Bush telegraph goes online

By CATHY ARONSON

When Waikato dairy farmer Robyn Clements was sick for a month last year, an e-mail chat group was her lifeline to reality.

The organiser of the dairying women's network could open her e-mail and find up to 20 messages from some of the 200 dairying women in the network.

Without going beyond the farm gate she could keep up with issues ranging from the latest information on the dairy mega-merger to practical advice on how to deal with mastitis.

"I didn't feel like reading the massive reports and I didn't have the energy to go to meetings or call people," she said.

"The network meant I could keep up to date with all the news in my own time. It was a lifeline."

But the network is a lifeline every day for women such as widow Margaret Porteous, who manages her Waikato dairy farm and looks after her two school-aged children.

She cannot get to meetings, and often the only chance she gets to sit down is at 10 pm or 6 am.

"It's really changed things for me. I don't feel so isolated," she said.

"It's a good group of people. We are not afraid to express our opinions and agree to disagree. I have learned so much."

Mrs Porteous found out about the e-mail network at last year's first Network for Women in Dairying conference.

Last week, when she attended this year's conference in Hamilton, she was able to put faces to the names of the people she had come to know well through the network.

The conference and network aim to support and mentor women in dairy farming, and are based on an Australian system which has been running for seven years.

Ms Clements is also on the Australian network.

In two years she has seen women there progress from starting leadership training to being appointed to dairy boards.

"Women have a huge involvement in dairy farming but yet we are not represented on the boards. I know the network will help change this."

The New Zealand network was established by Ms Clements and fellow farmers Christina Baldwin, Willy Geck and Hilary Webber to keep busy dairy women informed.

Ms Clements said many women juggled their farm duties with looking after children and the household.

A survey of the women who attended last year's conference showed that 83 per cent were involved in farmwork, 86 per cent were involved in management and 90 per cent also ran a household.

It also showed that while most women were involved in industry networks such as Federated Farmers, only 25 per cent participated in dairy company and industry groups.