Walker - Farm for Life: Mahi, mana and life on the land

One morning at about 4.30, I was at the shed doing the milking. I was usually there by myself, so I got a bit of a fright when I heard a voice calling out: Hey mate!

I replied, Hey mate, you all good? Whats up?

He said, Theres been a car accident. Someones hit a cow.

Righto, mate, Ill come out now. Who hit the cow?

A woman.

Is she all right?

Shes dead.

What?! I couldnt believe it. This was not how I was expecting my morning to go: What do you mean shes dead? Oh my god! Have you rung an ambulance? Have you rung the police?

Oh, no, I just thought Id come down and find the first farmer.

I was so angry but also very confused. I jumped on my bike and boosted up to the road. I was nervous about what I was going to find there but I knew I had to do whatever I could to help.

When I got there, I saw a cow lying on her side completely out to it. I knew Id have to kill her if she wasnt already dead as she was very badly injured.

Then I saw a lady leaning up against a car that looked pretty dinged up. Now I was even more confused.

Whats happened? Is an ambulance coming?

She said, Im a farmer. I just live up the road. I realise that at this time of year accidents happen. We were just near the end of calving, so it was towards the end of winter, which meant the roads were a bit slippery some mornings.

If she was the one whod crashed and shed killed someone, how come she was so calm?

But wheres the lady who died?

It was her turn to be confused. Theres no one else here. Its just me.

I looked over to the fella who came and got me. Bro! You said someone had died

He goes: I meant the cow, man. You asked me if she was okay and I told you she was dead.

I dont care about the cow! I thought you meant the driver was dead.

I worked out that the heifer had calved then lost the plot because wed separated her from the herd. She was trying to get back to them, and she managed to clear about four five-wire fences before breaking through our boundary fence and onto the road.

The lady just happened to be driving past on her way to work when the cow bolted onto the road and collided with the car. The driver was really shaken up and her car was a write-off. I was so relieved that she wasnt badly injured and she didnt have her kids in the car. It could have been so much worse.

That whole experience made me realise something. While we farmers can be seen as weirdos, a lot of people out there dont understand us at all. That guy really thought I cared more about the cow than the person who hit her. It made me even more determined to try to share what I love about my job with other people. I want them to understand why we do what we do, and to maybe think that it might be a career that could work for them.

To want to get up at four in the morning every day, youve got to be missing something. Actually, that parts easy once the gumboots are on, but its that 30 metres from the bed to the boots that youve got to get through. Thats the bit that takes that little bit of weirdo to get through each day.

The best thing about the job is that its forever changing. You never know what youre going to walk into every day. You turn on the lights on your motorbike and your day can change instantly. The surprise aspect of it is awesome. I can go from being knee-deep in mud calving a cow then have to go home, have a shower, get changed and go into town for a business meeting with my accountant or my bank manager.

Were not just cow cockies either were running big businesses. Every day, on the property where I work, we milk 550 cows twice a day. The milk this farm produces in a year feeds 3,250,000 people their recommended protein and fat intakes for a single day. So for every hectare (equivalent to two rugby fields) we feed 14,200 people their recommended protein and fat intakes for a single day. Thats a quarter of the population of Invercargill.

Ive been working on dairy farms since I got my first weekend job when I was 12. Before that, Id been through some stuff, including going to six schools before I turned six and being whngaied twice before I was seven. I was six when I went to live with my auntie and uncle on their small farm just out of Tauranga. It was there that I really got to learn about what its like to work on a farm.

I realise now that that was an experience that heaps of town kids used to have when theyd go and stay at their cousins house at the farm for the holidays. But now a lot of those town kids never get a chance to go and stay in the country and learn about farming, so its up to people like me to try to use social media to not only capture peoples interest but to educate them without them even really knowing.

Thats one of the reasons why I set up my Facebook page, Farm 4 Life. On it, I basically talk a lot about what an awesome job dairy farming is, and I also share heaps of information about what happens on the farm, show some of the jobs we do and talk about some of the issues that farmers face.

While those kids are watching my videos, they not only find out more about dairy farming, which is the backbone of New Zealand, but they might also begin to think about whether its an industry they might want to work in.

Back when I was at school, I was the dumb arse because they didnt have a measure for the things that I was good at. From 2002 until 2007, I thought I was dumb the whole time. That still sits with me. I still think Im dumb because I cant spell very well. Thats my insecurity, but it was created because the measurements they used within the school system only benefited some people. I know there are heaps of kids out there who feel that way too, and I want to tell them that theyre not dumb. Not meeting those tight criteria at school doesnt mean youre going to be bad at business, and it doesnt mean youre not going to be successful in life. You can do whatever you want to do, you just have to really put your mind to it and work hard.

One of the other reasons I started Farm 4 Life was to shed a light on what we do as farmers. Its not just about putting cups on cows, its about patting them as they walk up the lane and looking after them as best we can. I saw this as a good chance to share my passion for dairy farming and to tell the story from grass to glass.

We farmers get hammered by the media sometimes. Theres a lot of negative stuff out there because there are a small number of people on farms who arent pulling their weight and theyre the ones who get focused on. Those people are the ones who are letting us down and they need to be booted out of the industry because theyre giving all of us who are trying to do good a bad name.