She was brought up on a farm, but education-wise moved into science, obtaining a BSc majoring in human nutrition, followed by a master’s in dietetics.
Tom does not come from a farming background but followed a similar career path to Fiona, obtaining a BSc (Hons) majoring in food science.
They both joined the Fonterra Technical Graduate Programme, where they first met.
Fiona spent time in Melbourne with the nutritional team developing infant formula, while Tom was a project manager with the Fonterra Nutrient Management team.
The couple’s thirst for education continued during their time in the Fonterra programme, and they both completed a master’s in dairy science and technology.
Fiona is a trained DIY AB (artificial insemination) technician and has completed a Fonterra Governance Development course.
Back to grass roots
In June 2017, an opportunity to manage the family dairy farm came up, and Fiona and Tom decided to take their careers in completely the opposite direction and take up farming at the other end of the dairy farming spectrum.
“I had barely helped on the family farm as a child and hadn’t even done a full milking at that point,” Fiona said.
“After a three-week crash course on-farm, I started work as farm manager.
“I had a lot of practical and technical help and advice from my parents in those early months.”
The couple bought into the farm as equity partners in 2018.
Fiona is a director in the partnership.
Tom continued to work at Fonterra and took parental leave when Fiona gave birth to their first son in 2019.
“Until I met Fiona, I’d never been on a farm, but I took voluntary redundancy in 2019 and joined her, so we both spent time with our son and working on the farm,” he said.
In 2020, the couple moved to contract milking for her parents on the farm, a move that Tom said was to help them quickly grow equity to meet their financial goals while also providing better flexibility for family life.
The business of farming
Tom and Fiona Langford are highly qualified in the science side of the dairy industry but learned grassroots farming on the job. Photo / Catherine Fry
“We’ve pretty much done everything backwards, but it’s working for us,” Fiona said.
“We had built the soft skills while we were at Fonterra, and we learnt about the farming side on the job.”
Fiona gave birth to two more sons in 2021 and 2022.
She and Tom job-share, doing alternate days on the farm and looking after the boys.
The first farm is 262ha, now milking 1090 cows, and has three full-time workers.
The second 255ha farm will scale up their contract milking business by another 870 cows and four full-time workers, offering more career progression within their business.
The couple are passionate about developing their staff into higher positions either on or off their farms.
“If someone wants to leave to progress their career, we accept that this is the right decision for them and don’t hesitate to help them get into another job using our networks and connections,” Fiona said.
Community spirit
“We feel ready to share knowledge, and while we’re very much ‘studied out’ with regard to formal training, discussion groups and informal training are invaluable to our business,” Tom said.
Fiona is keen to use her governance training not only in her role on the equity partnership board but also for further governance roles within the community.
She would like to share her knowledge and influence areas that she and Tom are passionate about.
They are involved in the Putaruru Athletics Club, Puketurua Hall committee, Putaruru Rangers FC, South Waikato Environment Initiative, their local playcentre and Te Waotu SSG.
This ambitious and hard-working pair were awarded five merit awards at the Waikato regional awards and then took home six out of the nine NZDIA Share Farmer merit awards at the nationals.
National merit awards included:
DairyNZ people and culture award.ASB business performance award.Fed Farmers leadership award.Trelleborg sustainable pastures award.Honda health and safety award.Ecolab environment and sustainability award.