Ella Eades
2021 Fairlight foundation graduate
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Before being accepted into the Fairlight Foundation programme, Ella completed a Bachelor of Science majoring in Animal Science and had some basic farming experience doing the odd bit of drenching and tailing and she had also worked with cattle in the yards Bovis Testing in her role for Assure Quality.
Ella’s first role after graduating from the Fairlight Foundation was as a shepherd at Glen Eden Station which is predominantly a finishing property, consisting mostly of lambs but also included steers and bulls too. There was a small ewe breeding flock and small mob of cows which they bred to finish as well. Ella loved the team culture and environment because everyone got to pitch ideas at Glen Eden. The stock manager and owner had overall say, but every morning the whole team would meet and talk what was happening for that day, and also had discussions about general animal management. Ella learnt a lot from this and eventually got brave enough to pitch her own ideas as time went on. Ella was given the responsibility of looking after the day-to-day decisions on a block which included pasture management and stock rotations. There was a lot of yard work like weighing of stock (both cattle and sheep) drenching, vaccinating etc and there was also a period of time for about 3 months when they didn't have a stock manager where Ella was then required to plan most of the stock shifts animal health work during that time. At Glen Eden, Ella was also part of a 2IC discussion group which was run by Baker Ag which had meetings every 2 months. She also attended Wormwise workshops, Atkins ranch meetings and a Rabobank financial skills workshop. The owner of Glen Eden also did sessions with Ella to explain the financial side of his farming operations and he was very transparent about what things cost on farm and she learnt a significant amount from this. Now, Ella and her farming partner Toby are leasing a 515 rolling/steep hill block in Otoko, just 45 minutes north of Gisborne. They have 2000 breeding ewes and 300 steers, all of which will be finished or sold store. The farm is strong country that is generally summer safe, and the infrastructure needs re- establishing. Toby and Ella have had to create financial budgets, yearly stock management planners and make all stock policies/ animal management decisions together. They have had a lot of support to get here, especially from Toby’s family who farm close by. They are part of a discussion group run by Ag First which has monthly meetings and since being in Gisborne, they also took part in a Rabobank 2 day workshop focused on getting to farm ownership. In the next 5 years or so Toby and Ella will also be leasing Toby’s parents Hill country farm off them which is another 700 odd hectares. They are hoping to eventually buy the place they are leasing now and potentially also purchase Toby’s parents place off them even further down the track. |
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AMY ASHWORTH
2022 Fairlight foundation graduate
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Prior to being accepted into the Fairlight Foundation programme Amy had completed a Bachelors of Agriculture commerce Majoring in Farm management at Massey University. Amy grew up on sheep and beef farms until she was 15, but as they were corporate managed farms she didn’t get to do a lot of hands-on work other than helping out at the busy times like weaning and tailing. However, it was enough of an
introduction to convince Amy that working the rural industry was where she wanted to be. When Amy graduated from the Fairlight Foundation programme she took on a shepherding role at PAMU owned Goudies Station, a 2000 ha, flat to rolling pumice country property, running a romney stud, Silver Stabiliser cattle stud, angus commercial cattle and wapiti and red deer. Right from the get go Amy started with her own block to look after, which saw Amy making pasture management, stock shift and animal health decisions. After roughly 8 months Goudies Station brought in a cattle stud and Amy stepped up to manage the day to day running of this operation which included managing the daily feeding and tasks like organising the tagging at birth. Passionate about genetics, Amy enjoys the fortnightly genetics meeting for the Silver Stabiliser with the manager, farm technician and the cattle geneticist where she gives them a day to day run down about daily concerns and upcoming events. Amy has also enjoyed being involved in the expo days presenting and discussing weights of our stock to companies who have been interested in partnering with the cattle stud. |
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Mikayla beaumont
2023 Fairlight foundation graduate
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Before Fairlight, Mikayla studied a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Massey University. Being an Aucklander, there wasn’t many opportunities for her to obtain on-farm experience, but through some summer work on sheep and beef farms, Mikayla discovered her drive to go shepherding. Attending the Fairlight Foundation internship programme was the perfect opportunity to build on the knowledge gained from her Ag degree and gain the hands-on practical farming
experience Mikayla needed to get into an on-farm career. Post Fairlight, Mikayla landed herself a shepherding role with Auckland Council across 9 farms in the Northern region. In this role she quickly picked up more responsibility, and after 6 months she was given her own block to look after under supervision. Mikayla spends three days a week at Tawharanui, 164ha running 450 MA ewes and 45 breeding cows and has the responsibility of pasture management, making key decision around set stocking, mob sizes, rotation lengths, feed budgets etc. Mikayla also has input into the animal health decisions specifically around drenching regimes and give valuable suggestions into weaning, mating and breeding events. Other than the livestock side of things, repairs and maintenance, weed control, topping, and water systems are all also a big part of her graduate shepherding role. The rest of her week is filled helping on the other blocks, mostly doing stock work. Outside of work, because Mikayla learned how to shear at Fairlight with professional shearing tutor Ken Payne, she started shearing her neighbours sheep and this lead onto more weekend work regularly shearing lifestyle blockers sheep. This also often involves giving animal health treatments and passing on any advice she can to the lifestyle block owners. One of the biggest things Mikayla took away from Fairlight was how important it is to get involved in the community around you. Mikayla has joined the Rodney Dog Trials since moving back to Auckland and says that this has been the best way to meet more like-minded people and build a support network for bringing on her young team of dogs. Since graduating Mikayla has also spoken to the ag class at Mt Albert Grammar School in Auckland to share her experience as a Fairlight Foundation intern and rural professional. |
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