Clare Officer reckons she was lucky to be raised in a family of three girls, with a father who empowered them to "do everything" — including farming.
Clare, who was brought up on a dairy farm in the United Kingdom, always wanted to be a farmer and she felt fortunate to have been able to pursue that goal.
Clare and her Scottish-born husband John came to New Zealand in 2006 and worked their way up the sharemilking ladder. They moved to Southland eight years ago and purchased their farm a year ago.
They came to New Zealand for opportunities, greater than managing her family’s dairy farm at home where the profit margin was either minuscule or non-existent.
Initially thinking they would give it five years, the couple had now been here for 17 years and had "never looked back".
"It’s just such a great place to bring up kids," she said.
With four children aged between 9 and 14, Clare has been heavily involved with her children’s schools, including parent organisations, helping coach netball and helping on school camps.
She has been on the governance group and part of the organising committee for the South Island Dairy Event for the past four years, stepping down at the most recent event in Invercargill in June.
She is also on the Southern Dairy Development Trust, representing farmer stakeholders in the Southern Dairy Hub and it was nice to be involved in such a great initiative in Southland; to have that research capability in the South and to be able to do research on such a scale, she said.
Clare and John endeavoured to encourage school pupils to pursue farming as a career. She is involved with Great South, Southland’s regional development agency, which looked to give school-age youth experience at workplaces.
She has done talks in schools about agriculture as a career and hosted groups on the farm. The farming industry was desperately short of staff and it was a great industry with so many opportunities, she said.
Having downsized to a smaller farm, Clare was worried she might be "bored" and so she took on a 16-hour a week role with Thriving Southland just over a year ago.
Having been involved with her local catchment group in Dipton, she took on a part-time position supporting catchment groups in the South with the great work they were doing.
From 18 groups three years ago, there were now 35 in Southland that now came under the umbrella of Thriving Southland and it was all about community and empowering people on the ground to make positive change and get knowledge.
There was something very special about being involved in a rural community.
"I just try and do my bit and give back a wee bit, and just really enjoy it."
Clare’s nominator described her as an excellent dairy farmer who encouraged young people in farming and gave them opportunities, particularly young women. She was a great role model for young female farmers on what can be achieved with some hard work and good farming practices.
In their own farming business, Clare runs the dairy farm, which will milk 480 cows this year, and John looks after the run-off.
She milks four or five times a week and looks after the team of staff, which were mostly female. Being a female boss tended to attract female applicants.
She still loved the hands-on side of farming and she loved the cows — "that’s why I became a dairy farmer" — while she also loved seeing staff grow, learn and also get excited about the industry.
"I’ve always been of the belief we can do everything just as well as a guy," she said.
Their business philosophy was it had to be sustainable for everyone — the business, cows, environment and their people. When they bought their farm, they downsized the cow numbers that they previous share-milked for long-term sustainability. — Sally Rae
