Q. What regions does your role cover?
I support cohorts in the South Island and the Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay too.
Q. Applications for students and farm trainers closes on Friday. What sort of response have you had so far?
It has been pretty good but at the moment we have more students than farms available, so we are trying to recruit some more farmers down here. We would love to get more of both and create opportunities to set students up on a good farm.
Q. So you are still seeking applications from students despite a lack of applications from farmers?
I’m going to ring around some farmers who have showed interest and see if they are still keen to come on board.
Q. Are you confident more farmers will come on board?
Q. Are you lacking farmers in Otago or Southland?
Both. The door is open in both regions. The more the merrier.
Q. Does a farm have to be of a certainscale to be part of the programme?
About 8000 stock units but it’s giveor take. We review each farm case-by-case and see if we can makeit work.
Q. Does the programme solely focus on training on sheep and beef farms?
Yes. We are planning to branch out into the dairy sector and we are hatching a plan for a pilot programme in 2026 but we want to fine-tune the sheep and beef one first and then get into the horticulture and arable sectors.
Q. Sheep commodity prices are down and the weather could be better for lambing and calving in the South. Do you think some sheep and beef farmers will be looking at the looming deadline to apply to take on a student and put it in the too-hard basket?
That is a barrier at the moment, I’ll be 100% honest. It is all getting too hard and they have to provide accommodation and electricity and internet and it is a cost to the farmer but they have to focus on the positive that they are contributing to the industry by supporting these young ones and creating future job opportunities for them. Then when the farmer has junior shepherd roles come up on their farm they have the first opportunity to employ the graduates.
