Federated Farmers Podcast

Running a 2000-cow dairy operation across 524 hectares is a big enough challenge, but Jared Crawford and his wife Sara decided to add another by buying a craft brewery and restaurant.
As lower-order sharemilkers for FarmRight near Geraldine, Jared and Sara have built a high-performing dairy business with a strong focus on people, earning a reputation for developing and retaining great staff. 
Beyond the farm gate, Jared also represents sharefarmers with Federated Farmers at both the South Canterbury and national level, giving him a unique perspective on the issues facing the sector.
In this episode, we talk about building a successful dairy business, the importance of backing your team, why advocacy matters, and the story of how a few drinks over dinner somehow turned into owning a brewery. 
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In a region where plenty of productive farmland has disappeared into pine trees, two farming couples are doing something uncommon – turning a forestry block back into a working farm.
Sam and Gemma Hain, and Matt and Kate Long, have just taken ownership of a 400ha property planted almost entirely in young pines. 
In this episode, Sam explains why they took on the challenge, how they plan to pull it off, and why sending cattle back onto the land was one of the best days of his life. 
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Technology is playing an increasingly important role in farm succession, helping families share knowledge, make better decisions and bring the next generation into the business sooner.
Someone seeing that firsthand is Caitlin Barnett, Gallagher's Regional Lead for eShepherd across Australasia, who works with farmers adopting virtual fencing and other on-farm technologies.
In this episode, Caitlin discusses how technology is changing the way farming knowledge is passed between generations, who's embracing it, whether it can ever replace decades of experience, and the parts of farming that simply can't be digitised.
She also takes on our quickfire questions, sharing one thing farmers should stop doing, keep doing and start doing.
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Sandra Faulkner has spent decades giving back to rural New Zealand. Now, she's stepping into one of the biggest leadership roles in farming as Federated Farmers' new vice president.
In this episode, Sandra talks about how growing up in an extremely isolated part of the East Coast shaped her passion for disaster preparedness and resilient rural communities. She reflects on her time working in the UK and Australia's Northern Territory before returning home to New Zealand to take over Wairakaia Station with her husband, Rob.
Sandra also shares what motivates her, the mentors who've shaped her leadership, and what she hopes Federated Farmers can achieve for Kiwi farmers over the next few years.

 
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Who is Colin Hurst, the new president of Federated Farmers? How did he go from being the quiet kid at the back of the room to leading the country's largest farming advocacy organisation?
Colin joins the Federated Farmers Podcast to share his journey into farming and advocacy, what gets him fired up, the leadership style he wants to bring to the role, and his vision and priorities for the next three years.

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