Farm Assistant - Te Rapa Farms

Date Published

24-May-2025

Advertising Ends

01-Jun-2025

ID#

12022

Role Type

Farming

Work Type

Permanent Full-Time

Workplace Type

On-site

Country

New Zealand

Location

Hamilton & North Waikato

Our Co-operative

Fonterra’s strength is in the collective | Te Mātāpuna toa takitini

At Fonterra, we are committed to growing our people. We value you and your career progression and are excited that you are taking this next step in your career journey with us. We are proud to offer a wide variety of roles across the Co-op, ensuring that no matter what business unit or stage of life you're in, there's a good chance we've got something to suit.

About the opportunity | Te whai waahi

Join us as a Farm Assistant and play a vital role in supporting the Farms Manager to achieve national and global objectives. Our Te Rapa farm block covers approximately 70 hectares and 224 hectares where we milk 200 dairy cows and our Orini block where we annually export off farm around 700 tonnes of dry matter in grass silage along with grazing dairy replacements.

Your role will be essential in managing the farm's environmental performance and supporting Fonterra’s Te Rapa Manufacturing site and DairyFerts license to operate.

Key responsibilities include:

• Supporting the Farms Manager: Assist in delivering a programme of transformational change on-farm.
• Optimise Milk Solid Production: Help in optimizing farming activities within environmental and regulatory limits.
• Innovate Best Practices: Develop innovative and best on-farm practices/solutions for a profitable farm operation.
• Stakeholder Management: Collaborate with manufacturing operations, local farmers, external contractors, and rural service professionals to ensure sustainable management of manufacturing by-products and create value for the Co-op.
• Milk Quality: Understand milk quality and maintain high milk quality standards to support Fonterra’s commitment to excellent.

About you | Moe koe

You are a reliable and passionate individual with a genuine love for farming and the environment. You thrive in a team-oriented environment and are adaptable to the dynamic nature of farm work. This role involves physical tasks and will require you to be ready to hit the ground running coming into our calving season.

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• 1-2 years of on-farm experience.
• Ability to safely operate basic farm machinery and equipment (bikes, side by side, tractor, etc.).
• Knowledge of Health and Safety practices.
• Highly motivated and reliable
• Strong skills in building and maintaining positive relationships and thriving in a team-oriented environment.
• Understanding of milk quality and a commitment to maintaining high milk quality standards.

Are you excited about this opportunity but may only meet some requirements?

That's not a problem. We are committed to growing our internal talent and building a diverse workplace; therefore, we are open to looking at applicants with excellent transferable skills. If that's you, we encourage you to apply as you may be the right candidate for this role or one of our other opportunities.

Applications will close at midnight Sunday 1st June 2025.

Sound good to you? Apply now so we can continue to solve for better, together.

You, me, us together. Tᾱtou tᾱtou.