All in a day's work: Fraser the Dairy Farmer

Fraser the dairy farmer

It’s calving season for 34-year-old Fraser. He usually rises before the birds to milk the cows and walks between 6-8km a day. This time of year is one of the most demanding on the farm, and the environment can have a huge effect on the amount of food he consumes to sustain his energy levels. The majority of his meals are home-cooked as he rarely has time to go out. His says his diet would be fairly typical of other dairy farmers at this time of the year.

4.45am-8am Wake up, walk 1-2km with cows, and stand on concrete while milking. Have a muesli bar on the run.
8am Honey puffs with milk, 2 toast (jam and vegemite), cup of tea, cup of coffee
10am Have a small chocolate bar. Walk 2-3km with some bursts of running.
12.30pm Lunch using leftovers from last night's roast — two chicken sandwiches, 1 potato, 1 piece pumpkin, ½ kumara
1.15-2pm Sleep
2pm 4 biscuits and a cup of tea
6.30pm Beef stew with garlic, carrot, onion, capsicum and kumara with 2 garlic bread buns
8.30pm Piece of home-made slice and a biscuit with a cup of tea before bedtime.

Nadia Lim’s quick nutritional analysis

With such a physical job you need more calories than the average male. It’s good that a lot of these calories are coming from complex carbohydrates (potato, kumara, wholemeal bread etc). Complex carbs provide a sustained release of glucose for energy. Breakfast could improve — boxed cereals are often high sugar (this one is one-quarter sugar!) and have a high glycaemic index, meaning they are not that sustaining. A couple of poached eggs on a few pieces of grainy toast will last you longer, and add in some fruit (full of good carbs and fibre), which your diet is lacking. As you’re using a lot of energy, you can afford to have a small sweet treat or two a day, but watch those biscuits with cups of tea — they add up!