"You have to drive way bigger machines over here. We couldn’t get them in and out of the farms at home."
Southland rural contractor Daryl Thompson hired Leanne last year after renewing a contract with her boyfriend Kevin Lenihan, who had worked for him back in 2017.
Daryl said she has adapted well.
"Leanne is capable and keen and we are pleased to have her."
D Thompson Contracting employs more than 60 people at its seasonal peak and getting good workers could sometimes be a challenge.
Leanne’s father Eppy is a rural contractor in County Cork.
"To try and put me to sleep as a baby he’d put me in the tractor," she said.
She has been around machinery ever since. While not managing a dairy farm in Cork or doing relief milking, she spent her weekends helping her father, whose principal work was lime spreading, with silage, haymaking and digger work.
During winter it was just Leanne, her brother and father; in the spring and summer a couple of extra hands might be hired.
The biggest challenge in Southland was driving bigger machines, starting with a rake, then a bailer, than drawing bales.
"We would not have driven a four-rotor rake at home. The normal farm would have 150 to 200 cows."
Southland herds average more than 600 cows.
Leanne works with her boyfriend Kevin, alternating the tasks.
"If I’m on the bailer, he’s on the rake."
She says another challenge has been working with men.
"I’m often the only woman in the yard."
Leanne said her workmates have treated her "perfectly" and acknowledges it was mostly men in rural contracting back in Ireland too.
One thing she has observed here is the number of women truck drivers, which she finds encouraging because she thinks women have more of a role to play in contracting and farming in both countries.
"When I walk into a shop at home covered in cow s... they just look at you through their makeup."
Not that she’s averse to putting on the glad rags when time allows and she and Kevin have enjoyed a few breaks off the machines including visits to Queenstown.
"The social life here is great. We had St Patrick’s weekend in Queenstown. It was great craic."
Daryl said over the years he has employed one to two women a season from New Zealand or overseas as skilled machinery operators.
Most have proved very good workers, with almost all coming from farming or contracting backgrounds.
"None of them have been scared to pick up the grease gun or replace one of the tyres. The women from overseas and even from around here that are brought up on or around farms are great."
He also acknowledges women tend to take things a bit slower when advisable and are less demanding on machinery than younger males.
"If you put a female in the seat they’ll likely do much better than an 18 to 22-year-old male."
Rural Contractors New Zealand is encouraging more young women to consider rural contracting as a career through supporting initiatives such as Opportunities Grow Here.
Two of 10 finalists in the 2023 RCNZ Trainee Contractor of the Year are women. The organisation’s 2023 conference is being held from June 20 to 22 at Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill.
Copy: Rural Contractors New Zealand
