Brianna Hull

Brianna once had a farmer call her to say he was running a few minutes late for their on-farm meeting. Luckily, he had a solution to keep her entertained until he got there…

“He told me to go and pat ‘Caramel’ – a retired friendly cow on the farm kept in a paddock by the house,” smiles Brianna. “So I got a few minutes of cow cuddles in before he arrived: not a bad way to kill time!”

Brianna sees her role as supporting farmers to continue to be the best at what they do, through one-on-one support, event facilitation and assisting with farmer-to-farmer learning.

“If a farmer has a problem, we do what we can to either solve it or connect them to the person who can, like rural professionals (RPs) and sector experts. Collaboration’s crucial in the sector to avoid the duplication of events and repetition.”

She also helps farmers identify opportunities and add value to drive productivity and profitability, especially through efficiency.

“I love working out what makes a farm tick and what key tactics can be implemented on other farms to help them thrive too, like using Dairybase to see the trends and patterns that consistently drive success.”

Brianna and her husband Matty also own a building business together and have two boys under five. She spends her spare time on that, weightlifting classes and running – that’s when she’s not distilling her own gin and making beef jerky and biltong. But at work, her passion is understanding farmers, their goals and their systems inside out.

“Everything our regional team members do, we do to support, improve and promote the sector and its farmers. And what we do, has to be relevant, timely and add value for them.“

• Find out more about DairyNZ’s other Lower North Island regional team members.
• Check out our nationwide regional teams.