{"id":10646,"date":"2014-04-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/climbing-to-success\/"},"modified":"2014-04-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T12:00:00","slug":"climbing-to-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/climbing-to-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Climbing to success"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

The 25-year-old worked on a farm for a year full-time before enrolling at Lincoln University where she completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 2011.<\/p>\n

She promptly went looking for onfarm experience, which was a career option not pursued by many of her fellow graduates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe degree is to help me on my way and it\u2019s something to fall back on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She will start a third season with Mark and Rachel Barker on their 380-cow farm at Awaiti, near Paeroa, as their farm assistant but with added responsibilities as Mark\u2019s second in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not from a farming background. I grew up on my parents\u2019 lifestyle block and Dad managed an orchard but Mark had also come from a non-farming background and decided to help me reach my goal of farm ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be a long climb with no capital behind her and a student debt putting her further behind but Marion is planning to make that climb in stages \u2013 something like preparing for Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s preparing for that journey, her first trip overseas, with a friend with whom she climbs Mt Te Aroha once a week to get mountain-fit.<\/p>\n

She also won the Franklin Vets Farming Knowledge Merit Award while Matthew Smith of Patetonga took out the DairyNZ Practical Skills Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auckland Hauraki Dairy Trainee of the Year Marion Reynolds decided as a teenager, when relief milking for neighbours, that she wanted to be a farmer.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":10647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t