Farming and living in New Zealand “is like a dream” for Maria Puig and Mauricio Castellano, who have built a new life and welcomed son Franco into their family since settling in Northland after moving from Uruguay.
Farming and living in New Zealand “is like a dream” for Maria Puig and Mauricio Castellano, who have built a new life and welcomed son Franco into their family since settling in Northland after moving from Uruguay.
A Uruguayan couple have swapped office work in Montevideo for a life on the farm in the Far North.
And the move has paid off for Maria Puig and Mauricio Castellano, who are inspiring the next generation of farmers in Kaikohe, where they sharefarm at the local college.
Farming in New Zealand’s Far North is a long way from her previous life as an office worker in Uruguay’s capital city, but Puig said she has never felt more at home.
Now in their second season contract milking on Northland College Farm in Kaikohe, Puig and Castellano are helping inspire young people to pursue a career in farming.
“We love Northland, especially Kaikohe. We feel a special connection here,” Puig said.
“We feel in some way we can motivate the new generation here, and it feels nice to have a job that also has value and makes a contribution.”
Northland College students with an interest in farming can gain practical skills on the school’s farm under the guidance of Puig and Castellano.
“It’s the best classroom,” Puig said. “We like to show them that, if they are willing to work hard, they can go far in this industry. We just love helping to push young people to get the best out of themselves, and if they are keen on farming, that there are so many opportunities.”
Puig and Castellano picked up several wins in this year’s Northland Dairy Industry Awards sharefarmer category, including the Federated Farmers Leadership Award for their work with youth. Their drive to help young people into farming stems from personal experience.
After leaving their desk-based careers in Montevideo, the couple landed here in 2018 with working holiday visas looking for adventure.
Maria and Mauricio receiving their New Zealand Dairy Industry Leadership Award from Federated Farmers Northland president Colin Hannah earlier this year.
“We are from the outside of Montevideo and, when we were young, during the school holidays we had experience helping the local farmers, and we always liked it.
“We had a goal to try it in New Zealand and we just fell in love with it,” she said.
“We love the farming lifestyle, living closer to nature, and the possibility of learning things in so many different aspects. Right now we are learning how to manage a farming business, but before that we were learning how to fix a leak or drive heavy machinery. You feel empowered.”
The couple started out as farm assistants in Canterbury, before moving to the college farm in the 2021/22 season and then stepping into contract milking.
Puig said the study opportunities, support, career paths and research in New Zealand agriculture are world-leading, and she feels grateful to have found it.
“If you want something, have the passion and you work hard for it in New Zealand, it is there for you. This country – and its farming industry – is amazing in that way,” she said.
The pair have worked hard to grow their skillset not just informally on-farm, but through formal learning opportunities.
“We started studying through Primary ITO and, since then, we’ve been always studying, working to learn and improve more. I’m now doing my Level 5 diploma in Primary Industry Business Management, and Mauricio is doing Level 4.”
Puig said they love new challenges – and farming has provided plenty of them.
“The biggest challenge for us is farming in Northland. We feel like we’ve learned the most since we moved here. People always say if you farm in Northland, you can farm anywhere, with the extreme weather events, trying to manage kikuyu, summertime, and so on.
“But Northland also has a great community of people. We help each other and there are a lot of discussion groups.”
One of the couple’s goals is to take on a farm cadet, either from Northland College or through Whangarei A&P Society’s intern programme.
And although farm ownership is a distant goal for the couple, who now have a son called Franco, who is two in August, they first want to spend a bit of time farming overseas.
“I don’t think we’ll find the farm we love in other parts of the world, but we want to try farming in Ireland and Canada, and to bring back to New Zealand new ideas and points of view.”
