‘Big Red’ ready for big catch
A Geraldine bachelorette is looking forward to showing up the guys, and some girls, in New Zealand farming’s battle of the sexes competition.
Eira ‘Big Red’ Lloyd-Forrest is the sole South Island finalist in the National Agricultural Fieldays’ Rural Catch competition, which will be held at Mystery Creek south of Hamilton next month.
‘‘It’ll be a good laugh, really; but I’m taking it seriously at the same time,’’ Lloyd-Forrest said.
Born and raised in Geraldine, the 28-year-old said she grew up as ‘‘the third son’’ in her family and embraced farming life. ‘‘[I] can’t imagine doing anything else to be fair. It’s all I know.’’
Working as a second-in-charge dairy farmer, and stand-in manager, for the past 10 years, Lloyd-Forrest knows the ins and outs of farm life, and is excited about participating in this year’s competition.
‘‘All of them [the events] look fun; nothing’s too daunting,’’ she said.
With four men and four women competing, the challenges reflect both genders’ potential strengths and weaknesses.
‘‘It’s a good balance, in the sense of males and females both have their pros and cons. The guys had to do cooking last year, so I’m sure the girls will show them up in that.’’
She is confident about the fencing challenge as she has done quite a lot over the years, particularly ones damaged by pivots.
Dog handling was the only one she was a bit unsure of. ‘‘As a dairy farmer, I don’t deal with dogs every day.’’
Lloyd-Fletcher had some good advice for young girls going into the dairying and farming industry.
‘‘As a woman, and a manager, you’ve got to put your foot down. I’ve come across a lot of smart alecs who, you know, [think] ‘oh, she’s a female, so I can talk down to her’, and you just gotta hold your own, I guess.’’
Fieldays, now in its 50th year, introduced the Rural Catch this year to replace the Rural Bachelor of the Year competition. Women can enter the new event for the first time.
‘‘It’s 2018; not that I’m a hard-out feminist or anything like that. It’s just that there’s plenty of us in the industry.’’
As part of last year’s competition, Fieldays asked for women to come and be ‘‘Gumboot Girls’’, which meant watching the competition and supporting the contestants.
‘‘There were eight or nine of us girls who went,’’ she said.
‘‘We were cheerleaders, there to watch and cheer on the guys.’’
She and her Gumboot Girl friends had been talking about allowing women to enter last year. On finding out women could enter in 2018, Lloyd-Forrest said she was considered the girls’ best bet, being the only farmer.
‘‘The other girls got me into it,’’ she said. ‘‘They told me: you’ve got to do this Eira.’’
The Gumboot Girls and several members of her family are heading to Mystery Creek to cheer her on.
‘‘They think I’ve got it in the bag.’’ Being the only South Islander, LloydForrest reckons she stands a pretty good chance of winning the People’s Choice award if mainlanders get behind her.
‘‘I need everybody to vote for me.’’ Lloyd-Forrest had one message for her fellow competitors ahead of the competition.
‘‘You North Island contestants better look out because ‘Big Red’ is coming to Mystery Creek!’’