When Katrina Roberts grew up, she wanted to be the next James Herriot, a veterinary surgeon and author. Instead, she is now the first dairy vet to be awarded 2024 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year, certainly nothing short of her initial goal.
Roberts was crowned at the Dairy Womens Network (DWN) conference in May, recognised for the value she has added to the sector through advocacy, leadership and governance.
“I feel quite privileged to be in that position and I feel a real responsibility to showcase the role that female vets have in the dairy sector,” Roberts said.
Born and raised in Australia, Roberts grew up on a beef and pig farm in Adelaide where she found her love for cattle, alongside beef cow showing. Her interest in the dairy sector began as a vet student, working on dairy farms as it was more hands-on than working with cattle farms. A dairy farm placement in 2002 in New Zealand cemented this interest.
Roberts said that 20 years ago, it was tricky for female vets to enter the dairy industry as a sector dominated by males. But now, all that mattered was her passion for the industry.
“I was genuinely interested in the farms and the cows and the business and that’s all people really want to know. If you show a genuine interest in their livelihood, then you’re welcomed in whether or not you’re a female or a male.
“Being a female creates banter as well. You take it on the chin and roll with it. I’m here to be your vet, and I’m here to do the job.”
Roberts attributes her passion for the dairy sector to the people she works with and alongside to achieve greater outcomes for the industry.KATRINA ROBERTS / SUPPLIED
When the opportunity arose to enter into the research space, she took it with both hands and joined the Cognosco team, a contract dairy research group founded by Mr Scott McDougall.
“This gave me the ability to ask questions and to really dig into a topic and understand why and what influence this has on the outcome … I can see the benefit of our research and see where it fits.”
She had paved the way in research for female dairy vets, finding solutions and preventions for heifer mastitis that were now widely adopted across the industry.
One of those solutions was the implementation of an internal teat sealant into heifers four to six weeks before calving. Despite being told by many vets that it wasn’t possible, the prevention was successful, preventing clinical mastitis in herds by 50-70%.
While vets and rural professionals doubted the research, she said it was the farmers who were in full support.
“It really reminds me that farmers are actually very willing to try something new and give something a go and as professionals working with our farmers, we should support them to try new things.”
Roberts was presented with her award on May 2 at the Dairy Womens Network gala dinner and conference in New Plymouth.DAIRY WOMENS NETWORK / SUPPLIED
She saw the award as an opportunity to reflect on her passion for the industry and the wider agricultural sector – something she attributed to the people.
“I love working with farmers to achieve their goals on-farm. Farmers are just awesome people. As an industry, we’re doing such a cool thing in the sense that we’re making food for the world.”
With the next generation of potential agriculture professionals in mind, she had a feeling of responsibility to elevate the sector.
“Who’s gonna be the next generation of farm advisers, helping their farmers make milk to feed millions? If I don’t tell people how cool it is, no-one’s going to want to do it.”
One step further for Roberts was to highlight the role vets played in the success of dairy farming businesses, which had become more involved on-farm.
“There’s also a completely different role that we play on-farm now, working with the farm team, helping them achieve their emissions targets … meeting welfare standards, helping them improve the performance of their cows and their herd.”
The award had presented her with a scholarship to be a part of the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme in which she hoped to build and enhance the farmer-vet relationship.
“What do farmers benefit from their strong relationship with their rural professionals? How does that help them and what do they get out of that, but also, what do the professions get out of it as well?”
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