But that doesn’t mean he spends every day on-farm: Garland is an advocate for taking a break.
He said some farmers had a mindset that they had to be at work constantly.
“It’s something that’s been in the farming and the ag industry for a long, long time,” he told The Country’s Jamie Mackay.
“I think the responsibilities and the expectations of the industry caused us to have that mentality that we had to be on-farm 24/7, right?”
So how does Garland get off-farm?
He’s a big rugby fan, so he jumped at the chance to attend the Battle of Bays rugby game in Tauranga, where Farmstrong hosted 200 farmers.
The game took place in the middle of calving.
“It was at a pinnacle time when most dairy farmers were in the depths of it,” Garland said.
“Our physical and our mental state would be on high alert, so to speak, so it came at one of those really difficult times.”
But Garland saw it as a “godsend”.
“I needed to get off-farm, or I needed to give my brain an excuse to get off-farm,” he said.
“Farmstrong and FMG reached out, and I didn’t hesitate – I was on board.”
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Garland describes himself as a “chronic overthinker” and has battled anxiety.
He told Mackay it was an ongoing process, although he was “not as bad”.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s a work in progress.”
He hasn’t been tackling it on his own, though.
“In the last few years, I’ve inherited a lot of good tools from good people.
“I’m more well-equipped to deal with it, if that makes sense.”
He likened preparing for the rigours of dairy farming to sports.
“Sporting, they do preparations via training; dairy farming, it’s the same thing.
“You’ve got to prepare yourself mentally to go into those challenges.”
Garland said the best time to get focused was the start of the season.
“During dry-off, we’re off-season, right?
“We can start preparing ourselves for the season ahead.”
Garland said he often follows another dairy farmer and Farmstrong Champion, Kane Brisco.
“He’s farm fit - he’s got some tips along the physical side of things.
“So, you can physically train and then mentally train, prepare yourself for the worst.”
For more tips on being farm-fit and to learn about the Five Ways to Wellbeing, head to Farmstrong’s website.
