your farming background, Tracy.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So, I'm originally from the North Island. After sheep and
bee farm where my sister's now farming. I didn't have
the dairy experience, but then once we started contract milking,
it was Steve and I hands on full time before
we had children, So now it looks a.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Little bit different.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I'm not so much in the shed milking cows. It's
the juggle at the runoff, which I can actually work
a lot of the time between the kids at school,
and yeah, works sort of like that. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Did it take you a lot of adjusting go from
sheaping beef to dairy No?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
No, I think I just love the outdoors and the animals,
so I think any sort of farming situation I would enjoy. Yeah,
it's something that I've always grown up and I always
knew I would go back to farming in one way
or another.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
So your passion for the dairy industry is very much alike.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yes, absolutely, Yeah, it's created an awesome pathway for us
in our family. You do have your heights and loads
and your busy times, and you wonder why you're doing
things sometimes when you knee deep and mate or you're
stuck in your walking home. But there's more positive than
your negatives, and the dairy industry provides a lot of
(03:51):
cool opportunities.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I think there's a lot of different opportunities and dairy farming,
isn't there.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yes, that has, Yeah, and there's I think there's more
and more. And when people see like all farming types
at the moment it's a bit of doom and gloom,
we probably see more opportunity and I think people are
opening their eyes to different ways of doing things now,
which yeah, again can create opportunities.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
The other thing that you and Steve do particularly well
on the farm is the involvement of staff as well,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, we do try. We run sort of flexible rosters
where we have more people but their hours can be
quite flexible. It does create some problems sometimes because there's
not that consistency as such, but then it does allow
(04:50):
them to take more time off at different times, and
especially ones with kids in that if they've got concerts
or you know, different school school events, they can actually
go along to them. It's not perfect, but yeah, we try.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
It's all about communications, see where it's just paramount.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yes, correct, yep, talking communication. It was the same at
home with your family and especially the spring. That communication
has been quite important. Now.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Of course your farmer's called legendaries where you guys are
based or that's the that's the name you go by.
Was that was that your brain child idea. It's very clever,
by the way.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yeah, so I've initially started well, I started that Facebook
page mainly because my family is all in the North
Island and it was a way of showing them and
keeping them updated with what we do down here.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But it's sort of it's sort of ruined. People loved
just seeing what we were up to. It's only a
small snippet of what we do, but we're trying to
keep it as real as possible and we've only ever
had positive feedback from it, so we'll just keep continuing.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
And that's the thing that other people can relate to,
and they look on social media, Tracy and see your
posts of what's going on there. I mean, Steve is
pretty open and transparent about his stuff ups. The other
month or week or whatever it was wasn't that long
ago due to the wet season, but there was pretty
impressive the way he managed to bog some of those machines.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Oh yeah, and it's still happening. I actually got the
call up after school yesterday to go and pull a
tractor out. With the tractor and there's probably still a
couple of vehicles stuck on at the moment. It's November.
It's crazy. We shouldn't be getting stuck, but yeah, it's happening,
and you just got to laugh about it, and I can.
(06:46):
It's it's it's a communication and seeing other farmers in
their snapchats for their vessel stuck, and it all puts
them to perspective that we're not the only one that's
getting stuck.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Absolutely, Tracy, great way to look at it. Hey, Thanks,
see your time this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Been a good chat, no worries.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Thanks Andy.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Yeah, okay, laugh out loud with ag proud because life
on the land can be a laughing matter. Brought to
us by sheer Well Data working to help the livestock farmer.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Apparently you can't use beef stew as a password. Why
is that?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's not strong enough? Dad joke Wednesday. You gotta love it.
That's us for the afternoon. The Muster on Hockenwey podcast
coming up. Surely you know Heart Radio. My name's Andy Muir.
This has been the muster on hakkinw He thinks of
Peters genetics. See you tomorrow one o'clock
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