She may have travelled and worked around the world but there’s no place like home for Lutte Thys.
Lutte joined MilkMaP’s Southland consulting team in 2022, armed with plenty of early exposure to the global dairy industry.
Having grown up on her family’s Awarua dairy farm in Southland, where she was heavily involved in the farming operation — she was in the cowshed before she could walk — she set up a TeenAg Club while at school at James Hargest College in Invercargill.
She completed a science degree at Massey University, majoring in agricultural science and minoring in animal science.
But she felt she was not qualified to tell people how to do their jobs until she had experienced some different farming systems so she moved to Canada for 18 months to work on dairy farms which were indoors.
From there, she moved to Costa Rica for a three-month internship on tropical dairy production which she described as the best experience in her life.
Returning home for 10 months and working on a nearby dairy farm, she headed overseas again to complete a master’s degree in animal science from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Her studies focused on two research projects examining the limitations of dairy cow production and reproductive performance across multiple countries and farming systems.
That included her thesis on dairy farming in Ethiopia where she went for several months, looking at the limitations to the industry there and the uptake of technology.
It was not the easiest of experiences, she said.
Returning home due to Covid-19 — she presented her thesis from home.
She then started looking for jobs and a desire to help people led to her career path.
She worked at New Zealand Animal Evaluation during the development of the new BW (Breeding Worth) System, based in Hamilton, on a 12-month contract.
By then, she decided she wanted to return home because her partner, whom she met while studying in the Netherlands, had been granted a visa and had a job in the South.
That was when she joined MilkMaP, in a role which was all about helping farmers to get the most profitability out of their system and to get the most out of their cows. For Lutte, it is a dream job.
"I don’t like telling people. I like teaching but I don’t want to teach high schoolers. I get to do this in my job and help people."
She thrived best in discussions where ideas were bounced around and she loved seeing farmers and their staff getting excited about those ideas.
She particularly enjoyed when farm staff were involved in meetings and showing them the reasons behind why they were doing what they had been told to do and what it meant.
Her nomination said Lutte thrived on helping people achieve their dreams and looked after their wellbeing too.
She was also passionate about getting young blood and enthusiastic young energy into the farming sector.
Lutte lived on the farm — she felt lucky to work from her office and look over the property — and loved being part of the neighbourhood.
Her partner, who is from Tanzania, was passionate about farming and loved the South — even if he was wearing three jackets over winter.
"I wouldn’t live anywhere else in New Zealand," she said.
"I’ve tried the North Island. There’s nothing wrong with it — it’s just not home."
