32 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Larissa & Scott Anderson From behind the Iron Curtain ... with love Richard Loader As a writer of stories, I look for those inspirational gems and occasionally nd a love story. Successfully farming in the Bay of Plenty with her husband Scott, Larissa Anderson’s story inspires, and is all about love. A seventies child, Larissa grew up in East Germany, about 35 kilometres east of the border, and near the Baltic Sea. It was a time when the Iron Curtain divided a nation from east to west, a time of co-operative and publicly owned farms, shortages and stringent controls throughout the east. For the rst six years of Larissa’s life, her unmarried parents chose to live apart in separate rural villages. “My mother lived in a Volkeigenes Gut – which is like a state-owned farm property. There was a cropping department, sheep, a piggery, cows and a poultry unit.” Entering school aged six or seven, children completed a ten-year programme and completed a two-year apprenticeship in any eld of work. The clever ones could also undertake a two-year University Entrance quali cation. Larissa always liked farming and has memories as a four-year-old going to the cow shed with her mother’s friend and helping her to feed the calves. “The cow would be tethered in the shed and you would have a portable milking machine that you hooked onto a line and milked two cows that you sat between on a wooden stool. Then you would unhook the machine and go to the next two cows.” Larissa’s parents decided to get together when she was six and was sometimes allowed to go with Introducing the new doberman puppy to calves. Larissa riding a pony watched by her grandmother on the home farm in East Germany. her dad to work. One of the leaders at a big farm co-operative, her father was involved in cropping and would go from place-to-place checking on the workers. “I also enjoyed spending time with the local vet in the summer holidays. My parents moved when I was ten and they had chickens, ducks, pigs and rabbits, so I was always hands-on with that. I was quite practical, and that never changed. I was a natural with the animals.” The harder that teachers and career advisers tried to persuade Larissa to take a different path from farming – something more gentle or girlie – the more her stubborn little toes dug into the ground! “That led me to do a three-year animal production apprenticeship, combined with University Entrance quali cation. This is part of the ten year general schooling when only four out of nineteen made the grade for University Entrance. “I was lucky to get the university space that I wanted in the agricultural sector. They took three applicantions for one space, and the university took 80% boys for this particular course.” Larissa completed a tough ve-and-a-half-year agricultural related degree in Germany commencing 1990, the year after the wall came down. In the middle of her studies she was accepted by the International Agricultural International Exchange Association, and took a gap year to Australia, working on a crop and sheep farm. It was there that she was introduced to Scott Anderson, a Kiwi who had been overseas for three years. “We instantly clicked. I went back to Germany to complete my degree and told Scott I would come back to Australia, but he said he would prefer it if I came back to New Zealand. The rest is history.” While Scott had grown up on a dairy farm, his parents thought there was no way he would go dairy farming – until Larissa’s gentle encouragement. Past winners of the Central Plateau’/Bay of Plenty Dairy Business of the Year (DBOY) Award, Scott and Larissa farm in the small community of Ngakuru, on a 105-hectare milking platform that is home to 400 cows. Larissa and Scott Anderson. WE ARE MORE THAN JUST MILKING SPECIALISTS with 24/7 Service Feel free to call in, visit our shop and discuss any requirements you have in regards to your dairy shed. DeLaval Service and Support milking solutions Ph 07 348 3628 19 White Street, Rotorua www.abcmilkingsolutions.co.nz Milking Machines Dairy Consumables Machine Tests Davey Supplier Trenching DeLaval InService (Preventative Maintenance) McConnel Backing Gates Water Pumps & Fittings E uent Systems Bore Lifts Irrigation Services Reid & Harrison
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