The Farm

We are currently living and working on dairy farm near Hokitika on the West Coast of the South Island. The farm has 370 Jersey X cows which get milked twice a day (although so far we haven’t had to do a morning milking)! The farm is also home to plenty of calves, 2 pigs, 5 sheep, chickens, 2 dogs, a cat and 4 kittens - one of which we have adopted!

Every morning we get up and fill up the calf feeder with the calf milk, then attach it to a quad bike and drive this through to the calf paddock. Then we feed the pigs and the chickens and pick up any eggs before going in for breakfast. After breakfast we drive the calf feeder to another paddock and then clean it out when they are finished. We are going to be milking every other afternoon and in between doing odd jobs like putting up fences or measuring grass growth in the paddocks.

So far the weather has been lovely so its been great to be outside all day in the sun, even if we are a little red from it. The town Hokitika is on the beach so plenty to do with our spare time. Although we were supposed to be at the farm for week and at Lake Paringa for the summer, there has been a slight change of plan and we are now spending all summer on the farm!