Industry work honoured

Jan Wills has been named an Officer of the Order (ONZM) for services to the beef industry in the 2015 New Year’s honours list.

This is thanks to the Matamata resident’s achievements and many firsts as a female during her continued service to the hereford breed industry.

The 74-year-old attributed her success to supportive men, especially her husband Barrie, and other board members in the agricultural industry.

When asked how other females in the industry could mirror her success she initially joked, ‘‘ Marry Barrie’’.

‘‘Barrie and I decided that we seem to work well together. I think that is the crux of the story and a lot of people have said we complement each other. Barrie tends to underestimate himself and I overestimate him so we find a happy medium.

‘‘You can’t do this on your own. I was lucky; I had a lot of good friends and board members of similar mind supporting me with all my endeavours. were respected and easier for me.’’

Because of that male support, Jan achieved many firsts as a female in the agricultural industry from 1992 to 2012.

She was the first female councillor elected to the board of the New Zealand Hereford Association, the first female president of that association, the first female secretary- general of the World Hereford Council and the first chairwoman of New Zealand Performance Beef Breeders. Their views it made life

When the couple started a hereford stud in 1968 she said it was Barrie who decided she should handle most of the administrative tasks, such as registering cattle.

‘‘He felt I was more suited to administration than he was and the stud was a partnership and one of us needed to be involved in the New Zealand and provincial administrative activities for hereford.’’

He felt her computer literacy stood her in good stead for this kind of role. She said being a housewife also meant she was well placed to answer the phone.

They worked together showing cattle as well as day-to-day farm tasks such as weighing cattle.

As time went on and her roles increased, such as editing a hereford magazine, she gained her own office which benefited a lot of male board members who were working on their farms during office hours. Because of her accessibility she became an unofficial spokesperson with journalists.

Being a housewife and farmhand would result in her travelling the world speaking at conferences.

The most unusual place she travelled to for a conference was Kazakhstan, where they had a poster of a farmer on a horse with a laptop and an aerial coming out of his hat. She was sure it was photoshopped but never received a promised copy of the poster.

Being in South Africa to represent the hereford breed at their national show when the breed won the major awards was another highlight, she said.

Travelling the world was an eye opener to how respected woman are in farming circles in New Zealand.

‘‘ New Zealand leads the world in non- chauvinism because of farming. Most of the farms are a partnership and the women are equally involved,’’ Barrie said.

Other highlights

were achievements such as changing the focus of the association’s youth programme from school leavers to young farmers and being part of the group effort to implement the Hereford Prime quality beef programme whose specifications were copied by QualMark, she said.

One of the hard things of retiring was the worry that the couple would lose contact with farming friends but they have managed to keep their hand in the industry.

Jan is a director of Hereford Prime New Zealand and Barrie still advises local young farmers on buying bulls. The New Zealand Hereford Association pushed for Jan’s New Year honour for two years.