The shearing contractor works on about 150 farms in the middle of the landlocked country in Central Europe.
He lives with his wife Ola Barkerova and their daughter Zofie, 17, in the village Hubenov, south of Prague.
Hubenov translates to "very poor soil" due to it being sandy.
"The only bonus is we don’t get any mud," he said.
Temperatures had been holding at about 30°C.
Summer had been hot but there had been enough rain "to keep things green".
The second cut of hay was due and he wasn’t expecting it to be as good as the first.
After moving to the village, he bought a mobile Handypiece shearing machine and took over from an injured shearer in 2010.
The Czech Republic had about 150,000 sheep and about 20 people shearing them, he said.
When he started, he was in a team of four crutching, shearing and trimming the feet of about 5500 sheep each season.
After accepting a job to help high school students speak English, he now works on about 1000 sheep by himself.
The wool was considered worthless and was usually dumped or composted by the farmer, which was "a shame".
The last time he sold wool in the Czech Republic was for NZ20c/kg to export to Poland four years ago.
As there was no demand, farmers did not try to grow quality wool.
The Czech Republic had no meat processing plants with any capacity so most sheep were sold and trucked live to Austria and Holland for fattening for six months and then killed.
Sheepmeat prices were on a par with New Zealand, he said.
Most of the sheep in the Czech Republic had a tail due to a European Union (EU) law forbidding docking.
The lawmakers had since discovered leaving all of a tail could make a sheep daggier and attract flies.
"It was a law someone in an office in Europe made without consulting a farmer."
His farming history in New Zealand includes his grandparents Charles and Ettie Barker owning the 30,000ha merino property Ben Lomond Station in Queenstown.
His father and uncle took over the station and sold it in 1972, when John was a 1-year-old.
After the sale, his parents Maurice and Celia Barker moved to Queenstown and his father spent two years working as a builder.
During this time his brother Stevie was born.
The family bought a 250ha sheep farm at The Key near Te Anau in 1974, the same year his youngest brother Tim was born.
Back-to-back droughts hit The Key the first two years of the family owning the sheep and beef farm, running a Romney and Coopworth cross flock and a herd of Hereford cows.
"It was tough but they hung in and managed to turn it around."
John was 16 when he and his brothers invested in fencing and bought 10 hinds to diversify the family farm in 1987 and built the herd up to 100.
To ensure he went on an OE, he booked tickets for the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.
His travel between South Africa and the United Kingdom included several months in Israel, Egypt and Jordan.
A lambing beat in Northern Scotland was his first job in the United Kingdom.
He returned home to the farm in 1996 and met his future wife Ola, who was travelling with friends in New Zealand in 1999.
A relationship started and he visited her in Prague at Christmas the same year.
He stayed and they got married in 2002.
The Barkers now own 1ha and rent 4ha in Hubenov.
In winter, they rent another 2ha for grazing.
They run eight horses, a mix of Irish and Welsh cobs, a thoroughbred and a paint horse.
Mrs Barkerova uses the horses to hold a pony club twice a week and up to three summer camps.
Land and property ownership was cheaper in the Czech Republic than in New Zealand but farm sales were rare.
Farmland often had multiple owners, who wanted to rent rather than sell so they could get a subsidy from the EU.
"No-one is selling because land is a good investment. If there was no subsidies in Europe, I think half the farmers would finish as it wouldn’t be worth it."
