Job seekers find grass is greener down on the farm

Saturday, 6 June 2026

Federated Farmers Waikato co-vice president Andrew Reymer has just employed Cole Maddison as a farm assistant on his dairy farm and reckons there’s no shortage of eager Kiwis.

Job seekers are being “called back to the land” and finding the grass is greener down on the farm.

Local recruiters are seeing a wave of young Kiwis wanting work in the agricultural sector with strong employment growth reflecting an upbeat farming season.

Dairy farmer and Waikato Federated Farmers co-vice president Andrew Reymer reckons people are “feeling a call back to the land” and have appreciated the primary industries in recent years.

“There’s a good image in farming now. Whether it’s the image or financial benefit, I think farmers’ sons in particular are keen to stay in the industry … Ten years ago, a farmer might have three sons and none of them wanted to farm but now it’s the opposite.

Federated Farmers Waikato co-vice president Andrew Reymer says ten years ago youngsters weren’t keen to take over the family farm but now it’s the opposite.

“I think Covid made a difference too. People realised that at least during Covid, nothing really stopped for farmers, we were still out and had our freedom.”

He said there was no shortage of Kiwis wanting farm work and he’s recently hired 18 year-old Cole Maddison from Cambridge as a farm assistant. Cole went farming straight out of school and “just loves it”.

Reymer also has a polytech student filling course hours on the farm and has had several Gateway students over recent years.

Contract milker Rebecca Reith has recently hired 21 year-old Jordan Horan, who has relief milked all through school and now is full-time.

He added that in the last ten years farmers had to drop staff due to low payouts, but these days with farming in an optimistic position “there’s a lot of freeing up of cash flow” and those on the fence about hiring more staff could afford it.

Meanwhile contract milker Rebecca Reith has hired a 21 year-old Kiwi, Jordan Horan, with their move to a larger farm enabling them to shift him from relief milking to full-time employment.

She said Gateway work experience in schools was a great way to get more youngsters involved, but had noticed when advertising roles, out of hundreds of applicants roughly 90% of them were overseas workers.

Employment Hero general manager Neil Webster says agricultural employment has had the strongest year-on-year growth.

In April 2026, Employment Hero data showed that in the Waikato, employment growth across all industries was up 4.2%.

Nationally, the agricultural, mining and energy sector had the strongest employment growth year-on-year of any industry with a 30% increase.

Employment Hero general manager Neil Webster said high payouts would lead to positive flow on effects in rural communities, like Waikato, with farmers investing in infrastructure or spending more at events like Fieldays.

“It’s one of the strongest employment growths we’ve seen in our data … I think we are seeing a slight corporatisation in the industry in terms of single family farms going into more medium corporate sizes and more corporate agricultural operations, which is starting to create more employment.”

Louise Spence, left, reckons more young Kiwis are getting into the industry in the last couple of years and said there was balance between demand and supply for workers. Pictured with Marie Hunt.

Across the board in Waikato, hours worked had increased 0.3% year-on-year, suggesting that more people were gaining full-time employment, but the reality was “it’s still pretty tough out there for employees”.

“In the Waikato as a whole, we’re seeing wage rates being very flat with almost no year-on-year gains. The average is $34 an hour, for comparison that’s $4 below Wellington.”

Marie Hunt reckons the number of Kiwi farm workers still outweighs migrants (file photo).

Greenstone Recruitment consultant Louise Spence has worked as the agricultural recruiter for seven years and believed the last two years had seen an uptake in people entering the industry.

“I wouldn’t say it’s difficult to get employees now. We’re seeing a lot more Kiwis applying, which is great. There are more younger Kiwis coming into those farm assistant roles, but we’d like to see more.”

She believed many were school leavers or those from farming backgrounds and they were filling a gap that has been there for several years throughout and after Covid.

“I’ve seen an increase in applications really this year more than any other. There certainly wasn’t a lot post Covid … [but] I think there is a lot more happening in schools in terms of promoting farming at the moment.

“There is a future in farming and, in the past, maybe young people have been directed into other careers rather than farming, and now they’re seeing a lot of positive things come out of it.”

Greenstone immigration advisor Marie Hunt estimated that 25% of agricultural workers would be migrants with the majority of employees being Kiwis. Migrant workers predominantly came from the Philippines.

“Generally, there are definitely more Kiwis. It is quite a hard process for employers to employ a migrant. They have to get accredited, they have to go through a rigid labour market test process and so it is more attractive to employ a Kiwi.”

They had noticed migrant workers would be more willing to work in isolated areas and were often more driven to progress in the industry with more incentives like securing residency.

Marie said wages were where they needed to be at the moment with farm assistants earning approximately between $60,000 to $80,000 a year and around $120,000 for operations managers.

The biggest issue they came across was Kiwi workers’ lack of preparation with CVs lacking detail and references, whereas migrants came with highly detailed work histories.

From an employer side, retaining staff was also an area that needed work with more training for progression required.