Farm technician’s dream job

Based in Manapouri, Bella works as a farm technician for Pāmu collecting data from the stud breeding and research programmes underway on four of the 13 Pāmu farms in Southland’s Te Anau Basin.

One of these programmes is Beef+Lamb New Zealand’s Across- Breed Beef Progeny Test which is run on Kepler Farm near Manapouri (Kepler Farm is one of two host sites for the Beef Progeny Test, the other is Lochinver Station near Taupō).

Included in the raft of information Bella collects for the Across Breed Beef Progeny Test, which is part of the seven-year Informing New Zealand Beef programme, are liveweights, docility scores, hip height measurements and Body Condition Scores.

Bella also collects data from a terminal sire stud, also based on Kepler Farm and a red deer stud which is run on Stuart Farm, another Pāmu property.

Working with three different species, Bella enjoys the variety her job offers, and it gives her the opportunity to see the genetic progress evident in the performance of the stud stock she works with.

Bella, who has an Agricultural Science Degree, has been working fulltime for Pāmu for four years. She previously worked on the Pāmu Te Anau farms as part of the work experience component of her degree and this led to her being offered the full-time position once she had completed her studies.

Having grown up on a dairy farm in the Bay of Plenty, Bella had always wanted a career in the agricultural sector but figured out quite quickly that on-farm shepherding wasn’t for her, but neither was she particularly interested in agribusiness or the financial side of farming.

The technician’s role is just perfect, and she acts as an intermediary between the geneticists, who carry out all the analysis, evaluations and make the breeding decisions, and the farm managers who, along with Bella, look after the practical applications of their decisions.

“It is often a balancing act between the farm managers and the geneticists and determining what works well for everyone.”

Being young and tech-savvy, Bella is often called upon to help with technology issues and acts as a support person for the farm teams.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s genetics operation specialist, Anna Vaughan, works with Bella on the Across-Breed Beef Progeny Test and says Bella is extremely good at what she does.

“She supplies all the detail we need in a timely manner.”

Anna says as well as collecting data, Bella ensures all the separate groups of cattle are where they are supposed be, she records any calving difficulties, helps with eye muscle area scans.

She also ensures all the heifers are fit and healthy before being transported up to the feed efficiency and methane measurement trial site in North Canterbury.