Jenni Vernon’s love for the land and for livestock was forged as a small child, helping her grandfather feed out mangels on farm. Today, after more than four decades in farming and public sector leadership, she remains passionate about giving back to the industry.
So, she saw taking on the role of independent chair of the steering committee for the Hill Country Futures Partnership programme, as a “golden opportunity to do that”.
It’s a task she combines with her job as a Principal Adviser for the Ministry for Primary Industries and other governance positions including with the Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) and the National Fieldays Society. Jenni was also New Zealand’s first female Nuffield Scholar and the first woman chair of Environment Waikato.
With research work undertaken for the five year, $8.1m Hill Country Futures Partnership programme now drawing to a close, Jenni is looking forward to seeing the long-term outcomes for hill country farmers.
“This is only the beginning of the journey and that’s why I find it so exciting,” she says. “We have study sites all over New Zealand and people have been very keen to engage with the programme. The next step is to put all this science and research into tangible tools.
“A big part of it has been about recognising how valuable hill country farming is to New Zealand society and ultimately the work that has been done will also add value to our markets.”
The five year programme is co-funded by Beef + Lamb New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, PGG Wrightson Seeds and Seed Force New Zealand. It is focused on future proofing the profitability, sustainability and wellbeing of New Zealand’s hill country farmers, their farm systems, the environment and rural communities.
It incorporates traditional science research, farmer knowledge, social research and citizen science and has a strong emphasis on forages and providing decision-making tools to help farmers select the best forage option for different land management units.
“I see the project as important because hill country farming in the New Zealand scheme of things is often neglected,” says Jenni.
“When I was growing up, following my grandfather around in the Ruahine Hills, sheep and beef farming was front-of-mind when New Zealand agriculture was mentioned. Today, you hear more about dairy and kiwi fruit. But there is still a huge acreage of hill country farming that is very valuable to our economy and has some of the most unique rural communities.
“New Zealand needs hill country farming and we need future hill country farmers. The Hill Country Futures Partnership is about how we still have those rural communities and how we help the sector to remain profitable and resilient in the face of many challenges.”
Jenni originally trained as a teacher in Christchurch, where she also joined New Zealand Young Farmers, providing her first step into leadership and public speaking. In 1977, she was awarded a NZ Young Farmers Exchange trip to America to learn about US agricultural methods. She went on to become president of Young Farmers, where she “got to learn about farming from a national perspective”.
Jenni and husband Gordon have been farming together for 42 years – originally in dairy farming but now sheep and beef on a dry stock property in the Western hills of Waikato.
Being “hill country ourselves, although not steep hill country”, Jenni recognises the challenges that farmers face and the passion and values that drive them – and the tough decisions that sometimes need to be made.
“Being a hill country farmer isn’t easy. As a child I remember plucking wool off the barbed wire and even from a dead sheep because wool was 50 per cent of our income back then and every piece counted. Hill country farmers will be familiar with those conversations around the kitchen table about who is best to earn the ‘off farm’ income and who is best to stay on farm.”
It was “one of those kitchen table conversations” that led to Jenni taking an off-farm role with the National Party. She spent eight years as a divisional director, learning a lot about leadership, policy, politics and central government.
After returning to university in 1993, gaining a Masters degree in environmental management – she also has a post graduate diploma in environmental law - she took up the Nuffield scholarship.
“I had already done the Kellogg Rural Leadership programme and Nuffield was an amazing opportunity to represent New Zealand agriculture overseas – something I have now done on a number of occasions – and also to understand our place in the world and what a competitive world it is.
“I was a scholar alongside some amazing people, including a woman from Zimbabwe who was studying the Dutch flower industry. It made me really understand the fickleness of the consumer. How some countries and industries put great effort into producing a product but by the time it gets to market, interest has waned.”
Back in New Zealand and seeking a new leadership opportunity, she ran successfully for Waikato Regional Council.
“Regional councils are very important in farming and it seemed a good opportunity for me to stand for the rural community, as a farmer and continue to provide a rural voice at the table. I did that for 12 years, until 2007, including as chair of Environment Waikato. I loved it. It was an amazing opportunity and, in particular, the opportunity to work with Māori was a great privilege for me.”
Jenni went on to work in resource planning for the Waikato District Council, leading a district plan review and private plan changes. In 2017, she finally “took a gap year and went overseas to reconnect with Nuffield friends” before returning to the fray, taking on her AWDT role, joining MPI and agreeing to head the Hill Country Futures Partnership steering committee.
“Because I’m hill country, I understand the background,” she says. “One of my skills is that I like to work with everyone. I’m not a ‘consensus by veto’ type of person. I like to listen to people and work with them.
“I have also been very fortunate to work with an amazing team and steering committee.
Jenni is now looking forward to seeing results of the programme over the coming years.
“I’m excited about the opportunities around biodiversity and the forage landscape, including the potential to integrate natives shrubs as grazing fodder as part of integrated farming systems.
“We now have a national database, which will expand, and can be accessed to find if a plant will grow in a particular location. I think that will be of great value alongside the land classification tools and understanding what legumes and crops can be grown on hill country.
“It will support hill country farmers to become more versatile. As our most beautiful soils get gobbled up for urban living, hill country can become even more valuable and important in the scheme of the New Zealand primary sector. Opportunities may come from markets you don’t expect.”
Jenni also sees the social research undertaken as critical to the success of the programme.
“That included in-person interviews with over 300 stakeholders of which 169 were farmers, to actually ask them what they really need. What is the future of hill country, what is important to you, what support do you need, how are we going to encourage the next generation to be shepherds and equity owners and come back and work in partnership with their parents, how will Māori farming trusts inspire young Māori to continue to manage their land?
“A lot of that is intrinsic. It is about values and the passion hill country farmers have and the hard work they are prepared to put in. My passion and focus is for good governance and representing the rural voice – and it is vital to give a voice to those unique communities living out in the back of beyond.”