International Women’s Day: Nicky Berger, Farmer #ChoosetoChallenge
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2021 we spoke to three women working in different areas of the supply chain – a farmer, butcher, and project manager. Challenging assumptions, championing the industry, and driving success are all in a days work for these women. This interview features farmer and Co-Founder of GrassFed in the City, Nicky Berger.
What does your job entail?
I am a sheep and beef farmer in Auckland. We farm approximately 1500ha over several leased properties, and carry 2500 ewes and their progeny, fatten winter lambs, and have about 800 dairy beef bulls, and 200 other cattle.
What attracted you to farming?
I was never going to be a farmer, but the unexpected death of my Dad brought me from central Auckland back into our family’s community, and Dan (my then boyfriend, now husband) gave me the opportunity to take a break from my job and hang out with him in the shearing sheds and on a leased farm he had at the time. From the start, I was blown away by the complexity of running a farm, and the excitement that came from making good decisions about animals, pasture management, soil fertility and more. I had so much fun staying up late at night creating maps of grazing systems, reading about nutrients, building budgets, understanding rainfall impacts, global economics and politics and how all of these impact good farming decisions. The complexity blew me away!
What have been some of the challenges you’ve faced and overcome in your career?
In 2007, when the Global Financial Crisis hit, we owed the bank a lot of money and things were tight. On our first set of yards we chainsawed our own logs into rails and reused scrap gates. I remember one night, with a new baby and one year old asleep in the back of my ute, towing manuka branches to cover seed so it didn’t wash away in the rain. We have learnt that with determination we can get through, and that being efficient is usually more important than being too tight.
How have you and your farm grown over the years?
My role has evolved over the years, as our business has grown. I began as a general hand learning stockmanship from Dan, how to mend old fences, and build new ones. However, following the birth of our third child we realised we needed to develop a team around us – not only so we could build on the administration and strategy side of the farm, but to ensure we could spend more time with our family.
Currently, we employ three full-time staff - two block managers and a sheep and beef apprentice. That has allowed me to work on the business side of the farm. I’m also involved in wider industry and sector groups such as the B+LNZ Northern North Island Farmers Council, Open Farms NZ 2021, and GrassFed in the City where I reach out to non-farming kiwis to build the reputation of New Zealand sheep and beef farmers. I am hugely passionate about what our farmers do, and I want 5 million kiwis telling our story!
Why are women in farming so important?
When thinking about women in farming, whilst we have always played significant roles in both on-farm work and decision making, the Agri Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) has done a tremendous amount to lift the visibility and appreciation of this work. I am very lucky to be an AWDT Escalator alumni, it was a programme that turned my brain upside down and left me a much better person – a better listener, and a better thinker. I reckon you can spot an Escalator woman too – there’s a real focus on supporting and lifting up other women. We are not afraid of giving or receiving feedback, and we are also not afraid of promoting the voices of other women above our own and ensuring their messages get heard. Because leadership and governance roles for women have traditionally been few and far between, there has always been the risk of competition impacting on how women work together and share ideas. That’s no good for a sector like food and fibre, where the rate of challenge and disruption means that we need to be getting ideas out there as quick as possible to see what works and what doesn’t. I love the way AWDT fronts this and teaches women to embrace collaboration and being a cheerleader for others.
What is your advice to the industry to encourage more women?
A challenge now is to open more pathways for sector governance. For sheep and beef farmers in general, but particularly women, it feels as though there is still only a limited number of pathways to influence and lead for a resilient and sustainable sector. I think it’s probably easier if you work within a corporate context, where there are clearer pipelines. To ensure that we keep our sector vibrant and up to the challenges we have both now and, in the future, we must get more women into these existing pipelines, and create new ones. Diversity is about so much more than ticking boxes, or even getting a diversity of thought. It is about having decision-makers that look like our customers, our shareholders, our clients.
What is your advice to any young women considering a career in farming?
I would absolutely encourage young women who are interested in farming to enter our sector. Like lots of careers – whether policing, teaching etc, there are so many directions that your farming career can go in. I am a strong believer that if you follow your passion, you will end up being successful and satisfied with your career choices.
Farming for me is the ultimate vocation – it changes with the day, with the season, and with the year. What other job do you get the opportunity to practice medicine, be a strategist, an accountant, train a dog to respond with precision, lift heavy things, sweat, think, sit down with politicians, take your kids to work (put your kids to work!), write policy, manage a team, and produce something that nourishes people? How cool is that?!