Science & green pastures

Working in New Zealand: Guillermo from Argentina

Hola!  I’m Guillermo, and I’m from Argentina originally, and now I’m living in Alyssa, northern Southland, New Zealand.

I was living in Australia, and doing plant research at the University, and I wanted to go for my next passion which was pastoral farming, and New Zealand, is famous … worldwide …for it. Ah, so I came across this job, advertising a position, by Andrew Bowmar at Lincoln University, and came here for an interview.

Hi my name is Andrew Bowmar, I’m the current owner- managing director of Waikawa plains. We’re a company that specialises in the growing out of young dairy stock for the dairy industry. We’ve had to hire migrant workers or overseas workers because we weren’t able to source locals with the combination of attributes that we have that we were looking for.

I learned what he was doing in the property, and I confirmed what I read in the advertisement, and I said, this is the job, this is what I want to do.

Workers, workers from other countries and in particular from South America I think embrace our people and our culture, and our environment.

Well I came here for the interview with my Argentinian passport so, on a, on a  tourist visa granted on arrival, and, and then went back to Australia and started my application.  Also Andrew had to get the approval in principle which was a crucial document for it.  So finally I got my work visa for two years.

When somebody new comes from overseas we initially ensure that they are well set up, that they have the network and the friends that they require to help them through that transition phase
we all transition at different rates, and so we’ve got to be aware that there’s not a recipe that works, ah, just for us.

Well the biggest challenge being here in New Zealand has been you have to be away from your extended family … well, nowadays we have modern communications systems, where, you’re on a sixteen hours flight back home with our relatives in case of any emergency, and so it’s going well.

In Australia I realised that, for the pastures I love, more than research in the lab, I wanted to do farming – and this opportunity was great, it was just what I wanted to do.

If you’re hiring migrant workers ... be aware of the new culture and embrace it and enjoy it – it adds a new dimension not only to your farming operation but also to, to the whole community.