Carla Muller, principal consultant, shareholder and director at Perrin Ag, is the very deserved Beef + Lamb NZ Rural Professional of the Year for 2026.

Carla has been with the Rotorua-based Perrin Ag team since 2019, although she works remotely farm a sheep and beef farm in Whakatane, with her partner and children.

“My role at Perrin Ag is really to help the team with any weird or wonderful projects that come across our desk. So I get to be involved in a huge variety of work, everything from technical advisory for ag emissions through to farm systems modelling, through to freshwater policy, business viability, value chain analysis, irrigation work, biodiversity credits – a huge range of everything which is fascinating because it keeps me really interested,” says Carla.

Studying an applied economics degree, Carla never intended to work in agriculture, but being at Massey led to making friends in the ag school and the Young Farmers Club, and she found a passion for farming that meshed well with her economics major.

After her honours year in Environmental Management, she was offered a graduate position with DairyNZ: “working at Dairy NZ with a team who was so passionate about doing the best for farmers it was pretty addictive – you're working with good people who just want good outcomes. I was hooked by the primary sector after that”, Carla explains.

After DairyNZ came a stint at NIWA which broadened Carla’s horizons while still connecting Carla to what she really cared about – the environment, freshwater and rural communities.

Over the years Carla has also become an experienced director and board member, with previous roles at Primary ITO, Institute of Rural Professionals, Cycling NZ and Wintec.

The state of the farming nation

Thinking about the current feeling of New Zealand farming, Carla reckons that on the ground with farmers, most are pretty positive. While high costs are an ongoing concern, good output prices are lifting the mood and will prove especially useful if farmers have put a little bit away for a rainy day – or rather, a dry summer.

The current uncertainty and frequency of change from current and past governments around national and regional policy relating to farming is a significant challenge, and Carla believes it risks the forward momentum that many farmers and industry organisations have made when it comes to freshwater management, emissions and sustainability.

“We just start getting people on a journey and then we change the destination or we change how they're allowed to do things and that's really disconcerting and really disengaging for people. Farmers and the rural sector in general are really adaptable; they can deal with change. What is harder to deal with is uncertainty,” asserts Carla.

Expanding your horizons

Having sat on the board of the Institute of Rural Professionals, Carla has judged the Emerging Rural Professional of the Year Awards herself several times, so it was extra special for her to be on the other side receiving the accolades – a true full-circle moment.

“It's been a challenging year for some consultancy businesses, especially in that beyond-the-farm-gate space, and so for me to be recognised and hear some of the comments that focused on how I did things, not what I did, was really rewarding and really precious to hear,” smiles Carla.

“The recognition has been great – a huge thank you to FarmIQ and FARMAX and Beef + Lamb New Zealand for sponsoring these awards.”

The Rural Professional of Year Award comes with a cash prize – funds for the winner to do something meaningful that aligns with their own interests and passions.

Carla is going to use her prize money to follow her own advice and open up her horizons a little bit, heading overseas on a study tour to delve deeper into irrigation and biodiversity credits.

“I'm looking at Australia to start with. There's a lot of talk about the success of the Tasmanian irrigation model, so I’m quite keen to go and to hear more about that. But also, Australia has gone further than us in the biodiversity credit space. Part of that is their policy settings, but also they've got more capital flowing in. We're really interested to see what they're doing over there that is successful and how that might help our farmers here,” shares Carla.

Carla’s advice to young people entering the industry is to get out of your comfort area and challenge your thinking.

“I never thought I'd end up in ag and I'm glad I have, but I have really valued experiences outside of the sector, time with NIWA, in high-performance sport and education gave me a chance to  see something different, to be around different people and hear different perspectives. I think anyone coming into ag needs to do that as well – make sure you're not in an echo chamber. Go and find connections across other sectors, across other industries, travel internationally and have some experiences that really challenge your thinking. Always be curious!”