PICA

Ok I know that PICA doesn't sound exciting but it is, really.

We, being me and the boss headed to Wellington

for the PICA launch we had organised

at the very nice and very helpful Wellington Club.

I think some people came just because the launch was held there.

Other exciting thing was Nessie came up from

Central Otago for the night to speak at the launch.

Nessie and I would have had a bit of a girls night after the launch

cause we were staying together at my favourite Wellington Hotel

the Quest Hunter Street but we needed to do other stuff.

By the by, the Quest has the best showers,
that are so forceful they cause a howling gale in the shower stall.

The view from the 8th floor of the Quest.

So back to PICA.

PICA is the Primary Industry Capability Alliance.

There's us, Young Farmers, Federated Farmers, AgITO,

Beef+LambNZ, DairyNZ, MAF which is now MPI

and the Centre for Excellence, Lincoln and Massey.

We all get around a table and have yarn about how to create

a strong, agreeable human capability strategy for the entire pastoral sector.

That's the cows, cattle and sheep part of the industry.

It's been tried before but we are determined

to cooperate and collaborate.

This what happens when you copy photos from the internet, fuzzy as bro.

Left is the boss, Richard Fitzgerald, MP Nathan Guy,

Minister for Primary Industries David Carter and

the MC, DairyNZ Board member and ex Young Farmers President Ben Allomes.

You can tell Ben is DairyNZ by his tie.

Remember that, it will hold you in good steed for the future.

The Minister opened the launch or launched the launch

and gave us a great, supportive speech.

Ben as MC was funny and smart.

Richard as Chair of PICA was enlightening.

We had the whose who of Wellington agricultural industry.

It was all on that night.

Nessie spoke brilliantly as someone who is following

the PICA ag based career pathway.

She compared it to wanting to be a professional rugby player.

You don't just rock up to All Black training in your 20s.

You spend all your schooling and training working towards

the goal of being an elite, well trained, competant player.

Same for the ag industry.

Farming is a serious business

and we need serious, smart people to grow our food.

It's kind of important.

Then when it was all over,

Nessie, Ben, Massicks, me and Rosie* met up

for pizza and a debrief.

Cause that's how we roll in NZYF.

Check, check.

*Rosie had been in the Hawkes Bay at Brownriggs organising the Get Ahead Careers Day - all about ag careers in NZ.

around

the country in 5 days.

Seriously last week went a little like this

Monday night fly,

to Palmerston North with Wiggy,

drive to Woodville with Wiggy

stay in Woodville with Wiigy,

separate rooms and Rosie was there too,

tramp around sheep yards in the dark

in a storm in high heels with Wiggy,

also with Rosie.

Only Rosie wore boots.

Go to sleep in Woodville, alone.

Wake up really early and go back to the sheep yards

in more suitable footwear for

Get Ahead

with Wiggy and Rosie.

This is Logan the chef and Wiggy the MC

doing their thing after Logan and I had made

about 70 lamb patties by hand for yummy, sweet gourmet burgers

for the students lunch.

Highly recommend char grilled courgettes on burgers,

even when made in old sheep yards on BBQs that had seen better days

and we almost set fire to the building because there was so much fat in the lamb patties.

The flames were rather high.

Would have given us the opportunity to educate the students on the Volunteer Fire Brigade.

This is Rowdy*.

He manages this farm and was kind/insane enough to let us use his yards.

He is also the East Coast Grand Finalist

here is his episode of The Road to the Young Farmer Final

Go Rowdy!

Did I tell you Young Farmers has it's own TV series???

After a day in harrowing, howling, violent rain

Wiggy and I left to return to Methven.

Rosie stayed.

I got to work on Wednesday

and what the heck?

Flew to Napier that evening

(sorry Countess - I would have emailed you

I didn't know I was going to be there

and didn't arrive until 8.30pm)

I headed down to Brownriggs farm at Pokawa

on the most beautiful day

And 110 high students arrived for a Get Ahead Careers Day.



That's a lot of kids.

They came from schools across the Hawkes Bay.



We mixed their teams up and they moved around modules

trying on different jobs,

here they are testing milk quality.

I liked the Colenso College kids the best.

Lippy little beggars but great fun.

And then we have another chef to cook gourmet burgers.

Seeing a theme here??

It's a paddock to plate theme.

The modules go in order from soil scienctists and agronomists

to farmers and stock agents,

to the chef and the marketers.

Today's chef is Brenton from Whangarei.

He flew from Whangarei to Napier

leaving at 3am

with his luggage filled with prepped food

for slightly less gourmet burgers than we have had

but yum all the same.

Yes I helped to make these too.

Those pink serviettes have half burgers in them.

When the students asked questions they got a free half burger

They had all had one each already but they are most blokes

so one burger isn't enough.

It was great fun.

At the end of a really hot day

with hordes of kids,

I flew to Wellington

to have dinner with Jolly and friends

to celebrate April's graduation from

 her library science masters programme

at Waggamamas.

 And then to Kaffe Eis for ice cream.

I fled when invitations for Pirates of the Caribbean came out.

I hate, hate, hate those films.

They are just big ads for Disneyland.

I love Disneyland and have been five times

but a two hour ad is ridiculous.

So the real reason I was in Wellington

was for Big Wig Day

when Young Farmers bring together the

senior Young Farmers leadership

for a day of interaction with industry leaders.

Then on Saturday was the NZYF SGM.

Sounds exciting?

Special General Meeting's always are... not.

We revised our consitution,

now we have a new one,

and it only took an hour and a half to pass

but about six months of writing, debating and checking.

Nice work Elliot, Nessie and Karyn.

Then we had National Committee meeting for two days.

Yippy skippy and even better

I missed the last part because I got to realise an ambition of mine

and speak at a conference.

After years of organising conferences for others to present it was my turn.

I was part of a panel on leadership

with some people

(ok I only knew of three of them)

There was me and Winnie Laban

(ex Labour Minister of Pacific Affairs)

in a small office in Wellington

 video conferencing into an Auckland theatre

talking to 250 Rural Women.

On the stage in Auckland 

was Don Nicholson from Fed Farmers,

Dame Margaret someone who is elderly

and had been a wonder women leader in her time,

Sue Higgins who is a Rural Women board member

and on the phone was Tony Cockshorn,

Mayor of Greymouth.

You may remember him from the Pike River Mine disaster.

It was fun,

even though Winnie and I were giants

on a movie theatre size screen.

Fun, fun, fun.

Really fun shocking the conference attendees

with how young women are in control of their fertility

and though they make sacrifices

they can have it all.

Anyway that's a post for another day.

As is what it is like taking farmers to posh French restaurants.

Oh and I'm off to Rotorua tomorrow

for another Get Ahead.

* 10 bucks the first correct answer on why he is called Rowdy.