It seems a very long time since the idea of a calving season in New Zealand was a small idea in my mind, and I can’t believe my time there is now complete and I have settled back into UK life.

I’m not sure that I was fully prepared for what I was getting myself into, but working 3 months in Southland, New Zealand was very much a rollercoaster of ups and downs. The work was tough but rewarding, the weather was testing to say the least, and getting used to the style of farming took a long time! I was very lucky however to be working with such a brilliant team, in beautiful surroundings which meant overall it was the best experience I could have wished for.
As I’m sure most of you are aware, the farming systems out there are incredibly different to most of those here in the UK, with the majority being a strict spring calving block which are 100% grazed. It was quite a shock arriving on farm and seeing only a parlour with a collecting yard surrounded by nothing but grass. Another (not so) big difference, was that the cows out there are much smaller, which for me, being known as ‘little Kate’, was great!

Arriving in late July meant calving was starting to ramp up. In just over 3 months, I calved 47 cows ranging from only jacking the calf out, to fishing out a calf which had completely disintegrated – including pulling the skull out in 5 pieces! With huge numbers of cows calving at the same time, it can be difficult to spot all cows that are having trouble, and hence the majority are dead and rotten calvings. This was quite difficult to get used to at the start but has really made me appreciate how lucky we are here in the UK to have that as a rarity.

Many visits therefore included chopping calves up, whether it be due to them being too big or presented incorrectly, which led me to becoming best friends with my embryotome! It was a bumpy relationship to start with due to the first one I had being faulty, and therefore constantly snapping the wire when trying to dissemble a calf! This was incredibly frustrating, and at first I put this down to my poor technique, however after a few weeks with no improvement, it was discovered that the equipment itself was the problem rather than me! This finding was a big relief and led to all future embryotomies running much smoother, and containing less swearing!

Towards the end of my season out there, the fertility work was starting. It was interesting being able to see how they prepare their cows for serving with many different protocols put in place. Most of these are done at herd level with minimal individual cow decisions being made, again another large difference compared to our mainly all year round calving system over here.
There are definitely a few visits that will stay with me forever whether it be due to the humour or the trauma! Overall, my time out there exceeded expectations, and I would recommend anyone in the farming industry to go and experience it. It isn’t just that the different working practices are interesting, but the country and the people truly are what make it so special, and I feel so lucky to have been given the opportunity to go out there and experience it myself.