The earthquake shook so hard that it threw me out of the bed. It was a sizeable ’quake alright. I think it was a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on the Richter Scale, so the ground was really shaking. We are in Culverden.

As soon as it happened, the owners of the farm sprung into gear. They were on the phone to us to make sure that everything was OK.

They were first-class and really excellent. They wanted to make sure that the staff were safe and well before anything else.

Thankfully, we weren’t too badly hit by it. The power was out, but there was little damage other than that. The owners of the farm made sure there were generators up and running, so it was business as usual. There was some damage done to a few buildings in Culverden, but thankfully nothing too bad.

I know a guy a bit further north of us who has cracks in the road and bit of damage at the farm. There were some awful scenes of cattle stranded as a result of the ’quake, but we have missed out on the worst part of it.

Community spirt

The community spirit and the sense of neighbours digging in to help everyone was unreal.

There were calls flying around the place between neighbours and farms to make sure that no one was stuck or needed anything.

I’m on the farm of Emlyn and Hilary Francis. The farm is actually called Kenmare Dairies, but they are New Zealanders, despite the Irish name.

We’re milking 1,500 cows on a grazing block of 630ha. We’re in the middle of breeding season right now, and it is moving on nicely; it’s going well.

All the cows here are Kiwi X. The cows are milking well and producing about 2.2kg of milk solids per day.

Owners

I’ve been here almost two months to the day, and I will be here for the year. The owners of the farm have been first-class; they have been excellent. They helped me get up and running. There were two weeks of training at the start, and now I’m flying. It’s a really excellent set-up.

I finished in UCD in the summer. We used to have cows on the farm until 2010. I’ve always had a fierce interest in dairying and wanted to see how it is done in New Zealand.

The grassland management is first-class on the farm here. We have weekly walks and nothing is left to chance.