Dairy farmhand, not so ‘dirty’ after all?
Some people might think it’s a dirty job, but Jessie Mitchell loves working as a dairy farmhand.
Mitchell, 23, has been working on a dairy farm for four years near Hamama, just five minutes outside of Takaka.
Her positive and bubbly personality is contagious. Although she’s working to eventually become a farm manager, right now, Mitchell says she’s quite content where she is.
‘‘Even on the crappy days when it’s raining, it can be miserable, but I’m still outdoors and loving it,’’ she says.
Seeing Mitchell hoon around the totara dotted farm on a fourwheeler, set beneath the magnificent backdrop of the Anatoki range, it’s easy to understand why she loves her job.
‘‘Being outdoors and with the cows is what I enjoy the most, and there’s so much to do in farming. It’s not the same thing every day, and it’s always changing; you have Spring and then mating, and you have busy days and then quiet days.’’
She says a typical day is pretty varied, but always starts with milking at 5am.
‘‘I’m usually done by 8am and then I will have my hour for breakfast, and then I go on to irrigation. After that, there’s just random jobs, like putting up fences or filling up the vat, for example.’’
Mitchell’s father was a dairy farmer, and when he passed away suddenly nearly five years ago, she was immediately offered a job on his farm.
‘‘I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy it — because I enjoyed going out on the farm with dad — but I didn’t know if that was just because I was with him.
‘‘Four years later I’m still here,’’ she says.
‘‘Now I know it’s something I want to stay doing. I feel like I’m exactly where I want to be right now.’’
It’s common to form a special bond with the cows, and she says they have a lot of pet ones in the herd.
‘‘They have a lot of character. The pet cows like a good scratch; a lot of them have got names too.’’
But being a dairy farmhand isn’t all perfect, and Mitchell admits it can get pretty dirty sometimes.
Just the other day while she was milking, she said a cow defecated on her ponytail, right down her back and it even got stuck in her bra.
‘‘It was halfway through my very first row [of cows]. I just had to sit there for another two-andhalf hours of milking. There’s no point in going to have a shower because when you come back it might just happen again,’’ she says.
‘‘I’ve had my gumboots filled [with poo] before too. It’s not very nice having cow s*** between your toes.’’
The early starts and long work weeks might be enough to deter anyone else from entering the pro- fession, but Mitchell only sees the positive.
‘‘I used to hate the morning milkings because it was so early; I almost used to fall asleep on the motorbike, but I’m used to it now, and I have grown to really enjoy it,’’ she says.
‘‘There’s something really nice about being up at that time of the day.
‘‘I did used to get tired, especially if it’s been a busy week, but generally the weekends are pretty cruisy; sometimes I don’t start till nine and then finish at three.’’