Harriet Bremner-Pinckney

Winning the Zanda McDonald Award gave Harriet the confidence to back herself

When Harriet Bremner applied for the 2023 Zanda McDonald Award, she was at a turning point.

She had moved to Southland, finished her role with Safer Farms and committed to working full-time on the family farming operation while continuing to run her own business. For the first time, she had the opportunity to become fully immersed in farming but she also knew she was ready for guidance from people who had travelled the road before her.

“I had got myself to a point where I felt that I had done as much as I could achieve on my own without mentorship and guidance,” Harriet says.

Winning the Award gave Harriet that guidance, but its impact has gone well beyond the mentoring experience itself. Three years on, she says the relationships, experiences and confidence gained through the Award continue to influence how she approaches farming, business, leadership and life.

Learning from those who have gone before

Harriet struggles to single out one experience from her Australian and New Zealand mentoring trips as the most influential.

“I think that I learnt something valuable from every single visit that we made.”

What stood out was the opportunity to get behind the success stories, to hear openly about the challenges, uncertainty and self-doubt that others had experienced along the way.

For Harriet, who was building a farming career alongside her husband Ed and preparing to become a mother, seeing how other farming couples had successfully navigated business, family and their own relationship was particularly valuable.

A connection with Julie McDonald also became important. Their conversations covered everything from business to the practical realities of having a baby, working on farm and managing a business while living some distance from childcare and other support.

“It has been invaluable to have a network of people who you can talk to about everything.”

Those conversations helped Harriet and Ed shape an approach that worked for their own family and business.

Turning confidence into action

One of the clearest changes Harriet sees in herself since winning the Award is a greater willingness to back her own ability.

As part of her Award experience, Harriet completed the Rabobank Executive Development Programme in Sydney. It built on the lessons from her mentoring trips and reinforced something she had seen repeatedly in the people she met: you do not need to have all the answers before you begin.

She put that into practice when she decided to take responsibility for achieving FAP + GOLD accreditation for the farm.

Harriet had little knowledge of the process when she started. Rather than outsourcing the work, she approached a friend with expertise in the area for some initial guidance and then took it on herself.

It took around a year, but the farm achieved accreditation and Harriet estimates her work saved the business tens of thousands of dollars in consultancy costs.

“Having done the Award gave me the confidence to do something that I had little knowledge about, learn a lot on the way and save us lots of money within our business.”

Stepping further into the farming business

That growing confidence is reflected in Harriet’s role on farm.

She and Ed are now formalising their farming partnership and expanding their operation, including plans to double their dairy cow numbers and dairy farming area.

Harriet works closely with their stock manager and is involved in grazing planning, stock work, strategy and goal setting. She leads areas including environmental planning, health and safety and freshwater farm planning, and is increasingly involved in decisions across both farming operations.

She is also prepared to challenge established thinking. One decision she is particularly proud of was setting minimum weight thresholds for hoggets and deciding not to mate those that had not reached them, prioritising the animals’ growth rather than chasing additional lamb numbers.

“This was a big win for me,” she says.

The business continues to evolve, with land being bought and sold, stock numbers changing and new technology being considered, including Halter and automation in the cattle yards.

Finding her voice

The Award has also changed the way Harriet sees herself beyond the farm gate.

“I have always been one to sit quietly at the back of the room and observe rather than say anything,” she says.

Now, she makes a conscious effort to contribute.

“If you are at a conference or in a meeting and you have the chance to share something, then I make myself speak up more now.”

She is increasingly asked to contribute to agricultural conversations on radio and feels more confident that she has a perspective worth sharing. That confidence was tested in a very different way when Country Calendar approached Harriet about filming her and the farm. She had declined previous approaches because of concerns about how deeply personal parts of her past might be portrayed.

This time, she agreed but set her own terms, asking the production team to agree to clear boundaries about how her story would be told.

“I was extremely nervous doing this, but they agreed instantly.”

For Harriet, being prepared to have that conversation was another sign of how far she had come.

“I don’t think I would have had the confidence to do this had I not had the learning I got from the Award and the tools that it has given me to deal with different and sometimes difficult situations.”

From being mentored to mentoring others

Harriet’s involvement with the Zanda McDonald Award has continued long after winning.

She has returned as a judge, gaining a different perspective on the Award and learning from those around the judging table. She has also mentored another young woman through the application process and regularly encourages emerging agricultural leaders to apply.

For Harriet, leadership is increasingly about continuing to learn while helping others do the same.

“Leading through learning and mentorship is amazing. You always want to be in the mindset that you are always learning no matter where you are at in business, life or age.”

It is also about relationships, surrounding yourself with people who will answer the phone, ask good questions, offer another perspective and challenge your thinking.

Harriet now knows she does not have to work everything out alone.

An impact that continues to grow

Three years after applying for the Award, Harriet does not see its impact as something that can be neatly measured or confined to one period of her career.

One opportunity has led to another. The Award led to the Rabobank Executive Development Programme, which created further learning and another network. Mentoring relationships have become people she can call for advice. Experiences from the trips continue to inform decisions she makes on farm.

“The Award is immersed in everything that I do,” Harriet says. “It is a reference point for me and I am often thinking back to people we visited and asking myself what would they do or how would they do it.”

There are still plenty of ambitions ahead; for the farming business, for Harriet’s own business and, when the timing is right, potentially governance.

But perhaps the biggest change is that Harriet now has the confidence to pursue those opportunities in her own way, while knowing there is a network behind her when she needs it.

“I think that it becomes such a part of you that naturally it will continue to shape how I grow in the future.”

For Harriet, that is the enduring impact of the Zanda McDonald Award: the confidence to back herself, the curiosity to keep learning and a network that continues to grow alongside her.