In just a few years, the 30-year-old Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year has gone from interning to running the show at Ngāi Tahu Farming's huge Te Whenua Hou dairy development in North Canterbury.
In just a few years, the Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year has gone from being an intern to a manager at Ngāi Tahu Farming's huge Te Whenua Hou dairy development in North Canterbury.
Photo: RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Ash-Leigh is chair of New Zealand Young Farmers, sits on the board of Dairy NZ's Environmental Leaders Forum and next year she plans to do a leadership programme for national and international leaders.
The eight dairy farms at Te Whenua Hou sit on what used to be several thousand hectares of forest at Eyrewell. The first farms were up and running in 2012 and now each dairy unit runs between 950 to 1150 cows.
Ash-Leigh had her first taste of dairy farming as a relief milker while at Lincoln High School.
"That's probably what sparked my interest in the dairy industry as I thought cows are such cool animals to be working with," she says.
A stint at university was followed by calf-rearing and dairy farm assistant roles before she joined the team at Ngāi Tahu farming as a sustainability coordinator. She hasn't looked back since.
"I'd been farming for a number of years and I hadn't had much exposure and understanding of the environmental space with dairy farming, so it was great to get involved in that and understand the iwis's expectations, goals and vision in that space."
One of the first things Ash-Leigh did after getting the job was getting all the farms accredited to meet dairy company Synlait's Lead with Pride standards.
It's a best practice accreditation that recognises suppliers for their milk quality, being environmentally and socially aware, and committed to the well-being of their cows.
"It didn't matter if they were Fonterra or Synlait supply, we went through and made sure all farms were operating to that high standard," she says proudly.
The 30-year-old's official role now is Technical Farm Manager.
"The title doesn't encompass everything I do. One day I can be out in the yard working with the young stock, then I also work alongside the farm managers to help them with environmental farm audits, as well as ensuring we've got good systems working out on the farms."
