"We're not probably real Kiwis yet — we don’t eat Vegemite or Marmite."
New Zealand might not be his country of birth but Awarua dairy farmer Herman Thys is firmly ensconced in the rural Southland community since moving from Europe more than 20 years ago.
Brought up on a small dairy farm in Belgium, Herman farmed the home farm for a decade before making the move in 2001, urged on by his wife Tinneke who had been encouraging the shift for some years.
"We’re loving it so far and, to be fair, we haven’t looked back. We have no regrets."
The move from dairy farming in Belgium to New Zealand was one he saw as an opportunity; it was different, but not hard — "milking a cow is milking a cow" — and feeding cows was totally different.
So he started at the bottom of the ladder as a farm worker to learn all about it. Herman and Tinneke now milk 520 cows and have been using Halter technology.
Herman is the instigator of the TAF Club (Talking About Farming), which kicked off about six years ago and which now draws about 20 people for off-farm gatherings where they get to know each other.
It came about after he received a call from a stock truck driver asking if he had seen any calves which had escaped overnight from the yards at a neighbouring property. The driver did not have contact details for the neighbours, who had recently arrived in the area, and Herman had not yet met them.
He decided that was "not good enough" and he started ringing around, making a phone tree of neighbours in the area, and it led to TAF.
"It’s actually quite simple, you organise something [and] you invite people to come along."
It only took a few phone calls and outings had included the likes of the Thornbury tractor museum, a fertiliser works and a movie night in an old theatre.
And then there was the Pancake Party on the last day of the season.
In Belgium, there is a tradition in spring to make pancakes.
After the last milking in New Zealand, Tinneke started to make pancakes and, initially, their children brought their friends home from school and it proved popular.
Then they invited several friends over and it continued to grow.
"Now pretty much the whole neighbourhood comes around," he laughed.
But it was just "another little thing" that brought people together and now another neighbour had started doing a mid-calving barbecue for close neighbours.
Staff were also important to Herman, he enjoyed the interaction with them and there was no task on the farm that he would ask an employee to do that he would not do himself.
"Respect them and they will respect you. Every person is different, you have to work on their strengths ... you have to learn what people can do, what their abilities are. Sometimes you expect too much of them, sometimes you surprise you."
Describing himself as easy-going, Herman liked to give his staff some freedom, rather than micro-managing them.
Passionate about the dairy industry, Herman reckoned it was "more a hobby than a job".
And it was very much a team effort with Tinneke, as he joked "I come up with some wild ideas, she has to put the hand brake on".
"We have a lot of discussions, eventually we come up with a good solution that seems to work. It’s a good management team."
And as for Tinneke’s insistence on moving to New Zealand?
"She definitely was right, I have to admit it now."
— Sally Rae
