Good life down on the farm

Farm work: dirty, isolated, poorly paid? Not any more, reports ESTELLE SARNEY.

Mark Bingham, 40, was an aircraft technician and a policeman before switching careers to become a dairy herd manager.

Brendan Taylor, 19, has been farming for three years and has just become manager of a 400-cow dairy farm in Cambridge, earning $39,000 with free accommodation.

He's studying agriculture part-time, has a seven-year plan to buy his own herd, with the multi-million dollar business of farm ownership his ultimate aim.

Helen Barnes, 24, finished in the top five per cent of science students at Massey University when she completed a bachelor of applied science, won a scholarship to do her honours degree in plant science, and is now doing her masters part time while working as a horticulture consultant in Tauranga.

These three have come at their careers in agriculture or horticulture from different angles - but all are on a fast-moving career path in a sector crying out for workers and offering robust rewards.

The dairy industry alone estimates it will need 5000 more workers in the next five years. Sue Pickering of the Fruitgrowers Federation says her industry currently employs 35,000 people, and exports are expected to boom from $2 billion to $3.5 billion by 2010. The meat and wool sectors are suffering similar labour shortfalls.

This is due partly to the speed at which the farming sector is growing and changing, says Kevin Bryant, chief executive of the Agriculture Industry Training Organisation.

"Returns are better, so husband-and-wife operations can afford to take on staff. Farms get bigger and a new type of employee is sought - the farm manager. The family farm becomes more of a corporate farm, employing teams of people and run like the multi-million dollar business it is."

He adds: "An 18-year-old farm worker with a couple of years experience can earn $26,000 with a free house.

"A herd manager or farm manager with a few more years experience, in charge of $2 million worth of cows and plant, can earn $70,000-$90,000, with a free house, motorbike and other perks."

Andrew Fenton of the Fruitgrowers Federation says fruit companies are employing orchard managers in charge of six to 10 orchards and the staff employed in them, and paying $50,000 plus a vehicle.

Researchers with technical degrees doing grower advisory work can earn $60,000-$80,000.

"Senior executives, such as financial controllers, can earn $80,000-$200,000. Fruit companies are recruiting them from city corporates - whether you're selling fridges or kiwifruit, the principles are the same."

And why wouldn't you move? You can earn the same money you did in town but live in Mt Maunganui, where Zespri International is now based, or in the Hawkes Bay with Enza.

All this puts paid to the misconceptions that a land-related job is for dummies, earning low pay, stuck in the middle of nowhere with no social life.

Yes, say Bingham and Taylor, the hours can be long and the work can be hard, but so it is in most jobs these days.

And at least for part of it you're outside doing a wide range of work - milking, calving, machine maintenance, building or pasture management.

Bingham says his wife and two children are loving the country school and community they're now involved in.

Taylor says most of his friends work on surrounding farms; they help each other out, and he still gets plenty of time off to party in town or play rugby.

But if you really don't like getting your hands dirty, then Helen Barnes' work would be more your line.

She spends part of the week in the office doing research and analysing data, and the rest visiting orchardists to advise them on how to improve their performance.

"I might get sprayed by a sprinkler when I'm monitoring irrigation, but that's about it," she laughs.

Getting these messages out to young people is a job of Dexcel, a dairy industry body charged with improving dairy farmers' competitiveness and profitability. Its workers meet with school careers advisers and send information to students and parents to show them the diversity of opportunities available in agriculture, and how well they can pay.

The marketing, retailing and servicing of the agriculture sector are some options not thought of by teenagers who have trouble seeing past the farm gate.

"Tertiary fees can be a burden and can be the difference between choosing a degree in agriculture and something else, if the student thinks the long-term earnings will be better," says Dexcel education manager Miranda Hunter.

"But after eight to 10 years, most people in agriculture will be earning more, and have more assets, than those in city jobs."

Dexcel has just awarded 31 scholarships to cover degree fees for promising students. There are literally hundreds of courses available in agriculture and horticulture through polytechs, universities, the Agriculture ITO and other providers all over the country. Farm employers also need educating about their responsibilities when it comes to staff. Dexcel and farming consultants Agriculture New Zealand are running 25 courses nationally on employers' legal obligations, what farm workers want and expect, and how to attract the staff they desperately need.