The Real World

Farm vs city life

When we meet up with Cole Groves, he’s just finishing his early morning milking session. Dressed in overalls and gumboots and looking very at home in the milking shed, you’d never guess he used to be a city boy.

At 21 years old, Cole is already a farm manager. He looks after 1100 cows and has five staff working under him. It’s a lot of responsibility and he takes his job seriously.

“My role as farm manager is to look after the farm day-to-day and delegate work to staff. I also do milking twice a day.”

That’s along with any maintenance and other jobs on farm. So how did Cole get interested in the dairy industry?

“When I was about seven we went to stay with my aunty who’s a sharemilker in the Waikato. I got a taste for it and from then on I was really into it. You could say I caught the dairy bug!”

So how does a city boy make the transition to dairy farmer?

“I did a Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree at Lincoln and I’ve been doing part-time work here for the last three seasons. Going through Lincoln is really a great way to get your foot in the door. Lots of staff members and employers have been through Lincoln, so it’s a good name to have on your CV.”

Coming from Auckland, Cole naturally got a bit of flack at uni.

“I got the whole ‘jafa’ thing for a while but everyone soon got over it!”

The recipient of a DairyNZ Undergraduate Scholarship, Cole's first four years tuition were paid for him – pretty sweet! Today he enjoys plenty of perks – he stays in a house rent-free, has a motorbike to ride around the farm and doesn’t have to sit in traffic every day.

When they finish up at around 4.30pm, Cole and the other workers go swimming or tubing down the river, jetboating or even clay pigeon shooting – one of Cole’s favourite hobbies.

Looks like he’s found a job he really loves. But what did his city friends have to say about his choice of career?

“They were shocked when I said I was going to become a dairy farmer, but they’re even more shocked when I tell them how much I earn!”