Kate Tomlinson: NZ has stopped that ‘farming fraud’ feeling

Growing up on a beef and sheep farm in County Durham means I have always been surrounded by agriculture.

Through generations of farmers before me, my family’s livelihood, my community, my degree, and my career, farming is etched into who I am.

Except for one detail… I didn’t know how to farm.

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About the author

Kate Tomlinson

Kate was raised on a family livestock farm in County Durham before attending Harper Adams University. Since moving to New Zealand in 2022, she has worked on academic research projects and in the dairy industry. She recently joined Map of Ag as an Agricultural Sustainability Consultant and farms in her spare time.

Read more articles by Kate Tomlinson

Being raised on a farm doesn’t make you a farmer. For everyone else, the two seemed to merge seamlessly, yet there I was, a farmer’s daughter who couldn’t catch a ewe, drive a tractor, or reverse a cattle trailer.

I didn’t know how to repair a stone wall or fix a leaking trough. What’s urea? Why use lime?

In the classroom, attention to detail and problem-solving came naturally to me. On the farm, however, I froze. Practical skills were the foundation of farming, but were what I struggled with most.

As an accessory to moving sheep, a helping hand during lambing, I felt like a fraud – and feared everyone knew it.

New Zealand (NZ) offered two things: anonymity and opportunity. It was a chance to figure out what I wanted from life, including addressing the knot of worry I felt about farming.

I threw myself into work: wool handling, milking cows, calf-rearing, alongside consultancy and research roles. Then, I landed a job on a dairy support block in the Mid Canterbury region.

NZ’s dairy industry thrives on fresh recruits, many with no farming background. Starting from scratch isn’t just accepted, it’s expected.

Here, no question was too stupid, and each mistake was an opportunity to improve. Whether a farm girl from Durham or an alien from Mars, it didn’t matter – only my attitude towards learning was important.

With a colleague away, I took over the day-to-day running of the support block, ensuring 1,500 animals were fed and healthy.

I learned to fix troughs, drive a two-wheeler, a tractor, and reverse a trailer (unless someone’s watching!).

Farming had felt like an electric fence (terrifying), until I learned that all you had to do was lift the reel off the power or plant a gumboot on the wire.

The fear of failure faded, and the idea of being a farming fraud couldn’t zap me anymore.