First Week of Work on "Bella Ridge Farm"

Holy Cow… I mean that figuratively and literally! My first week of working has been interesting to say the least. I work for my cousin’s husband Brendan and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone work harder than he does. He has been the one showing me the ropes around the farm and preparing me for the next few months while I’m here.

If I have learned one thing here it is that cows are the dumbest animals! Its currently calving season which means it’s the busiest time of year on the farm. My days have started around 6:30am and end around 7pm. We start our day by heading out and gathering up cows that need to be milked. This is the easiest part of the morning. We move them to an arena that guilds them into the milking shed, this is not as easy as it sounds. The cows that we are milking are mostly heifer cows meaning that they have just had their first calf and have never been milked before. So they have no idea what we are doing and they fight with you ever step of the way. After a lot of yelling and running around the arena we have to prep the cows for milking. We first spray the utters with a conditioner (Brendan explained this to me as KY for cows). Then we attach the set of cups to the utters… again not as easy as it sounds. Its quite intimidating and I have a feeling that it is going to take a while for me to get use to. Some cows don’t have a problem with this part and don’t even make a fuse, while other cows continue to fight every second they can. They try to kick but as long as you pay attention you won’t get hurt. Once you have the cups attached the cows typically just deal with it and don’t fight but there are the few that kick too much or simply kick the cups off once you’ve attached them. Brendan then has to deal with those one because I’m still too timid to deal with an angry heifer.

As nice as all of this sounds so far… you might need to think again. I was the one who chose to quit my job and come to work on a dairy farm (Still don’t miss the Systems… For now anyway, haha) but man I don’t really know what I got myself into! Milking cows is disgusting!!! They shit and piss everywhere and I try to do my best to stay clean…However, I usually don’t succeed. I never thought I would be milking cows and literally dealing with shit but I get to do it in New Zealand so some things are simply worth the shit.

After milking we take a quick breakfast break and then head out to farm to collect the calves. Calving season typically lasts the first few months of the milking season. Even though cows are stupid animals the babies are so damn cute. Collecting the calves can be really fun but also extremely frustrating. It is also the saddest part of the job. When we clear out the paddocks full of cows the cows that have just calved usually stay behind to mother their babies… so its really easy to spot them. This is where we take the babies from the mother cows... So SAD! Cows are too afraid of us to attack us but they try to protect their babies as much as possible and then they follow us around until we finally have collected all the babies and leave the paddocks. Some of the babies are so small that you can just walk right up to them but others see you coming and take off running… So you better have you Nike’s on cause you have to be quick. Brendan does the tagging which at first I thought I would have a problem watching but it doesn’t even phase the calves so its not too bad. The only thing that is comforting about gathering the calves is that I don’t think cows have much of a memory because once we leave the paddocks they simply turn around and start grazing again.

We take the calves to a shed where we have feeders set up. This is one of my favorite but yet most frustrating parts. Since we have taken the babies from their moms we have to teach them how to eat from the feeders. We just guild them to the feeders and get them to grab a hold of the rubber nipple attached to the feeder. Once you teach them to find the feeders they instantly think you are their mother and then you spend the entire time being mauled by baby calves... So CUTE! They are also much stronger then they look. If you’re not careful they’ll knock ya down… Even though teaching them to eat is time consuming and pretty damn frustrating its still my favorite part of the job.

After a quick lunch break it is back out to do the afternoon milking and the entire events of the morning take place again. I never thought I would look forward to taking a shower so much in my entire life. After the week of work all of my muscles are sore and my legs are all bruised up. I’m exhausted and completely ready for the weekend. I only had a few minor break downs and I won’t be surprised if there are more to come. It has been a little overwhelming working so much but things will calm down a little once calving season is over and when we are in the full swing of the milking season.

Bella Ridge is the farm I’m working on and it is amazing out here. There are rolling hills and mountains in all directions. The weather is what I expecting… rainy and wet. I have been blessed with a few sunny days though which has been nice. I have learned so much this week. I’ve learned not only the main details about the farm but also how to ride a dirt bike which will take a little while for me to get use to, drive a quad, and a gigantic tractor. I still can’t back up a trailer to save my life but I’ll learn eventually because if I don’t I may come back to the states with no hair because I’ll get so frustrated that I’ll rip it out. I have this next weekend off which I’m grateful for. I plan on just going for a few long drives to get use to driving on the other side of the road and potentially spending sometime at the beach in the Bay of Islands. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some pictures this weekend of my adventure so far.