Dairy farm worker

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Name: Diana Woodward

Working hours: 4.30am to 6pm with time off between milkings

Employer: Dairy farm owner Mike Visser

Age: 25

Pay: Starting wage of $28,000 a year, plus free milk, meat and rent of three-bedroom house. Wage rises with skills and qualifications.

Qualifications needed: To start, enthusiasm. To progress to herd or farm manager, on-farm experience and Agricultural Industry Training Organisation courses, such as herd manager's certificate. A range of diplomas and degrees are offered at polytechnics and universities.

Career prospects: Contract milker, herd or farm manager, sharemilker, farm owner, or with the right qualifications, related fields such as farm adviser or researcher.

Q. What do you do?

A. I've been in the job for six weeks and it's the busiest time of the year because of calving. I get out of bed about 3.30am and leave the house about 4.15am to help get the cows in for the morning milking. I have an hour for breakfast and another for lunch, and generally get in from the afternoon milking around 6pm.

The farm has 1000 cows milked in three herds in a rotary dairy. I put the cups on, or take them off. I shift electric fences, drive motorbikes and tractors and feed out silage and hay.

Q. What skills do you need to become a farm worker?

A. Lots of determination and enthusiasm. You've got to want to be here because of the hours. I'm in bed by 8pm. You've got to put in the effort - I've got a few muscles I didn't know I had. Just putting on the cups made my arms ache at first.

Q. Why did you choose this line of work?

A. I worked in a pharmacy for eight years and just loved it, but I needed a new challenge. I love the outdoors and animals. I'm not off a farm, but I had a close friend when I was at school in New Plymouth who was, and I used to go out to the farm.

I thought I'd like to go into dairy farming, and started answering job advertisements for farmhands in the newspaper. I didn't get anywhere because I was inexperienced and female, but in his ad Mike [Visser, farm owner] said something about enthusiasm being more important than experience. Mike's just wonderful. He didn't treat me any differently because I'm female.

Q. Best part of the job?

A. The animals. I went into it because I love animals and the cows are just amazing. You get to know their personalities, like one cow always likes to be at the back of the herd - you can't get her to walk anywhere else. How you treat them is reflected in how they behave - if you were aggressive they'd react.

Q. Most challenging/difficult part of the job?

A. Learning to drive the motorbike and the tractor. For the first couple of weeks I didn't get out of first gear but everybody's been encouraging and tolerant and I now get into sixth gear. I've had lots of support from the other guys and my husband.

Q. What sort of training do you get?

A. Because we're busy with calving at the moment it's on-the-job training. I'm going to do some Agriculture Industry Training Organisation courses, and then study for a herd manager's certificate.

Q. What are your goals?

A. I would like to become a herd manager to get the experience to be a farmmanager and, maybe, one day look at sharemilking.

Q. What would you say to others considering this job?

A. Give it a go. If you need a change just go for it. I've blossomed in this job. It's such a challenge. I feel awesome.