Farmer Sally
Farmer Time story – Sally Newall
Location of farm: Patoka, Hawke’s Bay
Type of farm: Commercial bull beef farm
All about Sally
We’ve been lucky enough to have Sally Newall onboard with Farmer Time since the very beginning. Sally is a passionate farmer (and veterinarian), based in the Hawkes Bay living on her 500-hectare farm with her husband and three young boys.
They operate a commercial bull beef farm, but also breed Meatmaster sheep and Saddleback pigs. In addition to this, they also have a menagerie of other animals (such as horses, dogs, chickens, ducks and quail) on the farm too!
Sally started up her Facebook page ‘Kiwi Country Kids’ (also on Instagram) back in 2020 in the national lockdown which is a daily diary of her family’s life on the farm.
From here, Farmer Time was a natural extension. She’s delighted to be involved in the programme which allows farmers to visually show urban students what farm life is really like!
What made you get involved in Farmer Time?
I am a passionate advocate for farming and the rural way of life. There is so much misinformation out there and I think it’s more important than ever to counter that. I love showing people what we do on-farm and how we care for the environment and our animals. Having three young children myself, I also see how vitally important it is to expose children to the reality of farm life and food production.
Sustainable, high welfare farming is key to what we do. We grow all our own meat and eggs and have a large veggie garden for our own family.
On the commercial side of things, we put a great amount of time and money into enhancing biodiversity on-farm and minimising our carbon footprint, while enhancing soil and animal health.
I think it is really important to share this story with a wider audience, especially those who are not familiar with the reality of farm life and where their food comes from.
What have the highlights been so far?
A big highlight has been the feedback received from the kids and their teacher and the questions that they ask. The children often make me think about things in more depth and they’ve even come up with some really useful suggestions - including ideas on how to catch a predator that was killing all of our chickens and ducks!
There is also a huge ‘feel good factor’ after every session, knowing that you are sharing the truth and helping the next generation to appreciate farming and have some knowledge about all the good work that farmers do.
What tips would you offer to other farmers who are involved (or are interested in becoming involved) in Farmer Time?
Discuss your ideas for the next session with your teacher in advance.
This will ensure you can plan where you need to be or what you need to do – e.g. a recent session I ran on sheep I needed to make sure I had brought the sheep in so I could show the kids how we look after their feet.
Do a test run to check your connection,
Have a plan for what you’re going to talk about and show the kids. Also to encourage interaction, let them ask questions and come up with something that they need to do before the next session.
Being involved in Farmer Time doesn’t take up that much time but you do need to be committed to the sessions and make the time...put it in your diary and don’t forget!
Some recent topics covered in Farmer Time sessions:
We have discussed the ‘5 freedoms’ and how we think about them on a daily basis when caring for our animals, including our breeding pigs. The kids went away from that session and researched the 5 Freedoms.
We talked about our poultry and tied this in with water safety – I showed the children how I made steps for the chickens to get out (should they fall into the duck pond). The kids came up with some designs for a new predator-proof chicken house after that session.
I brought our ewe lambs into the sheep yards and demonstrated how I tip the sheep over and trim their feet to check for issues such as ‘foot scald’ and how we treat that with a topical antiseptic spray.
I talked about their breed, common health issues that sheep face, and what we look out for. The kids had lots of questions about our sheep and how we look after them.