Q. Firstly, when did you get to Scotland?
The Young Farmers exchange started in the last week of May, which, after being in England working for two months lambing and then shearing, was my first time in Scotland.
Q. How long are you going to be over there?
I have been in the United Kingdom since the end of March. I was in Carlisle (northwest England) for a month for indoor lambing and then I went to Cheshire, south of Manchester, where I was based, and was shearing and helping out on a couple of farms in days between.
Q. Can you tell me a bit about your education and work experience, and any highlights of both?
I moved to the South Island to study at Telford, where I spent two years, and cannot recommend it enough. After the certificate and diploma in agriculture, I furthered my studies with a year at Lincoln University with a diploma in farm management, where I got the job with Lone Star Farms at Caberfeidh.
It was an excellent start to my shepherding and allowed for a great amount of growth in my skill set. I spent my last summer working at Collie Hills to broaden my skills, especially on the side of stud stock.
Q. Why did you apply for the Scottish exchange?
Scotland has been on my bucket list for some time, and what a way to not only see but experience the country, than to live and work in it and to experience a bit of every day life — from different home-cooked foods or holidays and traditions that you simply don't experience if I was travelling the country as a backpacker.
Q. Can you tell us what you have learned from the Scottish exchange?
It has been interesting learning about the difference in systems between the UK and New Zealand. The carcass conformation is a lot larger and muscular than our breeds at home.
With longer winters and stock being kept indoors, larger-framed animals can be easily housed with less impacts on the ground. Also, larger stock produce offspring that is up to market weight sooner.
It is a system that works well for the majority of the country and the results are certainly impressive.
A widely used concept in the sheep industry in the UK that is not utilised in New Zealand is the use of hybrid vigour or first-cross maternal flocks ... Crossbreed ewe lambs get brought in yearly and typically put to a ram of high carcass quality, with the majority of progeny being fattened. In some cases, ewe lambs are being sold as breeding stock to lower land [farms] and the chain of hybrid vigour continues.
The subsidy scheme is a major difference between our two agricultural industries. With subsidies decreasing very quickly, there is a lot of uncertainty in the industry full stop.
The subsidies are not as simple as per head or acre as they once were, but with a lot more environmental incentives such as leaving paddocks out of rotation for cropping or livestock production for a contracted period of years, and even contractors coming out to grow crops and leave them unharvested for natural wildlife.
(During times of ever-increasing population and food prices so high, there are many farmers that don't make sense of this at all).
This experience has made me realise that the efficiency and eagerness of our New Zealand farmers to produce such a high-quality, low-carbon product without the assistance of publicly paid subsidies is taken for granted by the general public.
It has been fantastic seeing the difference in the Young Farmers organisations. My first host being the national vice-chairman, I had a good insight to some of the politics behind it. I was more impressed with the range of competitions.
Their main event of the of the year had competitions ranging from farm skills of stock judging, evaluation of farm machinery and equipment, vehicle fault-finding, identification, sports such as football, netball, tug-o-war, tossing the sheaf and sprint races. The variation of talent came out with other crafts such as farm sign-making, a variation of cooking and baking, coaster-making and much more. With the continued growth of New Zealand Young Farmers, there is great possibility to add some of these events into our national competitions.
Q. What will this mean for you?
I look forward to returning to New Zealand and being able to see how viable it is to implement some of the practices I have learned over in the UK. Some small changes may add up to go a long way. I am also looking forward to being back with the New Zealand Young Farmers clubs and being involved in the national committee again, to keep growing and making positive impacts on the young communities.
Q. How long will you be in Scotland?
I am planning to be in the UK and Europe for another year. I have a two-year working holiday visa, so I plan to see all the seasons through to get a thorough understanding of the agricultural systems and, of course, to see the sights and delights that this side of the world has to offer.
Q. Will it all be work (training) or a holiday too?
I had fantastic hosts and had a really good balance of work and holiday, and have been taken to many local attractions such as castles, beaches, whisky distilleries, farm tours, Young Farmers events and socials.
To read my journal to see what I got up to, head along to the NZYF website: https://www.youngfarmers.co.nz/news
Q. I understand you finished off your trip with the Royal Highland Show, which included the World Golden Shears.
The Highland show was an incredible event, well worth attending if you are in Scotland at the end of June.
I spent a lot of time in the shearing shed watching the spectacle of the golden shears, proudly cheering on the New Zealand team with finalists in the single and teams blade shearing and the team machine shear — unfortunately not making the final of the singles machine shear. Great Britain had the reign on the top six.
