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Useful experience for farm assistants includes:

• working with animals
• any type of farm work
• experience with machinery and tools
• engineering work such as welding
• forestry work
• driving heavy vehicles
• labouring work.

Farm assistants may do some or all of the following:

• move animals between paddocks
• drench and dip animals, and give them medicines
  
• operate farm machines to cultivate, fertilise, spray and harvest crops
• provide animals with food and water
• attend to animals while they are sick or giving birth
• groom, feed and care for horses
• collect, sort and pack animal products such as eggs or wool
• clean and repair buildings, yards and fences
• operate and maintain farm machinery such as tractors and wool-pressing machines.

Shortage of farm assistants

Demand for farm assistants has increased due to a shortage of new workers to replace those leaving the role. Many farmers have trouble finding staff. 

Farm assistants with experience and qualifications are in demand throughout the year. 

High seasonal demand for skilled farm assistants  

Demand for skilled farm assistants is especially high during peak seasons such as:

• lambing and calving in spring
• crop harvesting in late summer and autumn
• shearing in summer and autumn in the South Island, and in summer and winter in the North Island.  

Dairy farm assistant opportunities 

The dairy sector is especially short of farm assistants due to the increasing size and number of dairy farms.

Dairy farmers will often train inexperienced people if you have a can-do attitude and willingness to learn.

Small range of employers

Most farm assistants work for private farmers or farm managers, or for private companies.

Other employers include public companies such as Pāmu (Landcorp), a state-owned enterprise that runs farms throughout the country.

Most farms employ between one and three farm assistants, but large farms can employ 20 or more. 

Beef and Lamb New Zealand

0800 233352 - enquiries@beeflambnz.com - www.beeflambnz.com

Dairy New Zealand

0800 43247969 - info@dairynz.co.nz - www.godairy.co.nz

Primary ITO

0800 208020 - info@primaryito.ac.nz - www.primaryito.ac.nz

Farm assistants may move into farm management positions, such as herd manager, assistant manager and farm manager, or become self-employed farmers. They may become farm consultants, sell agricultural products, or work in other areas of the agriculture industry.

Farm assistants may specialise in areas such as:

Cattle Farm Assistant

Cattle farm assistants raise and care for beef cattle, and perform routine tasks on beef cattle farms such as feeding, mustering and moving cattle.

Dairy Farm Assistant

Dairy farm assistants raise and care for cows, and perform routine tasks on dairy farms such as herding and milking cattle.

Pig Farm Assistant

Pig farm workers raise and care for pigs for the production of meat and breeding stock.

Poultry Farm Assistant

Poultry farm assistants raise and care for chickens or other poultry to produce meat, and/or keep hens to produce eggs.

Sheep Farm Assistant

Sheep farm assistants raise and care for sheep and help to prepare them for shearing, crutching, dipping and yarding for sale.

Stablehand

Stablehands exercise, feed and care for horses at a stable, and keep the stable and the stable yard clean.

Wool Handler/Presser

Wool handlers/pressers regulate the flow of sheep to be shorn, as well as picking up and sorting wool in a shearing shed and pressing it into bales.

Farm assistants need to be:

• motivated and willing to work hard
• adaptable and efficient
• responsible
• willing to learn
• good with animals
• able to work well under pressure and as part of a team.