Tangaroa Walker is an award winning Southland contract milker, who's evangelical about the joys of rural life.
On his increasingly popular Facebook page Farm 4 Life, the 29-year-old he posts videos of daily life on the Invercargill dairy farm, whether it's delivering calves, or discussing rosters and mental health.
He tackles the everyday challenges of his job with enthusiasm and a contagious sense of humour. He also features in Country Life's new Grass Roots series.
Walker spoke to Kim Hill about life on the farm and his newfound status as a social media sensation.
Photo: RNZ/Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
“I’m trying to obviously educate people about what we do in the industry because I wish there was somebody around when I was young doing what I’m doing, I think it would’ve fast-tracked my career and it definitely got a lot more of my friends into dairy farming.”
And it’s not exactly an easy thing to do for the dairy industry, that’s been copping a lot criticism and attention more recently with environmental problems being highlighted. Add on top of that farmers who are struggling to make ends meet with poor returns, it could have ended in a potential recipe for disaster, but Walker isn’t afraid to keep everything open for everyone to see.
“I think if you go out there into any industry and highlight all the bad things … there’s always those people going a bit out of the square or stepping over the line in certain places.
“But I suppose the aim of Farm 4 Life is just to get to highlight and to video the professionalism within the industry and also allow people to go those professionals and get out of the hole they may be in and get a bit of advice there. I don’t see the point of having closed meetings about it, I might as well video it and then it’s open for everyone to see.”
The exposure online has undoubtedly led to criticism of him from “left, right and centre”, he says. When he won an Ahuwhenua award in 2012, he says he took on the responsibility of lifting the Māori identity in the industry but also lifting the industry itself to expose the good sides – something his social media account has been a good outlet for.
He’s so devoted to the openness of dairy farming that he takes his camera along even when he’s helping cows calving or stabbing a cow with bloat – something that might not suit the faint-hearted but shows the reality he says.
His ambitions stretch beyond the land of farming with other ventures on his horizon – including a gym he’s set up in the area, and free diving venture with his mates. Though it might seem impossible to get it all under control and manage through the day successfully, Walker says with the help of two staff members he finishes most of his farm work by lunch time.
But the question of enough sleep might be thrown off for Walker not long from now, with his partner’s baby due in November. Although his partner has her own job away from the farm, he says he supports her and that gives them a good balance.
“I think the dairy industry has taken a huge change, going way back to when I suppose women were able to control whether they can or can’t have a baby … and they started becoming independent and I really push for that.
“People have really stuck in farms following around their husbands sometimes, sometimes it’s not like that. But I really enjoy my partner having another outlet, [I] can come home and ask her how her day is and talk about how s--t or awesome my day was, rather than working with each other all the time and not talking about anything.”
And if it ever all gets too much, what does he do? “Cry,” he laughs. “Sometimes, not all the time. I don’t want to be sick about it. But there’s trying times, aye?”
Thanks to his dogs, he’s not alone on the block and find his motivation through them, he says.
“I don’t know how people go farming without dogs to be honest. He motivates me at four o’clock in the morning when I get up and he’s like sitting there shivering waiting to go and instantly you go from this train of where you wake up and like ‘oh what the hell am I doing?’ … and you look at your dog and think ‘oh s--t, I gotta get going he’s waiting for me’.”
Watch episode two of Grass Roots below:
Walker’s life hasn’t always been a cruise – twice adopted and moving through six schools by the age of six.
“The big thing was moving, I’d been to 16 houses by the time I was settled in that Whakamārama School, I think six years old. My mum at the time was struggling with money, we lived in a tent for about a year-and-a-half at the back of an orchard, then we upgraded to a caravan park for bloody ages, and then we found a cheap house.
His Uncle and Aunt adopted him afterwards and took him to their lifestyle block, where his first love for the countryside grew.
“I used to get five bucks a week, I was about seven years old ... I used to have to go and get this bloody cow in out of this huge paddock, go get her in at night, and then I’d lock her away in the yard.
“Then I’d have to get up in the morning and go down and milk this cow, get about a bucket and a half and then feed all our pigs, feed all our pig dogs, and then I’d have all these frickin’ strange random cats that would turn up, and then I’d have to feed the cats.
“Every time I’d be frustrated trying to get this bloody cow out of this paddock, and she knew where she was going so she didn’t want to go there and I’d be throwing mud at the cow and trying to get her out of the corner, and the school bus would go past and everyone would run to the side of the bus and watch me, that was pretty embarrassing.”
Now Walker stays in touch with his Uncle, who he says is his role model. His next plan is to keep uploading more content but to try and get more professionals to help him, especially with things like comment moderation.
