Green Acres, we are there!

By JULIE MIDDLETON

They had qualifications and good jobs in Auckland. But that wasn't enough for painter-paperhanger Jason Beekmans and registered nurse Toni-Ann Brotherson.

"We weren't seeing each other because of our [work] hours," says Brotherston. "I saw him every third weekend."

Their lives are now radically different. The couple are now into their fourth season of dairying in Taranaki and are now sharemilkers.

They have just started work on a 94ha farm 5km north of Patea, milking 320 Jerseys and crosses, and are thrilled with the advances they have made in the industry.

So how did they make the change? The move from city jobs to milking cows came about when they stayed with a sharemilker friend and did some relief milking.

They liked the experience and felt the lifestyle would suit them: "right place, right time", says Brotherston. They thought they would have regrets if they didn't take the opportunity.

"We thought we'd give it two years and see how things went," says Beekmans. After the first season, they knew they were heading in the right direction.

The couple applied for three positions, winning a job after the boss asked them to prove they could milk cows by joining them at work and observing how they handled stock. That herd numbered 500.

After a year on that property, they moved to a new position milking up to 1250 for two years, then applied for a lower-order job in the district.

Brotherston says they noticed people were friendlier in the country - one of the rural attributes that fuelled their decision to leave.

Independence was also important. "We love the freedom and quickly realised that there's more to farming than just cows and milk," she says.

That "more" spelled study, if the pair were to get ahead in dairying, so Beekmans took the Agriculture Industry Training Organisation Production Management certificate course in his first year of farming. Brotherston has nearly finished the National Certificate in Agriculture level 4, its precursor.

Once these are completed, one will take the financial planning course and the other the business planning course.

"We knew these courses were important," says Beekmans, "because when we got interviewed for the first job, they asked us were we doing any training."

There is support and comfort in working together, says Brotherston. "I can say: 247 kicked me today, and Jason knows what I'm talking about."

But she says going from hardly seeing each other in the city to living and working together in the country "can make you or break you. It's a big change," admits Brotherston.

"Communication is the key. We leave farm stuff on the farm, and home is home. If we argue about something on the farm, we don't bring it back home".

* For further information about earn-as-you-learn training courses, contact your local Agriculture ITO training adviser on (0800) 691-111