Case Studies

Amy Watts might spend her days working with animals but, as she puts it, her job is really about working with farmers.

And it was those relationships forged with farmers throughout Central Otago that ''makes'' her job as a vet.

A large animal vet, predominantly working with sheep, beef and deer, Watts said it was the relationships — and learning from each other — that made it a rewarding career.

Jana Cornes is an MPI vet, working in Southland with the Verification Services team at a meat works. Originally from South Africa, she's been working as a vet for 11 years and joined MPI in 2015.

As the vet on site at the freezing works, she ensures that all stock transported to the works are fit for transport – healthy, good body condition, and have no evidence of obvious disease or defects. Animal welfare is just as important in this industry as it is in general practice – maybe even more so.

William Halliday is an MPI vet based in Gisborne. He is employed at a meat works but is also an on-farm verifier.

His job involves monitoring and managing animal welfare, plant inspection, and certification for export. He's also a specialist on-farm verifier, meaning that he visits farms and audits their residue recording systems, traceability, and animal welfare.

It's all focused around helping maintain New Zealand's reputation for producing world-class animal products under very stringent animal welfare requirements.

Athol New, a former Kamo High School, Whangarei, student had no farming background.

He was encouraged by his high school agriculture teacher to study agricultural commerce at Lincoln University.

He now oversees three farm managers plus coordinates and implements the business plan across two dairies milking up to 3000 cows and young stock for the entire Rakaia Island business at Woodstock.

Hayley Hoogendyk grew up as a city girl but ended up choosing a rural career. After completing a business degree at Massey University, she got a job managing events at the university for almost two years.

After going milking with a friend one day, she liked it so much she applied for a milking job. The manager offered her a full-time job and she jumped at it, right in the middle of calving. She loved it and has never left.

Christopher Poole has a Bachelor of AgriScience from Massey University and currently milks 750 crossbred cows on a 202ha effective milking platform.

“In addition to milking, we do the majority of our cropping work, planting, spraying and mowing in-house, and rear 400-600 beef calves each year for additional income.”

Harepaora Ngaheu was 21 years old when he first put cups on cows and it changed his life forever.

Harepaora says he did not make the most of school and drifted through his late teenage years. Then, at 21-years-old while attending an industry training course in Bay of Plenty, he got in the dairy shed.

Harepaora loves farming because he gets to work outdoors with animals and on the land. After starting as a Farm Assistant, Harepaora broadened his experience by working on different farms as a Farm Manager then Contract Milker.

Callum Bisley is proud to be following in his father’s footsteps - studying agriculture at Telford.

"To achieve my ultimate career goal of farm ownership, I realised that I needed more theoretical knowledge about agriculture. I am committed to my study and have enjoyed my time at Telford."

Callum is currently working as a Farm Assistant on a 400 cow dairy farm near Stratford for his father. He is looking forward to his 2IC position

Claire Douglas says that while she did not grow up on a farm, this did not stop her passion and interest in a dairy sector career.

“Studying Agriculture at Pukekohe High School increased my interest in a career in the agriculture. It gave me the motivation to attend Taratahi Agricultural Training centre to further develop practical skills and knowledge.”

After completing the Level 4 Certificate in Agriculture, Claire started a fulltime career in dairying. She worked two seasons on-farm putting her knowledge and skills into practice and continued to develop teamwork skills.

When Jordan Biddle was at school he had little inkling that he'd make farming his career choice. But that all changed after starting work part time on farms when he was just fifteen, doing odd jobs such as fencing. The breakthrough came two years later when he was offered a permanent role at Waitaha Station in northern Hawke’s Bay.

His career got a boost after receiving the Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award (sheep and beef).

Courtney and Kathy had quite different journeys to reach their current positions on farm, but they both stemmed from a deep love for animals.

Courtney Herlihy grew up in town, but she had long held a passion for animals.

For Kathy Barrett it was being “mad-keen on animals, especially horses” since childhood that got her into farm work.

Several generations of Harriet Gardner's family have farmed their Waimate property, and since 1982 they have carefully breed a unique flock of sheep featuring only black, brown and grey-coloured animals whose wool is now exported all over the world.

Harriet’s official title on the farm is ‘shepherd’ – a position which she says actually means “the person who does most jobs”.

Melissa Stephen's job is to translate complex ideas and data into information that is quick for farmers to understand and use to make decisions about their herd.

Studying at Lincoln University, Melissa wanted to be a rural banker but became more and more interested in animal science, so started taking animal science papers.

“I find genetics really interesting. It’s an exciting field to be part of and is moving forward at a million miles per hour!”

Richard George studied a bachelor of agri-science at Lincoln University, which served as an ideal platform to not only learn about but experience the magnitude of career opportunities available in the agricultural sector.

After graduation and a few years of seed industry experience, Richard specialised further by undertaking a PhD to ‘future proof’ himself in a science-orientated industry that is constantly evolving.

His role involves a diversity of jobs, ranging from operating farm machinery, right through to planning and carrying out genetic experiments.

Mark Gasquoine grew up on a dairy farm which fuelled his enthusiasm for a career in agriculture and for farming in a way that would leave the land in a better state for the future.

In his current role at Waikato Regional Council, Mark works with farmers to ensure they are applying environmental best practice and operating within certain requirements.

He regularly engages with farmers, rural professionals and other groups to ensure industry-wide collaboration – giving him plenty of opportunities to get out of the office and onto farms!

Caleb Highman wasn’t sure what to study or exactly what he wanted to do after high school. His high school careers advisor pointed him in the direction of science, a career in which he could enjoy the outdoors and science.

“I’ve always loved science. I find it fascinating; science explains the world around me and I’ve always been curious about that.”

Caleb studied at The University of Waikato. “I was initially enrolled in earth science, but qualified with a Bachelor of Science, completing a double major in Biology and Chemistry.”

Laura Buckthought's pathway was an interesting one. After graduating from Lincoln University with a Bachelor of Science, she worked as an environmental consultant for two years.

“During this time I realised my true interest was scientific research, so I undertook a PhD in soil science which got me back to my passion for applied research.”

Laura’s love of research helped land her ideal job, a scientist position within Auckland Council’s Research and Evaluation Unit.

Rosana Palliser grew up on a family farm and was involved from an early age. Her interest in the farm and strong broad subjects that she took at school in science and maths lead her to study at Massey University.

After university Rosana joined the Fonterra Graduate programme where she has thrived on the variety of the work. The graduate programme involved rotating around different departments to give varied work experience.

She currently works as a Business Analyst at Farm Source. “I am really enjoying my role, where I combine farm support, financial tools and the advice farmers need to grow profitably."

Ryan Lett grew up in Carterton, a town boy with a really strong interest in the land and animals."

After completing his Bachelor of Commerce/Agriculture degree majoring in Farm Management and Rural Valuation at Lincoln University, Ryan went dairy farming for a year while his partner completed her degree.

"I am not just a salesperson. I am also an adviser and I work with farmers to build better herds through knowing their herds’ needs, through visiting them regularly and developing trust."

Stacey Belton grew up on a dairy farm in the Waikato which developed her passion for agriculture. After three years of studying at Lincoln University, Stacey enjoyed farm the management papers the most.

She now works for a large consulting firm. “I work with some intelligent, experienced people, and participate in some big projects.”

Lauren Woolerton was brought up on a dairy farm in Taupiri (Waikato). This nurtured her passion for people and agriculture. She studied a Bachelor of AgriCommerce at Massey University, majoring in Rural Valuation with a minor in Public Relations and now a rural consultant in Tauranga.

“I travel in my region to help grow strong and prosperous rural communities.”

Matthew Benton grew up on a family operated dairy farm which stimulated his interest in farming. This grew after he enjoyed working on farms in Waikato and North Canterbury during school and university holidays.

“Farm work gave me the opportunity to experience different systems and gain skills and knowledge about the day-to-day management of dairy farming.”

His current role consists of completing on-farm visits, talking with farmers about everything from the operational ‘cows and grass’ side, right through to the strategic direction of the business.

Throughout school, Samantha Robinson loved the sciences and growing up on a dairy farm was interested in what made pastures and crops grow.

Sam suggests high school students, “Go out for a day with people in the industry that interests you to get the best insight into whether the job is for you or not.”

Southland-born Laura Keenan completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Lincoln University, and Advanced Sustainable Nutrient Management at Massey University. She started her career working as an Environmental Consultant for three years in Canterbury, followed by a two year stint in the Waikato, as the Northern North Island Territory Manager.

Now based in the Manawatū in a hugely diverse farming region, she gets to deliver market leading forages to New Zealand farmers through the retail network as an agronomist for Agricom. She is passionate for the technical element of agronomy and farm systems analysis that many farmers across the regions of New Zealand require assistance with. Developing farm system plans, troubleshooting feed ideas, working with farm owners and managers through providing agronomic support are all encompassed in a day with Agricom.

Gore's Kyle Wills completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with Honours in plant science

He is now enjoying an intern role at Ballance Agri-Nutrients. The intern role lasts 6-12 months until all necessary skills and knowledge required to be a nutrient specialist are learned. Skills and knowledge are obtained from completing course work, through sessions with sector experts and outside the classroom shadowing and supporting other nutrient specialists in the field.

Home schooled Jemima Snook completed a Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture) at Lincoln University.

She's now enjoying being part of the graduate accounting programme at BDO in Christchurch, where she prepares accounts for farming clients.

Kirsten Moller was raised on a dairy farm near Waiuku then and studied a conjoint Commerce/Science degree at the University of Auckland.

“After two years I decided that I wanted to include agribusiness in my degree, so I enrolled at Massey University and shifted to Palmerston North."

"The decision was the right one for me because it opened up the whole agribusiness world of opportunities I would not have had if I had stayed in Auckland, where I was competing with thousands of other students for jobs."

Matamata's Beth Hampton completed her Bachelor of Science, double major in Environmental Science and Agribusiness at Waikato University. She is currently a policy analyst in Science Policy at MPI - her work features a lot of analysis and review, and fundamentally, contributes to advice.

Esraa El Shall had always been into science but when she started studying for a Bachelor of Medical Lab Science she found it a bit boring.

"I remembered a food technology day we had at school and how interesting it was. Food is everywhere around us and there’s a lot of science that comes with it, so I decided to change my studies".

"I worked on the Kapiti Feijoa and Pear sorbet, which tastes amazing, and people love it, but every time I look at the green ripple through it I think why didn’t I make it a different colour green."