December 31 2011

It's 10am, the men are in for morning tea.

There's a home-made loaf and a plate of home-made biscuits on the table.
The talk is farm talk, three generations of it.
This could be any farm in any part of New Zealand, but it's not, this ownership team includes one of New Zealand's most high profile rural women, Federated Farmers national meat and fibre spokesperson, Jeanette Maxwell.
She's high powered, no nonsense, talks with passion, moves at speed.
The words, slow and deliberate, have no place in her life. Jeanette is a woman on the move, a woman who knows where she's going and a woman who has the happy knack of keeping half a dozen balls in the air at once.
But underneath this ball of energy is a woman who is essentially every woman – she's a wife, mum and, most of the time, she's happy to be called a farmer's wife. Just don't call her Mrs Alister Maxwell.
From childhood to her position as one of the most powerful women in rural politics it's been a complex journey.
She was a city kid who became a town girl when her parents moved to Ashburton.
Her passion was design and that's where she hoped to make a living.
It didn't quite work out that way.
She's been a nanny, worked with a kite designer, did a stint in advertising and design, trained as a vet nurse and finally became a farmer.
She never quite made it to university to study design, something kept getting in the way.
As the oldest child of five children born in quick succession, Jeanette says she learned the importance of hard work, competition and independence. And having four siblings nipping at her heels also meant she spent a fair bit of time with her grandmother, a woman whom she says had a huge influence on the person she is today.
And that person she admits is driven, has a constant need to be challenged and has the makings of a workaholic.
She blames that tendency on her grandmother and her father.
Unlike most women of her time, her grandmother worked fulltime, was the family breadwinner to accommodate a husband who was unable to work after the war.
"Those women lived through some very tough times and it made them very strong women. My grandmother was a good example to me and I know I'm a lot like her – very vocal and very strong. And my dad's a workaholic too, so it was inevitable really that I would be, and that I'd get into leadership positions. Dad's passed retirement age and I've asked him why he doesn't leave work but he says it would kill him, he'd get bored."
Her first brush with leadership came as a 17-year-old Ranger. She was asked to become an assistant leader, said yes and was hooked.
Her involvement in farm leadership, however, did not come until about seven years ago.
While she was on a host of committees, her life was very much wrapped up in the farm and motherhood. She was immersed in her children's activities, worked on the farm but was beginning to feel the frustration of knowing she wanted to do more, to be challenged and to tackle bigger things.
"I wanted more than being a farmer's wife. I was unsettled and I wanted challenges and that's why I started with Feds."
She had been a Federated Farmers member for years, but when an ECan wetlands plan came up for discussion, she knew she wanted to be involved in ensuring the plan was one that would work for farmers.
She became part of the team that would take the issues raised and show how impractical they were.
They had some wins but there were also areas where the Feds team had to back down.
"I suppose in some ways my mother tiger instinct stepped in because I wanted to make sure I protected our farm for my kids."
Whatever the reasons, Jeanette was inspired by her first brush working with federated farmers' policies.
She learned about the yawning gap between policy makers and those on whom the policies would impact and she learned that a way had to be forged between the two.
Feds might have been very much a man's domain, but Jeanette didn't care, she was determined to have her say.
And people listened. In 2006 she won a place on a Kellogg leadership study course and attended her first Feds meat and fibre conference.
The following year she found herself on the national executive and became the first woman to chair the Mid Canterbury section.
That she was a woman, making big waves in a traditionally male domain, didn't bother Jeanette and it didn't bother her fellow members.
Feds consumed increasing amounts of her time and she admits there are times now when she misses the farm, but the challenge and the knowledge that she's working to get the best deals possible for industry she loves, make that sacrifice whorthwhile.
Some of the legislation that's put up for debate is "draconian" and without solid industry input would be hugely detrimental to farming, she says.
She's recently been appointed national spokesperson for feds meat and fibre section.
That's a three year appointment.
"Whether she continues to move up the organsiation's ladder, it's a bit early to say.
"But I know I have to be careful because I know this could quickly consume my life and I'm beginning to realise that too much time in Wellington can make you cynical."
The objective of the current board is to become involved in issues and actions when they're in the planning stages, before legislation is developed, rather than in a reactionary way further down the track.
"The wins are better when you go in, in a proactive way and work with organisations and people. Going to select committees is a real skill, it's all about how you use your skills and answer questions. The hardest thing for me is to keep my passion out of it and to be analytical."
There's also a huge amount of homework needed and that absorbs many hours of farm time.
Jeanette's heart might be on the farm but recently she's been spending at least one day a week in Wellington.
"I don't mind doing the Wellington thing and in some ways I'm different to the guys on the board.
"At the end of the day I still have a husband and children and a farm to come back to. Kids keep you really grounded. Dads can come and go in and out of families, but I don't believe kids ground dads as much as they do mothers."
She's also the farm accountant and planner.
"Farming is now very much a business with all the legal compliances, council compliances, wetland compliances and everything, you need to be up with all of that as well as being a farmer; you can't just be a farmer today. I do all the management planning and things like OSH compliance, but we do the budgeting together."
She's already a well-known name in farming circles, and in her new position she has three years of challenges ahead.
What's after that is anyone's guess, but Jeanette says the future will involve more than staying home on the farm. Making her way off-farm, however, has brought a few headaches.
"I'll be honest, it's not always been easy, it's been rough at times, but Alister knew I needed to be out there doing things, being involved.
"I've been very lucky, most men don't want to play second string to their wife. He's the opposite to me. He's the quiet intellectual who's a deep thinker."
It's not unsurprising that at 44 she's already planning for the day she and Alister hand over the running of their farm to the next generation. Succession that's fair to all of your kids, is a big issue for every farm family, she says.
"You're talking big money and you have to make it fair for all of your children. Fear of debt stops a lot of farm children taking on the family farm."
And that's why she can be found most mornings out in the paddock feeding calves. She calls them her retirement fund.
The Maxwell farm is nestled under the foothills.
There's a different view every day with changing weather patterns and seasons. It's a place Jeanette loves.
The farm is second generation. Alister's dad George is part of the team; the jury is still out on whether any of the third generation George, Gabrielle and Rory will carry on the farming tradition.
That's up to them, there will be no pressure, there are no expectations.
George bought the foothills block in 1973 and it's farmed pretty much the same way as it was back then – sheep, cattle and greenfeed crops. It's a 300-hectare farm, but only 250 of that is effective farmland. The remainder is in wetlands and forestry.
There're no hints that the Maxwells will follow many of their peers into dairying. Yes the returns are high but so are the inputs and so is their debt loading, Jeanette says.
The big thing that dairying has done for farming generally, however, is open the way for new people to enter the industry, she said.
"It's got a very clear pathway. You can come in at the bottom, work and build your way up. There's not the same path in sheep and beef. There you've really only got equity partnerships or succession."
It's taken tenacity to stick with arable farming over the past few years when returns have been depressed.
If you're committed to the sector, you take the hits, dig in and look at ways to farm smarter, Jeanette said.
While she'd shrug off the title 'domestic goddess' Jeanette is no slug when it comes to traditional rural women's roles, in the kitchen and in the garden.
Her cupboards are stacked with jams, pickles and preserves and her vegetable garden is vast, thriving and getting larger.
The foothills climate might be against her but she works around that with tunnel houses, growing virtually every vegetable the family needs and more.
It's stuff that needs to be done and in typical no-fuss fashion, Jeanette admits that if she has to do it, then she'll do it as well as she can.
She still has time for the small things, teaching Sunday school, serving on committees, running kids to and from events and she still has time for a few close girlfriends.
But when your interests and your involvements are away from home, maintaining friendships is not always easy.
"A lot of girls just don't get this," she says.
She's involved in her community, plays golf and has been a soccer and gymnastics coach.
In the winter, she skis, but ever the super-active achiever, Jeanette says she needs to play more sport.
"I believe if you're physically active then you're at your mental peak."

Pictured: Jeannette Maxwell is right at home on the farm.

Photos Kirsty Graham