16 Feb 2021

Mahi, mana and life on the land: Tangaroa Walker

From Nine To Noon, 10:10 am on 16 February 2021
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Photo: supplied

In his 2012 Young Māori Farmer Award acceptance speech, Tangaroa Walker asked when technology would be integrated into farming.

Now the Southland contract milker and social media star is answering that question himself with Farm4life - a digital content hub for the rural sector.

He's also just published the book Farm For Life: Mahi, mana and life on the land.

Farm4life is a training resource for those new to the farming industry, teaching them everything from how to operate and maintain farm vehicles to how to set up a fence, Tangaroa tells Kathryn Ryan.

It works a bit like YouTube, giving farmworkers '" mentor in their pocket" and a more meaningful understanding of the work, he says.

'Why does a farm owner have to teach his staff every year how to do something when we can get the professional… to occupy that video space and teach millions of people?"

"You can just jump into [Farm4life], type in [for example] 'three-wheelers' and it will come up with nine educational videos about how to maintain and operate this vehicle."

RNZ's Country Life visits Tangaroa on the farm:

Tangaroa came up with the idea for the Farm4Life platform three years ago - and has wanted to try and educate people 'one to many' for a long time.

'Why does a farm owner have to teach his staff every year how to do something when we can get the professional… to occupy that video space and teach millions of people?"

Farm bosses can see when their staff member has viewed the video, how long for and how well they did in the follow-up quiz, he says.

Tangaroa already has a large social media following for his Farm4life videos about life on the land. His three essentials for farming content are:

  • make it entertaining
  • work with a live audience (farm animals)
  • hit them with really good knowledge

After an unsettled childhood, Tangaroa got his start in farming as a teen.

By 14, he was looking after a dairy farm for weekends while his boss went away. At 17, he "left the nest" for Southland - somewhere he knew nobody and where "everything could go tits up", he says.

There, he became a farm manager for Southland farmers Graham and Glenda Haines.

"[Graham and Glenda] knew how to get me fully engaged with what I was doing and make me want to do what they needed me to do for their business. That's something every business tries to do, and whether or not they're successful at that is the difference between them achieving their goals and not achieving their goals, as a business."

When Graham and Glenda asked Tangaroa what he wanted to do, he told them 'learn everything and be contract milking within a year' - a goal he achieved.

"I struggle to teach people what Graham taught me in one year… if I could create a 'Graham in my pocket' for everybody in the world, they could have the same experience that I've had in the industry."

Tangaroa hopes his digital platform can be part of an image upgrade for the farming industry.

"Although checkered shirts and Canterbury shorts are good-looking… [farming] just needs a sexy-up, mate."

Related:

  • Tangaroa Walker: dairy farming during lockdown
  • Tangaroa Walker - Dairy Farmer 4 Life