Life on farm suits down to the ground
Fewer young people are signing up for primary sector vocational courses, but Wairarapa shepherd Ashley Greer is swimming against the tide.
Ever since she was a teenager, Greer wanted to work on a farm, although she never had the opportunity when she was young.
‘‘I grew up in Bulls, my dad was a farm worker but we left the farm when I hit high school. I never got all the hands-on experience like other kids did because it wasn’t our farm,’’ she says.
But Greer’s positivity about her chosen career is contrary to the negative view of the industry that young people have – more attracted as they are by the pull of urban life, and unclear about career pathways and opportunities.
In the past five years there has been a 31 per cent drop in lowerlevel learners entering vocational training, with more than 10,000 learners opting out of industry training and provider-based education.
‘‘Key reasons for the decline include the economic environment for dairying, reducing provider numbers offering primary sector education, and the exit from regulatory compliance training,’’ the Tertiary Education Commission told a recent Primary Production select committee.
While degree and postgraduate enrolments have remained stable, between 2014-2018 the number of learners entering level one to three vocational training dropped 31 per cent – from 34,177 to 23,471 – while the decline in the number of people enrolling into level four to six qualification courses was 17 per cent – down 2322. The latter figure was balanced out by a 17 per cent uptake in post-graduate qualifications within the primary sector.
Last year the Taratahi Institute of Agriculture went into liquidation due to plummeting student numbers and mounting debt, which affected 250 jobs and 2850 students.
Greer said she was lucky in her choice of high schools as Feilding was one of the few in the country with a working farm. There she earned NCEA credits for learning how to milk a cow, and got to do ‘‘farm duty’’ a few days a year.
Students who were leaving in the fifth form were able to do a day every week or fortnight on a farm, gaining invaluable practical experience.
Greer chose to enrol at Massey, where she initially entertained the notion of becoming a veterinarian.
‘‘But about 500 people apply and 50 people get in, it’s highly competitive and you have to have top grades all round. I wasn’t studious enough, I would never have been able to compete with those people locked in their rooms all day studying.’’
Instead she studied for a Bachelor of Science, with a major in agriculture and a minor in science. ‘‘I did the theory first before the practical. Am I an overqualified shepherd? My manager said in my performance review, ‘because you have all that theorybased knowledge you understand it very quickly’.’’
Her goal was always to work on a sheep and beef farm, rather than a dairy farm.
‘‘I just don’t like milking cows. Everything else about it is fine, I just don’t like being stuck in a shed a lot of the day. Give me a race of lambs to drench any day and I’m happy as.’’
But finding a sheep and beef job wasn’t simple, partly because she lacked experience and dogs, which are a hefty $6-7000 investment per dog.
She spent a year hunting for a position, and in the meantime worked on dairy farms on summer placements and relief milking in spring.
‘‘My boss took a chance on me over someone with way more experience. He said ‘I like your attitude, skills are teachable but attitude isn’t’.’’
But what of the frequently cited obstacles to living and working in the country – the isolation, the lack of excitement, the poor broadband?
‘‘I’m lucky I’m chair of the Wairarapa Young Farmers club, and I live only 20 minutes outside of Masterton, so it’s not ridiculously far out of town.
‘‘There’s a little country pub nearby where they have a locals’ night every Wednesday and there are a lot of younger shepherds around here – four females in the neighbourhood so we’ve got a good little community.’’