03 May 2022

Perspectives from the Paddock

Tōna Hinonga. Her Calling.

Writer: AS TOLD TO CARLY THOMAS

Photographer: FRANCINE BOER

Sarah Swinbourn, 34, gets stuck in the finer details of farming. A farmer herself, Sarah’s job as a Technical Field Representative for PGG Wrightson in Otago means her passion for helping farmers blends seamlessly into her day-to-day. Here, she shares a bit about what life’s like in her patch.

Walk us through your average day. No two days are exactly the same. My role covers all aspects of farm inputs. Autumn is when I am weighing crops, to measure how much feed farmers have ahead of them for their livestock over winter. But the main part of my role, and the bit I really love, is agronomy – growing the crop. I look at a paddock, dig a hole and see what is happening so I can make recommendations on structure, weeds, pests or nutrients. I also spend a lot of my day walking around in crops with my magnifying glass looking for bugs – good and bad. I answer my phone at all hours, seven days a week. I am here to help farmers, I know what is going on in their lives. If they need support I offer it, or find someone that can. I have a lot of conversations around the bonnet of my ute and half the time my job doesn’t feel like work.

Is farming a big part of your home life, too? Yes, it’s very much about the farm. James and I work this farm with his father, and the things I do at work are the things I do here. I chose this lifestyle because I love it. Nothing beats going for a drive around the farm with James to brainstorm. This farm was a doer-upper, so every year we make progress and that is very satisfying. I also love my community here. We have an annual crop competition as a Lions Club fundraiser because, you know, you can’t just grow your winter feed around here – you have to see who is the best! I volunteer every year to help them to weigh and it’s great to be involved. There are bragging rights up for grabs!

Where did you get your passion for farming? I grew up in Queenstown and didn’t come from a farming background. I went off to university to study sports nutrition. I was halfway through that when I met my partner, James. James worked down south on a farm – I spent every weekend there and got a crash course in farming. I loved it more than I loved what I was doing at uni, but I knuckled down and finished my degree with honours before going to Australia with James to muster cattle. I came back knowing my career in nutrition was out the window.

How did you end up in your current job? I started at PGG Wrightson nine-and-a-half years ago as the girl behind the counter at the Gore store before becoming a manager at the Heriot branch. I briefly managed the Lawrence store until the branch closed. At that time, I suggested they put a rep on the road here. They said, “Sure, Sarah, how about you do that?” I laughed – I hadn’t meant me! But knowing they had confidence in me made me think, “Yeah, why not? Let’s go for it.” I was given my ute and my laptop and told to ensure the clients I used to serve in Lawrence would be looked after. It was a little bit of a baptism by fire.

What’s the hardest part about your work? Mother Nature is not very motherly and that can be difficult. Sometimes I need to have hard conversations where we have tried everything, but it’s not worth investing any more and we must accept that a crop has failed because of factors outside of our control. Every conversation I have with a farmer starts with the weather.

The PGG Wrightson store you work at in Miltzon is an all-women team. Tell us about that. We all get on like a house on fire. We sometimes get the comment, “Don’t you need a guy in there?” but no, we really don’t. We are all practical, level-headed and capable women. We don’t take offence when things need to be said and we just move on and get things done. We have each other's backs, too, and we just slot in wherever we are needed.