Mid-Canterbury farmer and Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year, Jessie Chan-Dorman, tells her remarkable family story beginning with the arrival of her mother in New Zealand as an orphan.
Jessie and Hayden Chan-Dorman Photo: Supplied
Jessie Chan-Dorman and her husband Hayden lease 420 hectares and milk 950 cows at Dorie on the south side of the Rakaia River in Canterbury.
As Fonterra's Dairy Woman of the Year, Jessie has has been awarded a scholarship to take part in a professional development programme, and plans to attend the Te Hono Stanford Bootcamp at Stanford University in California. The Bootcamp focuses on improving the competitiveness of New Zealand's primary sector on a global stage.
Jessie's mother arrived in New Zealand from Hong Kong as an 11-year-old orphan.
"She was adopted by a family in Invercargill but they decided they didn't want her and so she spent most of her life in foster homes in New Zealand and she never really got an education, or had a stable family" Jessie says.
Jessie has two sisters and a brother and their early years were spent in Palmerston North. Their mother left when she was 10, and they were then raised by their father who had portable sawmilling business.
As well as being high achievers in school the girls were expected to run the household and work part-time.
"He always said to us: 'You can be whatever you want to be if you put your mind to it'.
"He really emphasised to us the value of working hard, and putting in the hard yards for whatever you want to achieve".
After high school, Jessie went on to receive an honours degree at university in animal science and has worked in various roles across policy and research and development, before becoming a farmer and business leader.
