For the first time in 118 years, Federated Farmers has elected a woman as its president.

Katie Milne is a West Coast dairy farmer. In 2015, she was Dairy Woman of the Year and the Rural Woman of Influence too, so she's got the goods.

But that said, this is still a bold and admirable move from Federated Farmers which historically has been an organisation that is dominated by men who are largely working for men. That's just been how it is.

Think back to Footrot Flats. Do you remember a woman? Did Fred Dagg have a shelia? She would have been a shelia, wouldn't she? We remember the dog, but as far as I can remember, there was never a woman in the mix... Or if she was, it must have been seldom because I don't remember her.

But I think farming is an industry that has always demanded equally of the men and women who live and work in it. And it's an incredibly demanding way of life.

My brother is a farmer and he's a great farmer, but he couldn't do what he does without his wife -- my sister-in-law.

Cherie is the rock-solid force behind that farm. She's the stable, grounded one who just cracks on and gets the job done despite whatever the farm throws at them. And it throws a lot if I think about what they've endured in a year.

Calving, lambing, shearing, drenching, velveting, they've got hives as well. And then things go wrong. They always go wrong in farming, don't they?

The bad weather comes in at just the wrong time.

The digger rolls when you're trying to clear a drain.

One of the dogs gets torn apart by a wild pig and suddenly there's an urgent trip to the vet.

The stock truck flips on the way out of the farm and you've got a few hundred lambs on board, and suddenly you're jumping in the old Toyota at 11 o'clock at night and racing down the road to try and salvage some of the stock.

I've been on the farm on Christmas Day and suddenly we've heard gunshots, and my brother's on the farm bike and heading up into the back country because the poachers are after his stags.

Farming. It never stops. It's 24/7.

And all the while my sister-in-law is in the thick of it. She's running the family, doing the admin, feeding a million people -- stock agents, hunters. She's involved in the local school, and she's called on to help with the muster, or when there's been a bit of a muck up and she's got to make an urgent trip into town to pick up the dog tucker.

Farming brings its rewards, for sure. But those rewards don't come without a lot of hard graft and that takes its toll. There are a number of rural mental health initiatives now because so much can get on top of farmers -- debt, the social isolation, the impact of a bad season, and so it goes.

And so to elect Katie Milne to the top job -- to give her the presidency of Federated Farmers -- is a brilliant move. She's a successful farmer and has top communication skills as well, but crucially she will also have a perspective that I think will be broader then what Federated Farmers has had in the past.

And it shows that the organisation is thinking progressively. So a bouquet to Federated Farmers this morning. Nice work electing Katie Milne to the top job.