Females In Farming

Today I'm talking with Anthea at Females In Farming.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Anthea in New Zealand at Females in Farming. Good evening, morning, whatever it is for you, morning. Anthea, how are you? Good, thank you. How about yourself? I'm good. Your today is my yesterday.

00:29
Or your yesterday? My yesterday? My today? I can't do it. I had it straightened out earlier and I screwed it up. It is like 6 o'clock here and what time is it? Is it in New Zealand? It's 12 o'clock lunchtime, like on Friday. Yes. Thursday. Thursday, yes. I'm sorry. Again, it's like the TARDIS from Doctor Who.

00:58
So anyway, tell me about yourself and what you do at your place. Yeah. Well, I am a single homeschooling dairy farming mom, and we live in the North Island at the moment of New Zealand on a 400 cow dairy farm. We milk once a day. I've been part of the dairy farming industry for the past 16, 17 years now in various roles and areas all around New Zealand. So I love it.

01:27
Can't get enough of it So it's not just you milking 400 head a day, is it? No, no, these are team. These are team. So yeah, there's three of us on this farm Okay, cool Alrighty, um, my daughter just messaged and said they're doing fine for anyone who doesn't know my daughter lives in st Petersburg, Florida and the hurricanes getting closer and closer. So that's why I had to check I

01:54
Rarely check messages when I'm doing interviews, but this one was important. Okay. So how old is your little one? He's 11 now. Okay. He's already yeah, he's been on farm since the day he was born nearly And yeah, I mean we haven't been all the time on farm I said I step back a little bit for the first bit but at some point of Each season we've been out there doing stuff. So

02:22
Pretty much since birth he's been on the farm and he also loves it which I'm so pleased about because some kids don't but this one definitely does. Yes, it would be really hard if he hated it. I can't imagine trying to do what you're doing and having your child despise it because that would make life really difficult. So tell me about the beginning because I read your about part on your Facebook page and you weren't always a country girl.

02:52
No, no, I was brought up in the city in Auckland. And yeah, it was just a city girl through and through, I guess. I didn't even really know you could work on a farm until I was about 24 years old. So, it was quite a surprise to find myself working on a farm, but here we go. Fast forward, what, 17 years, and there's just no way I would ever live in a city again. So, it's amazing how life can change sometimes.

03:21
Yeah, without any notice sometimes. Um, so, so here in the States, it, it was not easy for women to become accepted in farming for a long time. And there is a YouTube channel that my husband watches cause he's very into all the machinery and her name, her, her YouTube channel is Laura Farms and she's probably only in her early twenties. And.

03:50
She works her ever loving heine off on her farm. And she drives all the big machinery and she has a barn cat that she loves. I can't remember its name. And she is so about proving herself. And I'm all for it. I really am. But I don't feel like women should have to prove themselves. I feel like they should just be able to do it if they wanna do it. So- I know.

04:18
Yeah. My point in sharing the story is that, has it been accepted in New Zealand for women to step into farming or has there been pushback? I think there is still that it's a man's job kind of a feel. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I'd say that women definitely don't get the same opportunities as what men do. All the same recognition. You'll see one of my posts, I'm not sure how far back you've looked, but...

04:46
One of my posts is about how women aren't just helpers on the farm. And a lot of my followers shared stories about their responsibilities and what they do on the farm and their frustrations at that issue of not really being seen for who they really are. So I don't think that we're fully accepted. I mean, we're accepted and it's okay to be there, but like we're not fully seen for what we do sometimes, I think. Yeah.

05:15
And I always find it very interesting because women, I can't remember the exact wording, but men are strong until they're not. Like I feel like they gas out quicker than women do. Women tend to be, there's a word, I can't think of it. Women are better at long-term physical activity, I think, than men are. Oh, right.

05:42
Yeah, more sort of like longer endurance, I guess. That's it. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Endurance. And and that makes sense to me having given birth to three children because it's it's it's hard work. And the first baby you have one. So you haven't had more yet. The first baby is scary and you have no idea what it's going to feel like. You have no idea what to expect. And and it hurts. You know.

06:10
It hurts to whatever your pain tolerance is. When I had my third baby, I did it no drugs. I went into the hospital. I got there at 10 minutes to seven in the evening and he was born 22 minutes later. No drugs, no nothing, never screamed, never swore, never even growled. Wow. I was just like, I know how this goes. I'm gonna do it. It's gonna be fine. And then. Yeah.

06:39
The nurse said, and the doctor didn't even get there in time. And the nurse said to me afterwards, she said, she said that was the most controlled violent birth I've ever seen. And it scared me when she said violent. And I said, what do you mean violent? And she said, it was so fast. She said it wasn't violent as in somebody died or got hurt, but it was just, you showed up, your water broke and there he was. She said, but you were so calm.

07:06
And I said, well, I did all the hard part at home. I said, and I knew he would be coming shortly or too sweet. And he did. And that was it. And she said, I have never seen a birth like that before. She said, you were a, you were a tiger. And I said, well, thank you very much. So, yeah, I mean, it just goes to show how much of a mental game life is. So, isn't it? You know, like we, we do the work at home, like you say, like we get ourselves prepared. We think, right, this is what we've got to do. And we just.

07:35
you know, you down tail up and we do it. Yeah, and I feel like women are incredibly strong. And I think that in the old days, we used to teach our little girls to like push that down and be softer and sweeter and nicer. And I think you can be soft and sweet and nice and strong at the same time. Oh, 100%, yeah, I completely agree with that. I couldn't say a bit of myself.

08:05
Yeah, and so when I saw your Facebook page and the name of your Facebook page, I was like, oh, I need to talk to her. I think we share the same heart on this. My daughter is 35 and she has been in some iffy situations with people and by people I mean men. And she has dealt with it in the most, I don't know, matter of fact.

08:35
way. She told me a story that she was at a concert. She was walking up the stairs into the venue and some guy grabbed her butt and she said she she turned around looked at him and said does that belong to you? And he on her he turned on his heel and walked the other direction. I was like who taught you that? She said you.

09:03
Yeah, yeah, they get that from somewhere. So girls don't have to be victims. They don't have to be weak. They can hold their own and they can do almost anything a man can do. Oh, and more, I think, and more because we have to do sometimes. Yeah, I mean, half of the men, I don't know if I should really say, but half of the men that farm out there, they have somebody.

09:32
to cook for them, to clean for them, to look after them, to take care of their house and their ad man and all the other bits and bobs that go along with farming and life. And then they just wake up and they just do what they have to. Like they do the easy part, whereas women have to, a lot of them have to do everything. They take care of the farms, they take care of the kids, they take care of the house. And I mean, that in itself is a full-time job, isn't it?

10:01
get everyone's food ready, get the bills paid on time, get everything clean, and it can be really full on, but I don't know, women tend to just be able to handle more, I think, and fit more into their days. Yes, exactly, and I do not want this to be bashing men, I want this to be pro women. So we're doing this as pro women, women are amazing. I also think that when

10:31
when you're coupled, whether you're male-male, male-female, female-female, I think when two people are running a household, it clearly makes it easier because there's two people bearing the burden of their lives. Absolutely. Everything's easier with more than one head. Yeah, I'm really lucky. My husband is fantastic. Actually, I told him I had this interview this evening and that I wanted to eat my dinner at like 3.30, which is really early.

11:01
because I wanted my food to settle because I still get a little anxious about interviewing people. And he was like, well, you pulled out the burger, right? And I was like, yeah, it's in the fridge. He said, okay, I will make something with the burger for me and the kid, the kid that's 22 who still lives here, our son. And you can go do what you need to do to get ready for your interview. And I was like, thank you so much. You're being supportive. I love it. So yes, having a partner is amazing.

11:31
That's so good though, but I mean, it's just about having a good support, like good support all around you. I mean, whether you're at work, at home, anything, you know, when you've got that good supportive, healthy individual around you, then all people team around you, then it does make life so much easier. Yes, exactly. Okay. So now we've been very pro women and couples make things easier and blah, blah, blah. Um, so you have, you have, I'm sorry, cattle, milk cows. Yes.

12:01
Deer cows, yep. Okay. So do you, I don't know what the laws are in New Zealand. Do you have to sell it to a co-op like we do here because raw milk isn't exactly the most welcome thing in the United States? Yeah. So there are different places that they can sell their milk in New Zealand. The most common place is to sell it to a dairy company.

12:31
There are a good handful or more of smaller farms that register with MPI, which is the Ministry of Primary Industries, and they sell their raw milk at the gate. So that's really cool because raw milk is accepted in New Zealand. I know that around the world, some places it's not, but we're very fortunate here. So we can buy it at the gate, but most farms sell it to a dairy company. So the tanker will come and pick up the milk daily.

13:01
And can you get raw milk at a grocery store or is that roundupon? Uh, no, it's not that, um, no. So the ones that sell it, you have to go to the farm and they generally have a vending machine and you can purchase a glass bottle and you just, you know, just like a can of Coke, you just put your money in and put your bottle there and it fills it up and away you go. That's awesome. We don't have that here. Here we have.

13:29
Here in Minnesota, raw milk is legal, but only if you go to the farm where the cow lives, where the cow has been milked, and the milk is in a tank, and the farmer has to be very careful about how he dispenses the milk into the container that you bring. That's how it works here. Oh yeah, yeah. Well, it sounds pretty similar. Yeah. I mean, I did buy some milk down in Tamarou a while ago. And yeah.

13:59
Filling out my bottle there, I could look through the window and I could see the cows milking in the shed there. So it sounds similar. Yeah. In the state that I grew up in, which is Maine in the United States, you can actually buy raw milk at stores. And not every grocery store carries it. There's a general store, as it were, down the road from where my parents live, and they sell it bottled.

14:26
And when we bought it from them, I was like, so what's the story here? Because it didn't used to be like this when I lived here. And the girl behind the counter said, where are you from? Cause you know, Maine's real, it's a very tourist state. And if you're not from Maine, you get treated slightly differently than if you're a native of Maynard. And I said, well, I live in Minnesota now, but I grew up in Maine until I was like 21 and she's like, oh, okay. So when was that? And I explained.

14:55
And she said, Oh, it's been legal to sell in stores for a few years. She said, but you cannot advertise that you sell it. Oh, I was like, Oh, okay. So there's different, yeah, there's different laws for different states here because the United States has regulations on everything and they're not always the same from state to state. Yeah. Well, you're crap.

15:21
over there, whereas we're just small down here. We just have one government that governs everything and one set of rules applies to everyone, so it makes it a bit easier. Yeah I was going to say it must be nice, but it also must be really weird. I would find that so bizarre because having grown up in the States and I'm 54, I think I would be very confused for the first year. Yeah, I don't know. It's okay.

15:48
Years ago, I found one end of the country and then I moved a few years later down to Southland, which is right down the bottom. And my neighbor was my old employer from at the other end of the country. So it can be quite small here in New Zealand. They say there's only two degrees of separation between everyone, which rings very true sometimes, but it's okay. It's all I've known. So I couldn't imagine living in somewhere.

16:18
I would love to visit one day, but yeah, the size of America is quite enormous, really. It's gargantuan, yes, compared to New Zealand for sure. Okay, so what kind of predators does New Zealand have that might hurt your cows? Nothing. Nothing, okay. Absolutely nothing. That's half of the reason why I love it and I stay here. Because I have seen... Excuse me.

16:48
I have seen in some Facebook groups in years gone by that, you know, our farmers over in the States have to carry firearms because they have these creatures that come and attack the animals. And I'm like, I couldn't handle that. Having some cat or wild dog or I don't know, snakes, anything like that. Bears, yes, yeah, anything like that. I don't think I'd be able to leave the house in the dark if I knew something like that was lurking around.

17:17
So you guys don't have poisonous snakes in New Zealand? No. Oh, okay. So is it Australia that has all the scary things? Yes, definitely Australia. Australia has a lot. I lived in Australia when I was young, around 20, for about four years. And yeah, there's lots of snakes and spiders and scorpions and all sorts over there. But we...

17:44
Fortunately don't have that over here in New Zealand. So yeah Awesome. I'm coming to New Zealand Exactly, okay, well that shoots my my predator question all the hell Yeah, so if you have if you have dairy cattle, then you must breed them Yes, so we run a yearly system so most farms

18:13
We carve once a year in spring. And that means that as our grass starts to grow and the animal needs to be fed, the grass is there, ready to be eaten. So we carve once a year and then after carving on usually the second or third cycle, like the cow cycle, we will start mating. So usually, well, we start mating here next Monday, so in a few days time.

18:44
up to 12 weeks, every farm is really different. It depends on the system and their goals as well. So yeah, and then some farms also carve and mate twice a year. So in autumn, they will carve again and they're the winter milking farms. So they'll milk all year round. So they sort of carve a smaller amount during autumn just to keep the milk supply going through winter. Okay, and a cow is pregnant for a year, is that right?

19:13
Nine months basically. Okay. Yeah, just like a human. And she cycles every 21 days. Okay. Cool. See, I don't know much about cows. I just know that I'm in love with the calves. I always have been. I know, they're so cute. Our calves are still being fed at the moment. So it's a good job getting to go and see the calves.

19:41
Yes, my grandpa lived down the road from family friends that had a dairy farm and they had babies in the spring. My parents would have us stop in when the calves were two days old to a week and a half old. The guy would have us kids go out to see the calves. My fondest memory of the calves is he would be like, you can go in with them.

20:09
and they weren't that big, you know, it was fine. Yeah. And they would suck on our fingers and it was just the cutest thing and the weirdest feeling and it was just adorable. I loved it. I wish, I wish that video cameras had been a real common thing when I was that age because I wish that my parents had gotten video of us kids in with the calves. Yeah, it's really cool. My son loves it. Even at a leave-in, he still loves going to see the calves.

20:39
And he's always in there and they suck him and like his clothes and all sorts of stuff. He just loves it. They're so sweet. I mean, every spring when we're out running errands, we live in a countryish area. Clearly we're a tiny homestead. So we live in cornfields and soybean fields. And there's always somebody with cows. And I watched all April and May for the calves to show up.

21:07
And the first one I see, I'm like, it's a grass puppy. And my husband's like, you have seen a billion of them. I'm like, it doesn't matter. It's a grass puppy. Exactly. No, it doesn't matter how many you see. They're always so cute. And it's always an exciting time of fun when you start carving. Yeah, absolutely. And people who don't understand the joy of the first grass puppy in the spring or the full moon every month or the smell of cut grass are missing out on life, I swear.

21:36
Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you can't slow down and appreciate the simple things, then I think you're living life in the fast lane. And it's, yeah, that's not where I live. I like to take the time and smell the roses, so to speak. Yeah. One of the things that I had never seen that I saw this summer was the northern lights, because it was low enough in the state so I could see the northern lights. And that was so cool.

22:04
That was probably the same time I saw the lights down here as well. It was a really strong display. Yeah. And yeah, it was, I'll bet you it was the same time. It was amazing. I was down south at that stage actually. And so they've got a dark sky reserve down in the Mackenzie district. And I went, I don't know, probably 40 minutes from home, up into the middle of nowhere. And

22:31
It was just incredible. It was amazing. I think I cried at one stage. It was so amazing. It's always been on my to-do list and the display was just breathtaking. Yeah, the solar flares are not a great thing to have happen, but boy, they produce some really beautiful visuals. Yeah, yeah, they sure did. And anyone who was in the city couldn't see them. So I'm glad I live in the country and I'm glad that you are a country girl now because you got to see them too.

23:01
No, yeah, it was amazing. Yup. Um, okay. So I don't know what else to ask you. Um, you love what you're doing. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. I'll be doing this for the rest of my life, I think, or as long as I can anyway. What's your, what's your favorite part? I'm sure that's going to be like choosing a favorite child, but what's your favorite part?

23:29
Um, oh, I don't know. Yeah, I couldn't really say. I just like all of it. You know, you just, at the start, I used to have bits that I didn't like and bits that I really liked. But I don't know, you just sort of get to the point where you just know that everything has to be done. And it just is what it is. So I just enjoy all of it. I just chose to just enjoy all of it, you know. Yeah, I feel like once you get into this, whether it's gardening or

23:58
raising cattle or goats or sheep or whatever is your raising, it just becomes routine. It becomes the way you live your life. That's right. People say that dairy farming isn't a job, it's a lifestyle and that's so correct. You know, you can do this if you didn't enjoy getting up early and having the spontaneity during calving of not knowing what time you're going to get home.

24:25
You just, you have to embrace it all, don't you? Yeah and I mean I've said this a few times, well maybe more than a few times on the podcast, but any kind of farming is hard work, but it's good work. It just takes a certain kind of person to embrace it.

24:43
Yes, absolutely. And I think I wish that more people would sort of think about where their food came from and what went into their food, you know, the hard work, the dedication, you know, the knowledge and physically what goes into your food, you know, because not all food is created equally. Because it's really important. And we only seem to have sort of a small amount of the population these days that actually produces the food for all of us. So

25:12
Yeah, it does take a special kind of person, but it would be good to see more people getting into it. Well, the good news is there's a huge movement of people in the world right now who are very interested and who are taking steps to get into it. So I'm doing all I can to encourage it by talking to people like you and other people on the podcast. And everybody's like, yes, it's hard work, but these are all the great things that come with it.

25:41
Yeah, the rewards are so big, so huge, and it's so satisfying. Yeah, I, um, our, our, our garden, our farming this year has not been very satisfying. Um, we had a terrible growing season all over the United States. I don't know. I don't know what kind of news you follow regarding United States, but the weather has been freaking crazy here since April. Oh no, that's no good. For us.

26:10
It rained for a month and a half in the time we were supposed to be planting the garden. Oh, oh no. Yeah, so our beautiful, gorgeous garden that has produced beyond measure for the last three summers did all summer long, it did nothing. Yeah, oh my gosh, imagine the farmers because they'll be facing the same things except on a much larger scale. Uh-huh, yeah, it's been...

26:39
It's been rough. A lot of people have had a hard time. And then there's people like the guy who grows the cornfield around our property whose corn did great. They just harvested it yesterday. It looked fantastic. I'm like, why? Why did your cornfield do so great? But our garden just fell apart. Yeah. Oh, that's that's that's not really too fair, is it? But hopefully you get a bit of growing through the next year. I am.

27:07
I'm not a praying girl, but I'm praying. I might have to hit my knees in February and be like, could we please have tomatoes and cucumbers this year, please? Yeah, exactly. So we'll see what happens. It's just been crazy. My husband will be putting the gardens to bed in the next week because there's some tomato plants out there that did produce and that's about it. It's a big humongous, humongous, can't talk.

27:35
weed bed right now. So he's going to be doing all the getting things closed down for winter in about two weekends now. That's right. Because you're in autumn, aren't you? Or fall. Yep. We're just going to kiss this one goodbye and pray for a better one next year. Yeah. That's what you can do sometimes, isn't it? Yeah. It's been awful. I can't believe how crazy this has been, but it's okay.

28:04
We're not dependent on it, so it's okay. But I'd really like to have my canned tomato sauce back next year, that would be great. Yeah, I always taste so much Bito when you make yourself. It sure does. All right, ma'am, I'm being silly because I am out of questions because I have already talked to people about cows, but I wanted to talk to you because women are amazing.

28:28
And I don't know who says it to you, and they probably don't say it often enough, but I'm proud of you for being an accomplished young woman trying to take care of your cows and your kid and have a life. Thank you, thank you. That's very kind of me to say. It's hard, I know it's hard, and you need all the encouragement and I don't know what the word is. You need all the encouragement you can get, I think.

28:56
Absolutely. It's always nice to hear because you do just kind of plod along in life and yeah people kind of forget what you do sometimes but that's okay. I'm not doing it for them so I'm doing it for me and my son. Well keep doing it because you're doing an important thing. Thank you. Yes I am. Thank you so much for your time and Thea I appreciate it. It's been lovely to talk to you. Thank you. Have a great night. You too. Bye. Okay see ya.