Road to dairying

Unintended opportunities

By Samantha Tennent

Continuing our Road to Dairying series, we catch up with a Scottish lass who has found a home on a Kiwi farm.

Aboy, cows and progression opportunities lured Scottish lass Zoe Bryson to stay longer in New Zealand than she originally intended. She hit NZ shores three years ago on an OE after finishing university. She spent the first six weeks travelling before settling into a farm assistant role in Reporoa.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I finished studying, so I hopped on a plane and it was through a friend of a friend that I found my first dairying job here,” Bryson says.

“Now I only wish Scotland and New Zealand were closer together so I could visit my family more often, because I am pretty keen to stay here.”

That farm assistant role evolved rapidly and she has just started her first season 50:50 sharemilking after purchasing 230 cows with her Kiwi partner Connor Steens.

“It’s been a quick turnaround but I’m loving it and can’t wait to own our own farm one day,” Bryson says.

She has applied for residency but in the meantime she is operating on a working visa that requires her to stay employed. Fortunately, she landed a managing role on the farm next to their sharemilking gig and both farms are once-a-day all season, which helps keep things simple.

“There probably isn’t enough work for both of us on the sharemilking farm anyway and it’s been great to have some income while we had nothing coming from the business,” Bryson says.

She loves the opportunities in the NZ dairy sector. The ability to be selfemployed and have a clear career progression pathway appeals to her.

“Back home the only real way to get into farming is to be born into it, there aren’t the opportunities New Zealand has,” Bryson says.

And there are stark differences in farming methods, too. In Scotland the herds are housed for at least seven months of the year. They are high input as well as high output, with big Holstein Friesian cows that are milked three times a day. Bryson enjoys the change of pace with the NZ system.

Her mentors, Tom and Traze Earls, have played a big part in her journey to date and she is thankful to have them. She started with them as a farm assistant and moved into a 2IC role when they bought their own farm. She was sad to leave but her hunger to climb the ranks meant she needed to take other opportunities.

“My mentors are where I want to be in a few years. They progressed through contract milking to sharemilking to buying a farm,” Bryson says.

“And I’m lucky to have their support. I talk to them all the time, they always push me to do better and have been key to my fast progress.”

Steens was from a farming background but he had been a diesel mechanic for a number of years after finishing school, making it more impressive they are sharemilking so early in their farming careers.

With Bryson being Scottish and Steens half-Dutch, they found it easy to save furiously to help them buy their herd. And Steens had a property he bought when he was 18, which helped – along with the 20 in-calf heifers Bryson already had.

The couple met through New Zealand Young Farmers. Bryson had taken herself along to meet other young people and they hit it off. They have both also been involved in the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, with Steens being a finalist in the Central Plateau Trainee category two years ago and Bryson winning the regional title and placing third at nationals last year.

“The awards were another way to meet people. You never know where your next opportunity is going to come from,” said Bryson.

“This year I am on the committee helping with the trainees, and once we have settled into our business we will definitely enter again.

“It’ll be great to get to know our business and benchmark it against others so we can work out where to improve.”

With her eyes firmly on her goals, Bryson looks forward to continuing her dairying journey. And the most useful advice she can give anyone is to find a good boss or mentor who will be there for support. n

Scottish lass Zoe Bryson came to New Zealand for her OE and ended up staying and taking on a role in dairying.