One thing’s for sure about Pāmu, there are so many different roles and opportunities that no matter what you do, there’s likely to be something here for you. That’s exactly what Bella Taylor found. Bella is a Farm Technician for Kepler and Stuart Farms in the Te Anau Basin.
“The main focus of my job is working with the farm teams, Focus Genetics and Beef + Lamb NZ Genetics to make sure the technical aspects of the breeding programmes are completed and recorded accurately.”
For context, Kepler Farm has the FocusPrime terminal sheep stud and the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) beef progeny trial, and Stuart Farm runs the red deer stud. Bella tends to split her time between the office and the yards, because just like any on farm job, her work changes with the seasons.
“Everything with studs and trials is just that little bit more complicated so there's a lot of prep work that goes into all we do. But there’s always something different and you learn something new every day."
Bella doesn’t often find it a struggle to get out of bed in the morning thanks to that variety, but also the satisfaction it brings. “I enjoy working closely with the animals. In a stud situation you get to know them as individuals. It's satisfying work to follow cohorts of future sires right from birth, who have some of the top genetics in the country, until they get dispersed to other farms.”
Admittedly, there can be boring days (as with any job!) but when those boring tasks lead to visible progress, it makes it worthwhile.
“Watching how new bloodlines perform is particularly interesting – with the FocusPrime being an open composite we've had some quite diverse breeds brought in which all have unique characteristics.”
Bella’s take on what farming excellence is, is doing things a little better each season, learning from what worked and what didn’t. “There's always something that can be improved. Communication with the whole team is a big part of that because everyone brings their own insights.”
And as for the best time of the year – ram sales! “It's exhausting – there is a huge amount of ram preparation, organisation and technology woes that go into it, at an already busy time of the year. But it's a real sense of achievement sending rams off to their new homes, especially hearing the feedback from farm managers and private buyers year-on-year.”
Pāmu values are easily relatable, but for Bella, shoulder-to-shoulder is what resonates the most. Bella’s role means she’s working with a number of different teams and partners, and in order to succeed, they need to all be working together.
“A lot of stud/trial requirements make day-to-day farm activities that bit more difficult, for example having to keep animals in multiple assigned contemporary groups which impacts grazing management or having to yard and draft animals three or four times for an event that would normally take one yarding.
“Sometimes it's a conflict between what's best for the farm and what's best for the breeding programme/data. I spend a lot of time in discussion with farm staff, Focus Genetics and B+LNZ Genetics finding ways to make things work for everyone involved.”
The role Bella is playing for the future of farming in New Zealand can’t be underestimated. It takes a special skillset that we highly value. Building relationships, working with key partners and stakeholders, whilst having the knowledge to carry out such crucial work doesn’t go unnoticed. We are proud to have Bella as part of the Pāmu team.
