But while boarding in Dunedin in her final year of secondary school, where she was woken up by the arrival of the bread truck every morning, she realised city life was not for her, and her future lay in farming.
Mrs Dalziel, who lives at Papakaio with her husband Matt and their three young children, was recently appointed to an associate director position on the board of FMG.
The aim of that position was to gain insight on how the board operated and enhance the future capability of governance within the primary sector.
From a North Otago farming family, Mrs Dalziel also did some relief milking in year 13 and was fortunate to have a great boss who showed her that farming could also be quite fun — "even when you’re covered in cow s...", she said, laughing.
After leaving school, she did an agricultural commerce degree at Lincoln University, initially thinking she wanted to be a rural banker.
While there, she received a Ravensdown scholarship and, after graduating, spent four years as a Ravensdown rep in Mid and South Canterbury, working mostly with dairy and cropping farmers.
She and her husband later did two seasons sharemilking in North Otago, a learning experience given they had both only ever done dairying as a holiday job.
She then worked for Fonterra as an area manager and she said she thrived in roles that involved working with people and she particularly enjoyed working with farmers.
Her first taste of governance was when she joined the Lower Waitaki Irrigation Company board.
The Lower Waitaki Scheme delivers water from the Waitaki River to more than 200 shareholders covering 20,000ha on the Lower Waitaki Plains, and also supplies commercial water to local industries and domestic supply for Oamaru residents.
Having grown up on the Lower Waitaki plains and now farming with her husband both there and at Corriedale, Mrs Dalziel said she could not stress enough the importance of irrigation, not only for their dairy grazing and cropping business but to the wider region.
Virtually every business in North Otago benefited indirectly from irrigation, she said.
Her board tenure so far had been amazing learning experience and she hoped she was contributing to the board.
Last year, Mrs Dalziel completed the six-month Mayfield Group Co-operative Governance Programme and, following that, started looking for a role like the one at FMG.
The associate director role, for member candidates, is an unpaid position and does not include board voting rights.
Having worked for two co-operatives, FMG — as a mutual insurance company — sat well with her. Her first official board meeting was last month and, while she had a lot to learn, she felt very fortunate to be part of such an amazing board and management team.
She was assigned a director for two meetings, rotating through the board members.
Passionate about the rural sector, Mrs Dalziel said good governance was all about having the best people for the role.
She was fortunate with the support she had from family as the FMG role involved plenty of travel but she saw it as a "really cool opportunity".
