76 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » River Terrace Dairy & Ealing Pastures Rebecca and Brent’s passion and high degree of care for their 10 staff, Passion for farming Judging by her passion and motivation, Rebecca Miller is clearly a rolling stone who gathers no moss. Along with her husband Brent, the 2023 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year finalist and mother to their three teenage children could rightly be described as a change agent. Also a communicator, YouTube content creator and community connector, as well as being highly engaged in the wider industry which includes a long involvement with Dairy Women’s Network, Rebecca is the current Federated Farmers national sharefarmer vice chairperson. She was also the 2021 Westpac Emerging Leader Award recipient for Canterbury across all businesses and a 2018 Kellogg Rural Leadership programme scholar. It is the second time she has been nominated to enter the Dairy Woman of the Year award. “It was really amazing; I feel that even though I didn’t win, the presence that I have out there now is phenomenal. I feel the message that I am trying to get out there slowly but surely is that welfare aspect of ‘Farmily’ and I feel that the more it gets out there, even presence-wise from the Dairy Woman of the Year, is massive.” Farmily is a trademarked concept coined by Rebecca and Brent that relates to how they see their business and the team they employ on two large-scale farms near Ashburton that operate under their company MilkIQ. They contract milk Ealing Pastures, supporting 1385 cows on 477 hectares, while their home farm, River Terrace Dairy, milks 1150 cows on 361 hectares and is operated under an equity partnership/variable order sharefarmer agreement. Rebecca and Brent’s passion and high degree of care for their 10 staff, who they refer to as team members not workers, is rooted in the many situations they worked in during the past 20 years. Russell Fredric “We realised early on that it’s not just about us, it’s about our people; we learnt on those operations how we were treated as part of a team.” “We’ve operated on many different types of farms, from corporate to family to quite large operations, to smaller family operations from the North Island to the South Island from system two, three and four. “We realised early on that it’s not just about us, it’s about our people; we learnt on those operations how we were treated as part of a team.” There were “pain points” and the realisation that although people could be good at the practical aspects of their work, there tended to be a lack of understanding and coaching on how to interact well with people, Rebecca says. From their experience, Rebecca and Brent learnt a lot in relation to their duty of care of their people, consequently they have developed a culture that is inclusive and consultative rather than being based on hierarchy. “Brent and I learnt early that it’s not just the words we say, it’s how we say it.” Despite the importance they place on production and key performance indicators across the farm businesses, they have regarded focusing on recruiting, training and mentoring their team and for them to have all the tools and time needed to do their work well as a strategic and a tactical cornerstone of the business. Rebecca’s typical workday includes collaborating with Brent in administration, strategic planning, overseeing the milking shed and seasonal operations such as drying off, team meetings, payroll and health and safety, and developing a primary industry website named Landeve and Mum to 3 teenage children. She is also studying towards being a holistic life coach and mind-body practitioner and is keenly aware of the pressure farmers are feeling. “At the moment we are in a state of continual flux and change with the amount of pressure that we’re getting; I’m hearing a lot of that out there.” “What we are trying to achieve through Farmily is making sure we’ve got wellbeing on farms, and what are the key aspects of that.” Mathiesons Chartered Accountants | Employment Relations
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