ABOUT ME
I'm Cristy. Born and raised in New Zealand, I spent my childhood with sheep, horses, cows, pigs and chickens on a small rural block in the Kaimai Ranges.
It was idyllic. Over the seasons, I bottle fed lambs (Fluffy, Curly, Bobbin, Little Jock, and Mary Lou), saw our kunekune pig Millie have piglets, hand milked our house cow Lucy, and was bitten more times that I can remember by my temperamental Shetland pony, Arrow. Don't worry - another pony came along. A chestnut called Charity, who'd had a rough start in life but healed (as quickly as my wounds from Arrow's dental work) the more time we spent together.
One eight year OE (overseas experience) later, having lived in Rome, London and Sydney, I fell back into Agriculture easily, this time in a professional capacity with roles at DairyNZ, AgResearch and then Aimer. A decade that laid the foundation (and then some) for a passion in food production systems.
I worked for DairyNZ for five years at their Newstead campus in the Waikato region (2015-2019). I was based in the NZAEL (New Zealand Animal Evaluation) team where I worked closely with LIC, CRV and Breeding Societies toward the shared goal of improving the genetic merit of our national herd. A top highlight for me was attending internal Consulting Officer training, which painted a broad view of research led, best dairy farming practice to enable farmers to remain profitable and sustainable.
Just before COVID-19 hit, I moved to AgResearch where I remained for three years (2019 - 2022). In this position I contributed to their transformational initiative 'Toward the Circular Bioeconomy'. I interviewed ambitious farmers across the country who had taken a leap of faith to adopt unproven (read: unresearched) farming systems. These pioneers were harnessing circular flows to improve resilience and meet the demands of emerging markets that were searching for products meeting higher environmental and animal welfare standards.
In 2022 I joined Aimer and can now talk at length about the dark arts of rotational grazing and measuring covers. It was my role to interview farmers around New Zealand to understand how they preferred to manage their pasture and supplement, and to ultimately identify pain points that Aimer software could solve.
If you take away anything from this it's that for me, my love for agriculture came first. My love for photography came later, born from wanting to spend every moment in wide open spaces covered in biodiverse crawlies, feet lost in high mixed swards, and cooing at livestock until they trust me enough to come close. Now in my 40s, armed with my favourite lenses, I chase ambient light up and down the country, year-round, and in all weather to document New Zealand farming authentically and proudly.