Pathways overview
2 min read
Dairying presents various rewarding career paths, and this page gives you insights into your options. Whether you're aiming to become a dairy farmer, looking to progress to farm ownership, thinking of self-employment in farming, or considering stepping back from active farming, there are several pathways available. You'll find guidance on decision-making, understanding potential risks, and fulfilling legal obligations. Several resources and tools, such as decision trees and due diligence processes, are provided to support your journey in the dairy industry. It's a demanding but fulfilling field, and these resources can help guide your success.
Being a dairy farmer is many jobs rolled into one, the work can be demanding, but very rewarding.
If you’d like to discover what your future in dairy could look like, and learn about the range of career options on offer visit GoDairy.
Wherever you find yourself in your dairy career - be it starting out as a new business owner or as a farm owner wanting to step back from day-to-day operations, determining the best operating structure to help you succeed with your future is an important step.
The pathway to farm ownership is no longer linear, and for some people farm ownership is not the ultimate goal. There are a range of progression options available and these are changing constantly as farmers modify operating structures to reach their goals.
To help you consider different operating structures based on the questions below, use this decision tree:
Whatever decisions you reach before signing an agreement or contract, ensure you have sought independent legal advice, understand the potential impact on your financial position and what obligations you’ll need to meet. DairyNZ have created a due diligence process to help you follow the right steps before signing contracts and agreements, for farm owners and for sharemilkers and contract milkers.
Self-employment can be very rewarding and satisfying but it is also important to remember that with self-employment comes varying degrees of risk and liability.
As a business owner, you will:
As a farm owner you may be looking to re-evaluate your options and how you are running your business. Traditional pathways such as herd owning sharemilkers are still viable and may fit with your farming philosophies and business model, but there are other operating structures or hybrid models.
To help you consider different operating structures based on the questions below, use this decision tree:
Whatever decisions you reach before signing an agreement or contract, ensure you have sought independent legal advice, understand the potential impact on your financial position and what obligations you’ll need to meet. DairyNZ have created a due diligence process to help you follow the right steps before signing contracts and agreements, for farm owners and for sharemilkers and contract milkers.