Rural Champion: Pongaroa’s Rebecca Greaves on winning award

Rebecca Greaves has a busy life between work as a journalist, helping on the Pongaroa farm she owns with her husband, and helping the community. Photo / Leanne Warr

Rebecca Greaves grew up in farming.

Raised in Hawke’s Bay on a sheep and beef farm that had been in her family for generations, she understands the everyday pressures farmers have to deal with.

But she wasn’t always keen on farming herself, instead becoming a journalist, which led to her writing for a number of publications around the agricultural industry.

“I loved farming and always had, but never wanted to practically be a farmer,” she says, adding that she enjoyed going on to farms, talking to farmers and seeing what they were doing.

But it’s not just her career as a journalist that she believes earned her the Rural Champion award in the NZI Rural Women NZ Business Awards.

When she appeared before the judging panel, she was asked about paid work versus unpaid.

Rebecca believes it’s something that really can’t be measured by the number of hours she devotes to either.

“Winning the award is amazing, but it’s not that I think that I’m more special than anyone else. I’m just helping spread the word, really.”

Rebecca started her journalism career studying postgrad at Canterbury University, in a course which she believes is the best in New Zealand.

From there, she took on her first job at Hawke’s Bay Today, covering farming and regional council.

She branched out, moving to Hamilton to work for the Waikato Times, doing a lot of different rounds including education, council and police reporting.

“I really loved it, loved the team, loved being in a bigger newsroom.”

But she found herself struggling to leave work at work, especially after an explosion at a coolstore in Hamilton.

It didn’t help that she lived in the community where it happened and she realised that daily news wasn’t really the “right fit for me”.

She went to Australia where she worked as a “jillaroo” on a cattle station, while still sending stories to New Zealand.

When she returned, she moved to Feilding and went to work for the Farmers Weekly/Countrywide group of publications.

It was through that work she met her husband, Richard, and after moving to live on the farm, decided to go into business on her own, forming Target PR.

Initially, she says, she was doing a lot of freelancing, but then people began asking for help.

“There’s quite a need in the rural sector with small to medium-sized agricultural businesses.”

Such businesses didn’t have the budget or the know-how for marketing and Rebecca began to get a lot of requests for it.

“I worked with quite a number of ag businesses and others that were not in the ag space as well.”

The couple bought a farm at Pongaroa, where she also helps out when needed.

She cut back a little to have a daughter, but has started to build it back up again.

Just over a year ago, she was given the opportunity to co-host a radio show, called Rural Exchange, with sports broadcaster Hamish McKay.

Through her work with that, she met Hear 4 U founder Krissy Mackintosh which has led to other opportunities to help the organisation raise awareness about men’s mental health.

Rebecca has been able to go back to her first love of writing and has joined Countrywide Media, while still keeping her business going.

She feels it’s a good opportunity to tell positive stories about rural communities and the good things farmers are doing.

“I feel that it’s really important to help farmers to tell their stories.

“I want farmers to feel that they’re supported and valued in what they do for this country and provide great journalism that actually helps them do their jobs better.”

Meantime, she is also continuing to help her community which is still recovering from the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle.

Rebecca on the Pongaroa farm which was also impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle earlier this year. Photo / Leanne Warr

Rebecca and Richard’s own farm was badly hit by the cyclone and there are many in the community that are still struggling, she says.

While it’s easy to minimise and feel they got off lucky, for Rebecca, it’s still devastating to see all the hard work they’ve put into the farm over the past eight years to be in a worse state than when they started.

High interest rates and low commodity prices were things farmers were already dealing with and it was going to be a tough few years for farmers, without the added stress of damage from the cyclone.

Wanting to do something for people in the Tararua District, Rebecca initiated the district’s version of the collective hug.

Starting in Central Hawke’s Bay, the collective hug, by Diana Greer, is a network of volunteers that work to bring cheers to farmers.

So Rebecca set about collecting up baking and freezing meals, working on the idea that for those out on the farm slogging all day, coming home and not having to worry about cooking a meal would give them a boost.

Rebecca is also doing a community event on November 10, called Mud, Sweat and Cheers, at the Pongaroa Hotel.

“I just feel like if we can all do something small, it can add up to a lot. It can add up to making a difference.”