Hi all,

 Planning to spend about 7 or 8 months in either New Zealand or Australia, cant choose which one though..... anyone been to either or even both, who could tell me a bit about their experiences?

 

Luke
 

I went to Australia for 11 months and it was absolutely amazing, one of the best experiences of my life. Was working on a farm relatively small in size at 3500 acres, growing cotton, wheat, barley, oats and a few beef cattle too, next door was farming a whopping 60,000 acres(!) (30,00 of broadacre crops, 30,000 of cotton!). I would definately recommend going there, NO ONE I know who has been has a bad word to say about the place. As for NZ, I can't comment as I never made it over there, but a few of my friends have been and they seemed to enjoy it, but I wouldn't hesitate in advising someone to go to Aus.

Probably depends what you are looking to do? If you are into arable Australia has huge cropping farms, don't know too much about aus really, but likewise I haven't heard anyone say a bad word bout it. Obviously being a Kiwi I am totally biased toward New Zealand, think it is beautiful, and great farming. south Island is better though - North is nice, and mostly warmer, but the south is more rugged and diverse (i think anyway). Its pretty easy to get a job in both countries if you are keen and have a bit of experience, I think that no matter which you go to you are bound to have a brilliant time, everyone does! (but you should definately go to NZ lol)

for jobs in oz try www.outbackinternational.com

or, www.globalstaffsolutions.co.au

most aussie farmers are keen to employ brits.

or www.outbackpackers.org

good luck

 

 Australia is great for Cropping massive farms and big toys to play with. If your interested in livestock that isn't housed and force fed on grain then new Zealand in miles ahead on technical efficiency. If you just want to brag about how big a farm you’ve been on then it has to be OZ with farms up to 6 million acres.

 

 

I grew up on a dairy farm in NZ - generally farming there is more natural than in England ie. the cows live outside and are fed on real grass.  Some of the farms are very technologically advanced, especially the computerised irrigation systems on arable farms.  Many farms offer "home stays" for people who are travelling - we often had English guys come and work on our farm for a few months.  NZ farmers have just had a record payout from Fonterra so they are riding high at the moment!  It's also great to be in a country whose economy is so reliant on farming - people still have a lot of respect for farmers.  I wish the same could be said over here.

"the cows live outside and are fed on real grass". 

 

As opposed to synthetic grass ????  I wonder what that would cost to produce ?

 

 

Haha - I meant as opposed to dry feed/pellets.  In the Waikato (where I lived) the land was so fertile that even in the Winter we never used much silage, which is very different from over here.  It's also helps to keep costs low when you don't have to buy feed in.

If you want to milk hundreds of cows NZ is the place to go (av. herd size in South Island - 600+ cows) can be long hours and also quite isolated. If you want to drive big kit Australia is the place to go, but beware of the droughts. No seeding goes on if there is no rain. Go through the IAEA, they should sort you out something good.