I think back to my high school. I didn't hear the word "agriculture" ever, aye.
There's kids like me, and s**t, some of them would have made good farmers or good farm managers, you know?
I think maybe the message doesn't get put out as much as it should
You can start a shepherding job on $50k, be in some amazing country, you're put in a
house, if you go on a station they'll cook for you. It's a pretty good deal!
A lot of kids where I come from, that I grew up with - if this had been talked about and shown
to us, probably a lot of kids in Hastings that could be doing something a bit more meaningful, aye.
I'm Kim Rorrison, Block Manager of Parks Peak in Central Hawke's Bay
I'm a block manager at Parks Peak for Smedley Station. It's run as a standalone breeding
block for Smedley. I'm in charge of daily/weekly planning and running of this farm here.
We winter 4600 ewes, 220 cows, and 1300 hoggetts.
Smedley is a practical, hands-on training farm. We take 13 cadets a year for a two-year cadetship.
First year they rip into all things general - learning how to do dog tuckers and and muttons,
learning how to shear, learning how to crutch. Fencing is a big part of your first year, you know,
all those general skills that someone going out into the industry needs. Then come second year,
that's sort of where this farm really comes into play, you know, trying to learn that stockmanship.
So they're learning how to break in their dogs, they're really starting to figure out how to ride
those horses properly, and the beauty of the blocks is when we get out into that country, you know,
we've got 36 to 170 hectare paddocks out there, you know, they've actually got space to have a crack.
These are working commercial farms. It's not a bums-on-seats approach. The farms have to be profitable
in order to house cadets, and to be able to do what we do.
They're mad keen, but there's a lot of learning to do.
You know, you've got an animal with a mind of its own, chasing other
animals with a mind of their own, and you're sitting on an animal with a mind of its own,
and you're trying to get that whole formula to work together to achieve a common goal.
Oh yeah, but you know, it's amazing how quick they do pick it up.
They want to know the "why" behind what's going on. I think young people in general now, aye, like it's
not "go shift that mob", it's they want to know the reason behind why they're doing stuff.
I like it aye, teaching stock work, you know, it's something I love, when you sort of
teach them what you're passionate about aye, like it's easy.
Start of the year we're holding hands, learning how to do it. We've had boys throw saddles
on backwards and all sorts aye, but, you know, that's what this place is for aye.
You're getting exposed to deer, breeding stock, finishing stock, you're doing the
fencing, you're doing the water, you're doing the dog tuckers, you're doing the theory work.
We're getting all these people that are at the top of their fields, and the vets, and the consultants,
you know, and they're getting exposed to all of that in these two years.
And they can just start that first job, or off to uni, and they just hit the ground running.
It's an awesome industry to be a part of.
It is the backbone of New Zealand, and we're bloody good at it, I reckon.
It is a lifestyle. It's not a nine-to-five.
It's cold, it's hard. I bloody love it aye.