Having never worked on a farm before, we thought this would be the perfect time to give it a go! Farmers all over Australia are calling out for help with harvest. Borders are still closed to the rest of the world and seasonal backpackers make up a large portion of the workers at harvest time. We have some family friends who own a huge farm and were desperately trying to find some chaser bin drivers.

So we figured why not give it a go?!

The job pays (which by this point we did kind of need), we get accommodation provided and during the days we are harvesting, we get dinner brought out to us in the paddock. Seems like the perfect job for those living on the road, and we can see why backpackers make up majority of the workers in this field.

It’s a great job to do whilst travelling around a country! It is not, however, an easy job to do.

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Firstly, can we just say that we never, ever, realised how hard farmers work! This stuff ain’t easy and it’s literally 24/7

Harvest is particularly stressful as the normal everyday farm stuff still has to happen, like feeding the cows and sheep, moving them from paddock to paddock ect. All hands are on deck to harvest the grain as quickly as possible to make sure it gets sold and the major income of the farm for the year comes in. The weather definitely wasn’t on our side either, as rain would make the grain too wet to be harvested. Long days sitting in a tractor or harvester and stress running high means people have short tempers (us included) and tensions can definitely run high.

We came onto the farm a little early as the grain was taking longer to be ready for harvest than expected. This worked out rather well for us. It eased us into farm life and got us some hands on experience with what we found to be a much more enjoyable job than chaser bin drivers.

Nathan, being the carpenter and obviously having skills that transfer better to farm life than Tiff’s medical background, was way more useful than Tiff. They put him to work mending fences and building gates. Tiff, on the other hand, was probably a bit of a liability at the start or at least definitely not as useful as Nathan. She helped out as much as she could with the sheep and the cows, though. Herding them around was her primary task. Driving a 4WD ute around the farm, shifting cows and sheep into different paddocks.

The cows were by far the better of the two live stock. They are just so chill, dopey and cute. They like to move as a herd too, which made herding them relatively easy. Sheep, on the other hand, are just so very stupid! Tiff did not enjoy working with sheep. They are stubborn, quick and hard to herd if they decide to split off from the pack. More than a few occasions left her chasing a sheep out of tricky corners that the car wouldn’t get into. Trust her, it is not fun. They do not want to go where you want them to.

Herding sheep, however, was SO MUCH better than driving the big scary tractor. When you compare it to Taylor, which we are used to driving, it’s no wonder it intimidated us. Going slow wasn’t too bad, but going fast was terrifying at times. We both swear we got air in our seats a good few times, going fast over super bumpy areas of the paddocks. Hit what looked like a tiny bump and you’d fly up and down in the seat.

The big tires of the tractor are such a false sense of comfort…

…when it came to dips and bumps that you just can’t quite see in the field that’s covered in chaff from the recently harvested crop. The faster you go, the more you feel the bump. Our version of fast, especially Tiff’s version, just wasn’t fast enough, though. We were told quite a few times to hurry it up as we struggled to keep up with the rate of the harvesters. The need to do our best and not let the team down by being slow was really hard, especially for Tiff. There were quite a few panic attacks in that tractor, but only one that found her actually having to stop in the middle of a field and get her shit back together. Let her tell you hyperventilating in the middle of a hilly, bumpy, scary to drive around a field in a tractor is not an ideal way to earn a living.

Will Tiff ever get behind the wheel of a Tractor again? NO WAY! You could not pay her enough to live through that again. Nathan also had his struggles that were not helped by some of the members on the farm. There came a point where he was very close to walking out over how we were being spoken to. Luckily, the owners (our extended family) stepped in and listened to our concerns and we got through it all.

Now that a little time has passed and there is some distance between us and our farm life experience, we can look back on it a little more fondly. There were definitely some good times, and it was great to have the experience of it all. Not too many people can say they have driven a tractor during harvest.

The sunsets on the farm…

…the chill mood of the cows and the satisfaction of realising you are in a flat, easy field for the day are all wonderful memories we’ll take away with us. Not to mention the meals shared, jokes laughed at, and friendships made with the other seasonal and farm workers.

We had thought this would be a job opportunity for us in New Zealand as we travel around the country. We figured this would look great on our resumes when applying for seasonal work, just like this. After having lived it though, we aren’t so sure that’s going to happen. If it does, it will 100% only be Nathan doing the hard work of tractor driving. Tiff might opt for the chance to help with cooking everyone meals on the farm or just relax in the provided accommodation and let Nathan do all the hard work!

Whilst seasonal farm hand is for sure a great way to earn some money living on the road, you need to be a very chill, thick skinned kind of person to deal with the stress and long hours required during harvest. As much as we like to think we are super chill and easy going we are so not chill enough for another emotionally challenging and stressful job as this one.

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