Custom Cutting Down Under

AndrewB

Member
Location
Kincardineshire
Yea @shearerlad long time ago now.

when we finished college most of us went to Australia to do a harvest..
6 of us where on the same large farm, he ran 4 headers 24 hrs a day, we were lucky as we were home to our own bed every night and had a full time cook to look after us. Some friends worked for a contractor in the east and they weren’t so lucky, sleeping in headers or dirty shearer quarters as they moved about the country. I went back for another 2 harvests the farm paid for return flights as they couldn’t source reliable local workforce. We were treated like family by the boss, Xmas day with his familybooked us accommodation and gave us farm vehicles to go to Perth at new year etc.

we worked hard for 2.5 months end of Oct to beginning of Jan but we partied harder for the next 3-4 months travelling Australia and New Zealand spending our hard earned money.

A few of the boys stayed on to do a season in New Zealand or seeding in Australia but I stupidly came home to do spring work.

It was a great experience and would throughly recommend it to any young person before they get tied down and response abilities in life. Try and get some recommendations from people that have been out there recently.

The farm we were at was sold to Lawson grains, we had at least 10 years of local lads heading from Scotland the same farm all though word of mouth no need for CV s.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Did a few seasons on a dubbo outfit ,would travel up to coonamble around 10th November then work down country till Xmas, travelling town to town there were loads of contracting outfits along the way , easier said than done but if you turned up and kept asking there would be work , having said that my old boss hasnt had a crop last 3 seasons.

Dennis Coaker?
 
I went over in 1999. Arrived in Sydney and after a week i needed to move on. I had a cousin in perth and a cousin in Brisbane. So flipped a coin and went for Brisbane.
Had a few jobs through the hostel, mostly cash in hand labour jobs.
Didn't have any ag contacts in Oz so did the visit Oz scheme. Ended up on a sheep and cattle station 400k north of Broken Hill, ended up.doing a lot of work with a motor grader. Took the train from broken hill, to Western Australia, got chatting to this old guy in the smoking cart on the back of the train, ended up on a pub crawl around Kalgoorlie when the train stopped there. worked for John Nicoletti as a combine driver, with a couple of lads from Somerset, Had an orphans Christmas with the kiwi truck drivers from John's transport company, and spent the millennium at a small rodeo somewhere with a couple of bottles of Bundy and a few of the truck drivers.
Moved on to Perth to see my cousin, was odd jobbing it there. Eventually built a house with a school teacher.
Went from Oz to New Zealand for a month to see the replies, and did a quick tour of the South Island on the Kiwi experience, my only regret was not staying in NZ longer and working there.
Pete tell your lad to go for the full 12 months, not just for the harvest, with a good work ethic, there are plenty of jobs out there. A mate of mine went in 98 just for the harvest, ended up working on the construction of some of the Olympic infrastructure for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
The internet these days had made it easy, plenty of websites / Facebook etc advertising work (well in a non covid year).
If he's interested in the us. There's a Welshman from north Wales in Kansas called Hughes Harvesting, he's on Facebook .
 

JRE69

Member
Location
Angus
I did a seeding at Mukinbudin in WA in 1990 then travelled and picked up the odd bit of work for the rest of the year, met my future wife there and was the best year of my life. Definitely encourage young ones to do it before the get tied down with jobs, cars, partners etc
 
Same for me. I didn’t want to go when I could, but wish I had.

At the time I had the chance to set up my business and felt that I had to either get on with that or go and work abroad. The business would quite honestly have waited.
I've since more than made up for it with travel through a Nuffield Scholarship and other trips but I would have undoubtedly benefitted from the experience when younger.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
I went over in 1999. Arrived in Sydney and after a week i needed to move on. I had a cousin in perth and a cousin in Brisbane. So flipped a coin and went for Brisbane.
Had a few jobs through the hostel, mostly cash in hand labour jobs.
Didn't have any ag contacts in Oz so did the visit Oz scheme. Ended up on a sheep and cattle station 400k north of Broken Hill, ended up.doing a lot of work with a motor grader. Took the train from broken hill, to Western Australia, got chatting to this old guy in the smoking cart on the back of the train, ended up on a pub crawl around Kalgoorlie when the train stopped there. worked for John Nicoletti as a combine driver, with a couple of lads from Somerset, Had an orphans Christmas with the kiwi truck drivers from John's transport company, and spent the millennium at a small rodeo somewhere with a couple of bottles of Bundy and a few of the truck drivers.
Moved on to Perth to see my cousin, was odd jobbing it there. Eventually built a house with a school teacher.
Went from Oz to New Zealand for a month to see the replies, and did a quick tour of the South Island on the Kiwi experience, my only regret was not staying in NZ longer and working there.
Pete tell your lad to go for the full 12 months, not just for the harvest, with a good work ethic, there are plenty of jobs out there. A mate of mine went in 98 just for the harvest, ended up working on the construction of some of the Olympic infrastructure for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
The internet these days had made it easy, plenty of websites / Facebook etc advertising work (well in a non covid year).
If he's interested in the us. There's a Welshman from north Wales in Kansas called Hughes Harvesting, he's on Facebook .
He’s a good guy. Spoke to his crew one year and they all liked him.
 
Came straight home from college as I wanted to kick on with the farm at home, with the idea that I could do a Nuffield and so on after a year or two, by the time I thought it was feasible had a wife and a baby on the way.....too late !

Don’t miss the boat, go while you can.

Which reminds me, applications are now open for 2021 Nuffield Scholarships https://www.nuffieldscholar.org
Crack on and do it if it's something you keep putting off!
(sorry @chaffcutter I think that you might be past the age limit of 45)
 

Barleymow

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Ipswich
I did a seeding at Mukinbudin in WA in 1990 then travelled and picked up the odd bit of work for the rest of the year, met my future wife there and was the best year of my life. Definitely encourage young ones to do it before the get tied down with jobs, cars, partners etc
I did a seeding season in Muckinbudin in 87
 

d8666

New Member
Location
Nw Ireland
Did a season with Demaray harvesting around 10 years ago. Well worth it and you definalty see a lot of different farming practices. Literally from from the desert in Arizona right on the Mexian border right up to the Canadian border in North Dakota.
All Mexian labour in AZ to family farms in NDz.
They put everyone through the CDL aswell so there was plenty of variety and not just stuck on a combine for weeks at on and end.
Best part was meeting and talking with all the smaller farmers in the lineups to tip at grain stores.
 

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adam_farming

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Whether it's US, NZ, Australia I think the consensus is definitely do something!! Most people with few exceptions, when I tell them of my US trip say "I wish I'd done that". My brother is on his 3rd NZ season currently, he was with me in America and before that did a harvest in Aus. His next target is Canada. Slightly different I guess as we have no family farm to get back to but there isn't any of it he regrets. Especially as he hasn't seen a winter for about 4 years!
 

Devon James

Member
Location
Devon
I believe there's plenty of harvest jobs in Australia but don't personally have experience of them, they often advertise for Kiwi's to go over. @Farmer Roy ?
If he fancies NZ I'd recommend somewhere that does a range of work as some jobs can soon end up with no work in a dry time.
Won't go far wrong with these guys.
Pye Group - Agricultural Business

If he gets the right place he could do a season in the US then follow the summer down under. Never see a winter (y)
Ahh, memories! Do you ever here from Graham? Or Andrew, Charlie? Is Gordo still around?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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