Hello everybody! After browsing the forums I'm very glad I found you all! There is clearly some very knowledgeable and helpful people here so thank you for your time in advance!
I am originally from Somerset, but have lived overseas for about 14 years now. I have been working in the dairy industry for six years full time in New Zealand and Australia, where I met my partner (he was my manager on a farm in Victoria!) and we would appreciate some advice and information about moving to the UK and what to expect from working in the dairy industry. We left Australia for NZ as my partner's dad was very ill and sadly he passed away last year. My parents are not getting any younger and my dad has Parkinson's so now it is me feeling the call of home, and as a couple we are ready for a new adventure.
We have been managing a beautiful 80 hectare split calving farm in the North Island for just over two years now, with 300 mostly crossbred cows when we started, and now achieving similar production with 260 cows and aiming for 520kgms/cow this year. There is only the two of us on farm, with relief milkers giving us three days off every third weekend. We work for a sharemilker who has investments in multiple farms, and the farm owners do most of the farm maintainance and their son helps us on occasion if we need an extra pair of hands for herd testing etc.
I have worked as a vet nurse, and spent a lot of time with horses in various aspects, and I am currently studying a degree through Aberystwyth University distance learning with ruminant nutrition as my main focus but I have a passion for cows, soil, crops, and genetics, which I initially caught from my partner. He has been in dairy for over 20 years and while he has recieved offers of farm advisor positions and genetic consultant work, we both very much love moulding our life around the ladies. He is a competent hoof trimmer, having completed training courses in Australia, is experienced with AI, and is very capable of calculating requirements and formulating appropriate feed rations. He has managed large herds and multiple staff members on corporate farms in Australia, and seems to already know most of the content of my Uni work!
Salary is not our greatest concern, nor is location. We are interested in moving forward with our career, continuing to feed our hunger for knowledge and understanding, and ideally would like to build equity and a business in the future.
Any thoughts or input that can help us get a grasp on what we should expect in the UK, where/when to look, and positions that will likely be available to us would be very welcome, and thank you very much for taking the time to read my post.
Jenny
I am originally from Somerset, but have lived overseas for about 14 years now. I have been working in the dairy industry for six years full time in New Zealand and Australia, where I met my partner (he was my manager on a farm in Victoria!) and we would appreciate some advice and information about moving to the UK and what to expect from working in the dairy industry. We left Australia for NZ as my partner's dad was very ill and sadly he passed away last year. My parents are not getting any younger and my dad has Parkinson's so now it is me feeling the call of home, and as a couple we are ready for a new adventure.
We have been managing a beautiful 80 hectare split calving farm in the North Island for just over two years now, with 300 mostly crossbred cows when we started, and now achieving similar production with 260 cows and aiming for 520kgms/cow this year. There is only the two of us on farm, with relief milkers giving us three days off every third weekend. We work for a sharemilker who has investments in multiple farms, and the farm owners do most of the farm maintainance and their son helps us on occasion if we need an extra pair of hands for herd testing etc.
I have worked as a vet nurse, and spent a lot of time with horses in various aspects, and I am currently studying a degree through Aberystwyth University distance learning with ruminant nutrition as my main focus but I have a passion for cows, soil, crops, and genetics, which I initially caught from my partner. He has been in dairy for over 20 years and while he has recieved offers of farm advisor positions and genetic consultant work, we both very much love moulding our life around the ladies. He is a competent hoof trimmer, having completed training courses in Australia, is experienced with AI, and is very capable of calculating requirements and formulating appropriate feed rations. He has managed large herds and multiple staff members on corporate farms in Australia, and seems to already know most of the content of my Uni work!
Salary is not our greatest concern, nor is location. We are interested in moving forward with our career, continuing to feed our hunger for knowledge and understanding, and ideally would like to build equity and a business in the future.
Any thoughts or input that can help us get a grasp on what we should expect in the UK, where/when to look, and positions that will likely be available to us would be very welcome, and thank you very much for taking the time to read my post.
Jenny
