■ Otakiri’s Bridie Virbickas is a finalist in the Emerging Leader category of the 2025 Primary Industries NZ Awards, which celebrate movers and shakers in primary industries. She talks to rural reporter Paul Charman ahead of the awards ceremony in Christchurch later this month.

Bridie Virbickas seems to represent the positive new face of the New Zealand dairy industry.

A single woman running a substantial dairy farm, she is well versed in the industry’s technical complexities, environmental challenges and leadership roles, albeit alongside a simple recipe for success.

“Happy cows, happy staff, happy dogs enjoying themselves in nature.”

It’s the kind of philosophy bound to appeal to youngsters eyeing a career in pasture farming.  In this respect, Ms Virbickas exemplifies the type of employer likely to make the idea of farming more appealing to the young.

“In this industry if you are open to learn you will get mentoring, help and advice. My worker, Emma, is in her fourth season – she has been with me since she was 18.

“I have been farming for 10 years, so I know how hard it can be, how isolating and how tired you can get. As for the mental challenge, we can put too much pressure on ourselves and get into some hard places.

“For me, I really want my staff to be as happy as they can and flourish. You must remember that they live on the farm, they can’t leave. So, when it’s their time off, I completely leave them alone. That’s even to the point I don’t put cows near their house. In the morning, there’s not a motorbike near their house.”

The former Trident High School head girl has farmed at Otakiri for 10 years, relishing the outdoor life alongside her cows, springer spaniel dogs and team of three staff.

As contract milker, she has seen the family farm she manages expand to a neighbouring property, growing the herd from 270 cows to 850. The present configuration of two 22-a-side herringbone sheds is to be replaced by a new 50-bail rotary being built next to the feed pad.

“It’s a huge step in the right direction with me being able to do many other things,” she said.

“We all work hard but much of our time is taken up in the cowshed. The rotary will benefit the whole farm. We are going to do the same hours, but more is going to get done. At present a lot of maintenance is delayed as you literally don’t have the time.”

Ms Virbickas went farming after gaining a science degree at Massey and then spent three years working for a fertiliser company as a rep and team leader.

Showing boundless enthusiasm for her industry, she completed an Institute of Directors finance and governance essentials course and was selected to serve a year as a DairyNZ associate director.

Recently, she became the Federated Farmers’ Bay of Plenty share farmer chair. She has helped to sort out a couple of Bay of Plenty sharefarmer/farm owner disputes and says Federated Farmers’ workshops on managing share farming risks have had good turnouts. She led the workshop at Awakeri on February 13, with about 40 farmers present.

So, how would she pitch dairy farming to a teenager looking at career options?

“As a dairy farmer, you’ll never be bored; you develop so many skills; what you do in a day is never the same. There are many aspects you may really enjoy.

“You’re around animals, machinery, soil chemistry, the environment, climate change and the world of finance. As a farmer, you really make a difference to your surroundings.

“No matter what you’re passionate about there’s something for you in farming. It could be riparian planting and encouraging native birdlife onto a property or growing grass and assessing the nutrients in the soil. You can be involved in decision-making regarding which fertilisers are used and applied. When it comes to feeding cows, there’s much more to it than assuming they just eat grass, more metabolically that cows need to thrive. There’s a huge animal health side to dairy farming and calf rearing.

“I want my staff to be happy, healthy and enjoy their work. I’m not alone. Employers in this industry have come a long way since the former days when staff were left to cope alone. I am confident that this industry can deliver a stimulating career, a good living and excellent prospects for advancement.

“But above all we’re doing something worthwhile.

“During Covid it was an amazing time for farming. That tough era proved to the country how important dairy farming and the ag industry are to pay our bills as a country. At several points the whole country got shut down aside from us. There was no tourism, but we were still out there doing it, and we kept the money coming into New Zealand when a lot of other businesses were forced to grind to a halt.”

Meanwhile, she said the dairy industry was leading the way in finding new ways to lower carbon emissions.

“We see that there are many opportunities to improve – we are constantly changing and improving to meet the challenge as the rate of change grows faster. There are pressures from consumers and customers like never before to farm ethically and in a way that does not damage the environment. But bring it on.

“There’s a lot of money being poured into our dairy products. Beef and lamb are prized globally – the world needs protein.

“What’s important to me is that my cows are well fed, my staff are happy, milk production is good, and the residuals are fine, so we can all feel proud of what you’re doing.

“It’s not one of those jobs where you’re saying, how am I doing, nobody’s telling me. Dairy farming has the advantage of a constant assessment of one’s efforts. Every day when the milk is collected you see how well you are doing. The milk breakdown analysis helps us understand various aspects of milk quality, cow health and farm efficiency.

And being a woman on her own is no object.

“Yes, farming is still a male dominated industry. So many times, people assume that I am with a farmer and just doing the bookwork and so on – but I am the farmer. We can do it – there’s nothing on the farm that I cannot do. We (women) don’t need a man to do the heavy lifting, or anything else – we can do it ourselves.”