On the family farm

With a head of blonde curls and plenty of boyish charm James Moore doesn’t seem like a stereotypical kiwi farmer. James roams over two farms on the dramatic Kekerengu hills (between Blenheim and Kaikoura) spending his days with 4000 sheep, 400 cattle and 10 dogs working hard while admiring the ocean views and the majestic white topped Kaikoura Ranges behind him.

James, 29, lives with his girlfriend Faye in the home that the pair are currently renovating on the family farm, while James’ parents live in a nearby house also on the farm. He spoke to Stacey Knott

I’ve loved the farm since I was a little kid. I used to go on the four wheelers with Dad when I was 3. I always liked the animals, especially the cattle.  I had a fascination with them when I was young – I had a crazy memory for cattle. All the black cows, I could tell you which cows were their mum, I could tell them apart by their different shaped eyes, and the way they stand and walk. My grandparents would be freaking out; I could barely talk but was telling them about different Angus black cattle.

Country kids either embrace the country or they go to boarding school to break out of it. You either think ‘bugger that’, or ‘yep, that’s what I like.’ There was no pressure from mum and dad – they probably encouraged me not to go into farming more than anything.

We live in a really nice area, which helps. If I was stuck down in Southland in some shitty gully in a bad environment where it rained every second day, I’d probably think ‘ugh, what the hell am I doing here.’ But, here we are close to State Highway 1. It's a reasonably good climate, you’ve got the ocean right here, all the options – you can go skiing. If you want to go to town, then you can go to the mighty Boom Town – Blenheim, an hour away.

The land here is 1050 hectares, Tim [James' dad] brought it off his father in the day when you could go shearing for 10 or 20 years, save your money and then go buy a farm. Now, I have a cousin who is a world champion shearer, he earns a good wicket but will never be able to buy a farm off that. If he did he’d have to work his arse into the ground, which is kind of sad.

I have favourite cows and bulls, not too long and lanky, one that stands well and has a good temperament and personality. You can get bad ones though, I got bowled over by a heifer yesterday, she was a psycho.

Cows get very protective over their calves. This heifer thought she had a calf but didn’t and totally over-reacted. She lost the plot and attacked me, she put her head down, feet forward and stomped and lifted me up, threw me in the air and then stood on top of me; I was pinned to the ground and was lucky she backed off.

If you breed cattle like that it’s a liability. It’s my obligation as a farmer to get rid of her, if I encourage animals like that I’m asking for it. In 29 years dealing with cattle I’ve never had that happen to me, I’ve had them come at me but never actually connect, they usually pussy out. 

No two days are the same, because there’s always something to do depending on the season. In the summer there's a lot of stock work: where you literally go out and move mobs around. Winter is survival mode on a farm like this, where you try and take all your animals through the winter in good order. Spring is when the grass grows, hopefully with lots of rain.

We are not animal farmers, we are really farming the grass. We try to grow as much quality grass as cheaply as we can while running as many animals on it as possible, cheaply and sustainably.

This family farm is three times the average land area but the amount of stock on it is about average.

Because it's Marlborough we have unreliable climates, in a good year like this I could be running twice as much stock.

I have about 10 dogs who all get used in the summer, but when autumn comes it quietens down a bit, then in the winter it's really quiet and the dogs don’t get used that much, it's more for mending fences, maintenance and catch up.

Every day is different, that’s the funny thing. When you work in an office it’s the same job every day, meetings at 9.30, then go and get a coffee at 10.30. But here, there’s nothing like that, every day is different. There are so many variables, it’s so weather dependent.

 I love the work though, that’s the thing. Once a farmer always a farmer.

I’m so busy I don’t think about being isolated. Now I have a missy I just cruise around, I’m a workaholic but I have someone to cook and clean for me now so I just go out and work.

It doesn’t get so lonely by myself, often I’ll  have someone helping me out, I have my dogs, nature, the view, I guess you do talk to yourself, sing songs, especially when you get a song stuck in your head from the radio.

I am usually that bloody busy running round like a headless chook at times. It's awesome, you’re on a mission. Its like ‘go fix that fence, go move that mob of sheep. If I don’t get it all done today it’s on tomorrow morning’; it's a never ending list.

When I’m not farming, a bit of grogging is good. Some communities have locals, Kekerengu doesn’t really have that, Ward, up the road does and Southland has a good vibe like that. One thing I don’t like about Marlborough is that they don’t have the community living or spirit.

When Faye lived in town [Blenheim], l would be up there getting pissed, going out, doing silly s###. You’d be surprised at the funny people we have around, there are good people in Blenheim.

We have people come out here [to the farm], I have a couple of real good mates down the road and we go on trips and ride our bikes on the farm so we’re not deprived of social activities. We just mostly go to each other's houses, but I don’t want to write half the week off any more, when one night out turns into three! There’s a hut up on the land the boys and I use for weekends, we ride motorbikes around, go hunting and grogging.

This content was brought to you with funding assistance from New Zealand On Air.