Balancing a phone on a fencepost and doing a bit of a kanikani (dance) has landed dairy farmer Shannon Munro a job.
She's the face of the Dairy NZ-commissioned Join Us campaign which aims to give a personal perspective on dairy farming.
Shannon Munro and her family Photo:
Shannon's dancing ability and general joie de vivre was spied on a number of TikTok videos by dairy industry bosses who wanted to set up the multi-media campaign.
Shannon says she was a bit surprised at first, but then happily got on board.
She and farming husband Steve live on the doorstep of Te Urewera National Park near Murupara and for someone who's a keen hunter and fisher, there couldn't be a better spot.
The young parents both love sharing the environment with their three children saying the area is "a bowl of kai".
"If we can eat meat from the forest it's our supermarket," laughs Shannon.
Certainly dairy farming has been the making of them, she says.
Having their first child at just 18 years old, and trying to live on Steve's building wage wasn't cutting it.
"Even with me working a bit we weren't getting by," Shannon says.
Since joining the dairy industry ten years ago they haven't looked back.
Issues that have hung around dairying, like low wages and long hours, they both say are changing, and when they were employers themselves, they valued staff.
"They're our biggest asset," Shannon says, adding that other dairy employers have realised that too.
When it comes to perceptions of dairy farmers Shannon breaks conventional moulds.
She says strangers don't believe her when she says she's a dairy farmer.
"Maybe I'm not what they thought dairy farming looked like. I think dairy farming doesn't just have one face."
Go and look at her TikTok offerings, you'll have a laugh - @shannyapril
