Working on a dairy farm is one of many fun jobs you can get on a working holiday VISA in New Zealand. To get an idea of the ins and outs of a job like this, I sat down to interview my friend Raven who spent 6 months taking care of baby cows on a dairy farm. While her experience may not be exactly the same as yours, hopefully the details she provides will give you an idea of what you could be in for and how to best prepare.
Photo Credits: Annie Spratt
Q: Can you give an overview of your job in New Zealand?
A: I was in Oamaru, New Zealand [for 6 months]. It is on the south side of the island near Queenstown. I worked on a dairy farm and the job title was calf counselor, I was the only one that worked with the baby cows. I had never done a type of job like that before so it was defiantly weird at times but it was really fun.
It was a big production, there were a couple thousand cows, but there were only five people in total that worked there. The workers were all from New Zealand, I was the only one on a work VISA, for everyone else, this was their full time job. They were all very nice people.
Q: How did you find out about the job?
A: I found the job on this website called Gumtree. It’s like a New Zealand Craigs List. I sent them my resume, then they called me in for an interview and I met with the wife of the guy that owned the farm. I honestly have no idea why they hired me because I have no experience with baby cows or cows of any size.
Q: What type of VISA did you need?
A: I had a working holiday VISA. It was pretty simple, I just did the online application. I was living in Australia at the time and I knew I wanted to come to New Zealand so before I even came I filled out my application. It was pretty quick. [It only took] a couple weeks [to be approved].
Photo Credits: Michael
Q: What was a day in the life like for you?
A: It started pretty early. I would usually have to be there at 5:30am because a lot of times the baby cows would be born in the middle of the night so I would have to get there early to make sure they got fed. There was one pen for all the new baby cows so I would go there first, meet the new babies, and tube feed them. [Next] I would go to the [ones that were a couple month old] and I would bottle feed all of them. Then I would go get the truck and trailer that had a giant milk tank on the back that was attached to a hose and I would drive out into the field where the big green [feeding tank] was and fill [it] up for all the older baby cows. [The day] would usually end at 2:00pm.
Sometimes I would help with other random projects on the ranch. I helped with some fencing, I helped give the older cows injections… I once spent the day drilling holes into metal [milk pump machines].
I worked 9-10 hours [per day], 5 days a week. I did have two days off and the owner's wife would take care of the baby cows [when I was gone].
Q: What was training like?
A: It was [only] a couple days and the owner's wife was with me. She walked me around and showed me how to bottle feed cows and drive the truck around. It was the easiest, most relaxed training. The first time I ever tube fed a cow she told me, you put your fingers in the left of their mouth and you aim the tube down the right. She showed me once and then was like, “Here, you can try.” I did it and everything went fine. I pulled out that tube and she was like, “Oh good you didn’t drown the cow...” Apparently if you put it down the wrong side the cow drowns... but she did not tell me till afterwards.
Q: Compared to the USA, how different was the work environment?
A: It did not feel like a job. It was a very relaxed work environment which was nice. I was not really supervised, [which was strange] especially since I did not know absolutely anything. I feel like in America there is a lot more structure. [Farm work wise] I don't know how to compare it to the states [because I never worked on a farm in the USA].
[Boss relations] were very chill. One time I broke the hose on the truck because I was trying to back up and I jackknifed the trailer. I felt so bad, and [my boss] was like “oh no it’s fine, next time we will just take off the hose and then you can back up." She was super sweet. [They family I nannied for at first] ... I saw them now and again and they were super sweet [too]. There was no bad blood between us, I'm still friends with them on Facebook. Everyone is weirdly nice.
Photo Credits: Mihail Macri
Q: What was the best part of the job?
A: The pay was really nice, especially for the type of work that I was doing. Then, getting to play with baby cows every day.
Q: What were the biggest cons of the job?
A: This is going to get a little dark... The biggest cons of the job was that there was a sickness that went through the ranch while I was working there and we had to kill a lot of baby cows. I am not proud to say this, but you get desensitized to it really quickly. When I first started I could not even watch them do it, but toward the end I was [the one having to] kill the baby cows. The other rough things is, it's a dairy farm, so they don't need boy cows. Anytime a boy was born they put them on a bobby truck and they would go off to an unknown location... and that location was… yeah…
Q: What was the biggest misconception you had about the job?
A: When I got there it was a bit more harsh than I had imagined. These cows have their babies and then you immediately take the babies away. I think in my mind I had pictured it more like a cattle ranch or like a beef ranch. When you are working on a beef ranch, the babies stay because they can drink the milk. But on a dairy farm they can't be drinking what you are trying to sell.
Q: Is there anything you wish you knew before taking the job?
A: I don't know if I realized how long the days would be and how physically and mentally exhausted I would be. There would be some days I would get home, pass out, then wake up again at 5:00am. I sometimes wish I had taken the job for a lesser amount of time and then done something else… maybe do it for a couple months to get the experience and then take an easier job so I could have traveled more and felt more alive.
Photo Credits: Elizabeth Dunne
Q: How much money did you make and save?
A: I got paid biweekly, just like a regular job, and I got paid $18NZD an hour. This job did not include housing or anything. I had to set up a bank account in New Zealand. It was really easy, I brought my passport and my work VISA in and then they just set it up. I had a debit card, same thing as in the USA. Then I had to close my bank account before I left.
I saved a good amount, especially since I was not doing much traveling. I think the biggest spender [was that] I went out to a lot of restaurants because I wanted to try a lot of the food. I probably saved two grand in New Zealand dollars. It was a bit less when I came back to the USA [because of devaluation and exchange rates] so that was a bit sad.
Q: How did taxes work when you got home?
A: It was fine. It got a little confusing because I also spent 6 months in Australia. [When I came back to America] I paid for someone to do my taxes that year so that I did not have to think about it. The weird thing though, is when you are living out of country and you are a US citizen you still have to do your state taxes even if you did not make any money.
Q: Where did you live?
A: When I first got to New Zealand I was a live-in Nanny so I went directly to live with that family. They were a super sweet family but it just wasn't what I wanted. I hated it. Children are not my forte, I am better with animals. The dad I was working for owned a construction company and there was a guy that worked for him who knew I hated it there. Him and his friend, both from Ireland, had a spare room in their house and they offered it to me for free. They also fed me. I got really lucky.
Q: How did you get around? What was driving like?
A: [The man I lived with] let me borrow his car to go to work every day. So I got extremely lucky and I know that is not the norm. [I did not need a special license] I just used my US one.This is how I learned how to drive a manual because all of the cars in New Zealand are manual. They drive on the left, and the wheel is on the opposite side of the car, so I used my left hand for the stick shift. It actually was not as hard as I thought. I think the biggest reminder is that you are always closest to the line.
Photo Credits: Te Pania
Q: How did you spend your free time?
A: This is the one thing where I do have regrets. I regret that I did not travel more. With this job I was honestly so tired because it was very early mornings, a lot of walking around, lifting up baby cows... so I was very tired at the end of the day. On my days off I would go hang out in town with my two roommates, sometimes we would go into Queensland, or to the beach. It was truly like New Zealand was my home because I did not travel as much as I probably should have.
Q: What was the best and worst parts of living in New Zealand?
A: It’s absolutely beautiful. Some of the sunsets I saw there were the most beautiful sunsets I had seen in my entire life. And just the overly friendly nature of everyone I met when I lived there. Everyone in New Zealand is weirdly nice. I can’t remember a single bad person I met. They say New Zealand is one of the safest places because there are no deadly animals that can kill you and everyone is too nice to kill you. I don't actually think there were any cons to living in New Zealand, just that of the job.
Q: What were some culture shocks you had regarding the country?
A: It’s fairly similar in the states. The biggest things I had to get used to was everyone uses the word c**t a lot. It’s like our b***h. The way they phrase it is that there is a good [form] and a bad [form] and you can tell how they mean it by the infliction. The amount of times I was called that word in New Zealand was insane. That was probably the biggest “had to get use to“ thing.
[Also] when you go to a gas station, you get gas [first] and then pay for the gas. Which is mind blowing to me. I remember the first time I was trying to figure it out and I went into the gas station and [asked], "excuse me how do I pay for this?" They [said], "you do it and then you pay." I [asked], "what if I drive away"... and they were like, "don't?" It is not like that in the states.
Q: Did you get homesick?
A: No, [not in the normal homesick way] because at that point I had not been home in years. I did seasonal work [before this] and had moved out when I was 16 so it had been a while… I did get a little [homesick for the USA]. I originally planned to stay in New Zealand for the entire year and after 6 months I miss[ed] my friends... so I came back.
Q: How did you communicate with friends back home?
A: I usually just used Facebook messenger so that I did not need to pay for long distance. I got a new sim card in New Zealand. It was easy, I just [swapped out my US sim card] and put the New Zealand one in my own phone.
Photo Credits: Sean Nyatsine
Q: What is something you wish you knew before living in New Zealand?
A: My friend had a manual car, so maybe I would have practiced more on that because when I got the live in nanny job the dad looked at me and said, “so you can drive a manual?” I was like, "no I can't." It would have been nice if I had learned to drive it before I got there.
Q: Would you do it again?
A: Not work there because I [already] got that experience but I would love to rent a van and travel around New Zealand. I am still very happy I did it, it was very fun.
Q: Any other advice for prospective dairy farm workers?
A: My biggest advice if you are looking to work on a dairy farm would be, know that you are going to work a lot and save a lot of money, so plan extra time to actually go and travel.
Conclusion
There you have it! That is what it's like to work on a dairy farm in New Zealand. Of course, Raven's experience will be different than your own in various ways, but hopefully the experience she has shared will help you figure out if working on a dairy farm is the right job for you!
Credits
A big thanks to Raven for taking the time out of her day to provide so much information and details on the realities of her job. It was wonderful hearing about her experience living and working in New Zealand and getting to know her better as well.
The photos in this post are not mine. Thank you to the photographers who uploaded their photos for free use on Unsplash. They have been credited under their respective photographs.