| 73 nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Sofus & Jacqui Hahn Jacqui Hahn relieving in the shed. An avalanche of legislation, fast and furious Karen Phelps Nearing the end of her three-year term as President of Federated Farmers Waikato Jacqui Hahn has one word to sum up the past three years: stressful. During her term farmers in the region have had to deal with multiple droughts and floods as well as navigate the varying levels of Covid-19 regulations. “The last three years had been extremely challenging trying to keep everything going,” she says. “There has also been a continued avalanche of legislation, fast and furious, with very little time to respond and consult with members.” The lack of face-to-face contact has been especially hard for farmers. For example during the pandemic Jacqui couldn’t meet with her new administrator so the whole training process happened remotely. Federated Farmers Waikato is now onto its third administrator in as many years so it’s been a constant challenge. Likewise sector area executive and industry groups couldn’t meet and everyone was locked on the farm so Zooms became the new normal. Needless to say mental health issues came to the fore for some farmers presenting additional challenges. Last year a farmers’ day held in June in conjunction with the Waikato Ballance Farm Environment Awards, after the drought that had plagued the region, helped farmers to reconnect. There were numerous speakers, each with a 15 minute platform then opening to questions from farmers, with a barbeque. It was so successful that Jacqui hopes the same event may be held again this year. Part of Federated Farmers’ role is to educate and help farmers to connect. For example the farmers’ day included useful information to help farmers to adapt to climate change, encouraging them to talk to each other and share solutions.” Farming in Te Kuiti, Jacqui and husband Sofus have three dairy farms totalling 540ha milking 1420 cows. There is also 300ha of grazing blocks with dairy beef and sheep and a little forestry. Succession planning has always been a priority for the couple and their children have attended farm business meeting from childhood. “Too many farmers leave it until they retire to start talking to their families. If they want good succession planning they need to be open with their kids who need to really understand the business and the challenges. Any serious relationships our children have we expect their partners to work on farm as well so they understand the challenges too. We hope from this process there shouldn’t be any issues with those not working on the farm not understanding what is actually involved with running a farm. There is money coming in but a lot is going out too. It’s stressful and not just a big pay packet at the end of the week,” she says. Daughter April and husband Troy are contract milkers on one dairy unit and plan to go 50:50. Son Finn is seeing where his rugby playing takes him then will probably return to the farm in three years. Daughters Sonja, a midwife, and Emma, who is studying in Denmark, are also kept in the loop. Jacqui and Sofus plan to go travelling for six months after she finishes her Federated Farmers role: We’ve rarely had a day off and it’s about time we took some time off for ourselves.” 83 Kio Kio Station Rd, RD4, Otorohanga Ph: 07 873 1800 Mob: 029 833 0011 Email: johnclarkcontracting@xtra.co.nz Meat work processing plants www.actionelectrical.co.nz
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