Annabel dreamed of being a farmer. Now she helps 6000 of them every day

"I didn't want to be a doctor or a teacher or a nurse. I wanted to be a farmer," she said.

Both sides of her family came from farming and she had grown up on a property outside of Young.

"Every holiday was spent on the farm around agriculture and around animals," Ms Johnson said.

"Working in the school holidays it didn't feel like work, it was just what I loved."

While she always wanted to be a farmer, it didn't quite pan out that way. But farmers remain at the forefront of her career.

In December 2023, Ms Johnson was appointed as the new chief executive officer of NSW Farmers.

"The next best thing [to being a farmer] is representing farmers and I get to do that every day which is an absolute privilege," Ms Johnson said.

After finishing high school Ms Johnson went to the Australian National University in Canberra to study arts and law.

"I always had an eye on farming and as it became clear I wasn't going to be able to get back to the property I knew I wanted to have a career that had an impact and benefited farmers in the regional communities they live in," she said.

"I wanted to represent agriculture and work for agriculture but I knew I needed to understand how government worked to be able to have that impact."

She worked in the red meat industry - which she said gave her a very good understanding of supply chains - and then in a variety of policy areas. When the opportunity came up to work at NSW Farmers, Ms Johnson said she "absolutely jumped at it".

"I applied for a policy role, and I was really confident, but then I got an email saying, "Thanks, but no thanks'. I was devastated," Ms Johnson said.

But she did crack into the organisation. She was the NSW Farmers policy director and then the head of policy and advocacy.

In May 2023, three months into her parental leave, Ms Johnson found out the NSW Farmers CEO at that time, Pete Arkle, had resigned.

"It was not the best time, but I just said 'yes' and worked out the details later," she said.

At the time she had no childcare lined up. But she said it was possible because of her strong support networks.

"Every day is challenging with a young baby, no matter what job you're doing, but I would take it over no rain in a drought any day," Ms Johnson said.

Becoming the first woman to lead the 6000-strong organisation was not part of her planning, but Ms Johnson said she had always focused on what she could to to keep building her skills.

"And one of the things I love about NSW Farmers, if you work in so many other companies you just work for, for one business. Whereas each, each day I get to come to work and, and work for thousands of businesses across the state," she said.

While she now lives in Sydney, Ms Johnson said getting onto farms and talking to farmers was still her favourite part of the role.

She said being able to talk to people and see what they were experiencing really helped her to understand them and work for them on the issues.

At the moment, the biggest issue she's seeing is competition.

"It doesn't matter what industry you're in, agricultural supply chains are very consolidated. There isn't enough power for farmers," Ms Johnson said.

She said while consumers were feeling the pinch at the supermarket, that money was not flowing back to producers.

"There needs to be an understanding about where is the money being made in the supply chain and to ensure that farmers, for the work that they're doing growing the food and fibre that we all enjoy, are fairly paid," Ms Johnson said.

The CEO said there was also increasing demand being placed on agricultural land as part of the renewable energy transition.

"It's incredibly fulfilling to be working to make sure that farming businesses are stronger because the farms are the backup bone of regional communities. And I think coming from the regions, I've seen the impact that it has when there's a drought or when there's a natural disaster," Ms Johnson said.

"When farms aren't thriving, the regions don't thrive."

And with her brother still owning the family farm, Ms Johnson still gets the chance to visit the place she grew up.

"I think for any farmer they hold a special place in your heart. So the fact that I'm still able to go back and get my hands dirty and do those sorts of things... I don't get to do it each and every day, but I've almost got the best of both worlds," she said.

"They don't like me going back at the Christmas holidays when they need a bit of downtime and I come back full of energy."