September 7, 2025 • 8 mins
Tarryn Benton of Jeff Farm chats about why farm cadets are an intergral part of the farm's business.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Thanks for joining us on the muster on top of
the world. The song by Imagine Dragons with blue sky
and abundance, which is certainly something you want as you
head into the middle list of tea. But now I'm
joined in studio by Taran Benton and her daughter Island.
Now Tarran is involved the husband Mike. They're managing Jeff Farm,
the Sally's Army Farm out there at Kaiwera. Welcome Taran,
(00:31):
thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Thanks and to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Island is in here as well. How are you either
you helping mum today? That's your first time in a
radio studio. Yeah, yeah, what do you think of it?
A bit different?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, Tara. Now your journey to Jeff Farm, it's a
really good story. Like yourself and your husband Michael, you've
ended up there, but you've had a varied farming experiences
over the years.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, we've we've moved around fit.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yeah, I'm not sure stranger to packing up a house,
but it's been good to have a look around and
learn different styles of farming, different people, how different people operate,
and kind of apply some of those learnings back to
back to systems like you farm.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Now you say you've looked at different systems of farming
as such, tell us a bit about what you guys
have been up to.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah, well, if I go right back, like Michael started
with a dairy farming background in the Far North, so
that bet in it South is varied, and I grew
up down here in South and was probably exposed to
sort of large scale farming. And then once we were married,
we actually before we were married, we were working for
(01:44):
Land Court both in the North and South Island, and
then moved to sort of the wai KaiA area and
Michael was on Glen Lapper and I was on the
Deer Improvement l I see deer farm out at Belfa.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
And then once we were married.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
We started at Kettle Flat Station for Jifree Young for
about three or four years, so that's sort of Southland
hill country. From there we moved way up to Muller
Station in the Arlitry Valley up in Blenham, so the
Marino Real high country, isolated style, and that was an
awesome experience. And from there, when it was time to
(02:23):
get the kids into school, we actually moved to Hunterville
in the Lower North Island and managed Odawadi Station, which
is another cadet farm, taking on about eighteen cadets for
a one.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Year course each year eighteen. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, so it's different again, but really cool community and
it probably just made us realize how much we enjoyed
that that training, the training of school leavers and giving
them a shot at farming, and it was quite a
rewarding and satisfying type role.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
A lot of fun too.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, so was that the catalyst for you coming to
South London?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
No, we loved Odawady and unfortunately things just didn't pan
out there in terms of I think, you know, more
than half the farm got plundered and pine trees and
it sort of just with a young family, we weren't
sure that it was for us anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
We actually headed to a marama after that.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
It's probably one of the only Romney farms and a
marama there and did that for about three years. Another
awesome rural community and lovely climate.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Then when.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
John chadag actually we heard that he was looking for
a two ice and I already had an affinity with
Jeff Farm from my dad was the headship of there
years ago when I was a preschooler, and you know,
we knew John well, my family knew John Well, and
we're just said, old, let's let's go check that out
because that could be something we're interested in. And yeah,
(03:57):
so that's how we ended up at Jiff Farm. But
we started in like a May of twenty twenty two,
I think, and by July.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
We're are scratching your heads, going what have we done?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Because we've gone from shifting break fences in their gym
shows to just yeah, needing flippers. But it's been it's
been an experience and yeah, I think we've done a
lot of growing.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Look, we talked about the cadets where you guys are
based here at Jeff Farm and certainly a different dynamic,
but what did you say you had eighteen cadets under
your wing up there.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, and it's in now that we've had the now
that we've been at Jeff Farm and having you know,
four or five kidets, I find it a much more
personal experience, like you really get to know them, sort
of become part of your family type thing, and get
to know their personalities, their strengths, their weaknesses, where you
can where they need more support. And you've got them
(04:53):
for two years versus one, So I think it's a
better model that works for us any But in the
same breath, we just need more more places to take
on these school leaders who want to get into farming.
So without the bigger places like Odawidy doing what they're doing,
it's pretty Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Tough getting young people to come along to places like
Jeff Farmer doesn't seem to be a problem.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
No, So we've just had our open day on the
start of August there and we had more than thirty
cadets come and we were only looking to take two. Wow,
and we had over twenty applications, good solid applications.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It gets pretty hard to split them.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
So in the end we've we just selected our cadets
last week for twenty twenty six and we've taken three.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
We have room for three, so.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
We just thought, this is what we're here to do,
so let's take as many as we can.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So how do you get three people from a number
like that.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
It's probably the thing we dislike the most about the
job because it's, yeah, those three phone calls you get
to make and say, hey, you've made it, you know, great,
But it's the twenty odd other phone calls you've got
to make and see sorry mate, and they go, well, why,
you know, what could I have done better? And it's
like nothing like. So it comes down to age, but
(06:17):
not just age. You know, we prefer to take the
seventeen eighteen year olds, but age is just a number.
So more maturity and having their independence. So we want
them to have their restricted license ideally, and we're there
for people who wouldn't have a shot at farming otherwise,
(06:39):
So we probably look favorably upon people who perhaps don't
come from they might have a farming background, but not
from a farm of their own or from parents who
are sheep and beef farmers.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Do you ever get any cadets leave halfway through the
course or half way through the internship or such.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah. So we've just had and May, a kidect who
was in her second year hand in her notice, which
it's a shame, but I think when people are this young,
they're still trying to figure out what's for them and
so they give it a go.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
But you get so far through the course.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
And I mean in this situation, she had a pre
existing back injury and we've got big sheep, and so
she found it. She did find it tough when it
come to things like the sharing course and things like that,
and it was a decision she made on her own
after some back surgery. Actually, So yeah, it's tough and
(07:38):
ideally that's not that we don't like them to leave
halfway through, but we also understand that, you know, when
you're at that age, how many career chops and changes
have we all had when we were back at the
same age.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
So, so, just about landing season, you guys are all ready.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
For it, I think so, I hope.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
So we're in it anyway the earlies, the earlies have
started and well into it, and everything else is spread
out over the farm ready to go.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So Eiler, what do you like most about lambing.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
That you get to have pets?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
How many pet lambs do you get? I've only got
one now because I want a calf this year? You
want a calf? Wow? Calfs are pretty cool that way. Hey,
thanks for coming in, guys. Great to catch up and
just learning about what you guys are doing out there
regarding the cadets ships are like Taran and Ila, thanks
for coming in, great to catch up.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Thanks for having us Andy.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Taran and Ela Benton. Great to have him in studio
as well. You talk about cadets and about things that
are going on in this world and getting young people
involved in the agriculture certainly one of the stories I
really enjoyed telling here on the muster. Mary Coburn is
up next out of Mainlamb minerals
Thanks for joining us on the muster on top of
the world. The song by Imagine Dragons with blue sky
and abundance, which is certainly something you want as you
head into the middle list of tea. But now I'm
joined in studio by Taran Benton and her daughter Island.
Now Tarran is involved the husband Mike. They're managing Jeff Farm,
the Sally's Army Farm out there at Kaiwera. Welcome Taran,
(00:31):
thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Thanks and to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Island is in here as well. How are you either
you helping mum today? That's your first time in a
radio studio. Yeah, yeah, what do you think of it?
A bit different?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, Tara. Now your journey to Jeff Farm, it's a
really good story. Like yourself and your husband Michael, you've
ended up there, but you've had a varied farming experiences
over the years.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, we've we've moved around fit.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yeah, I'm not sure stranger to packing up a house,
but it's been good to have a look around and
learn different styles of farming, different people, how different people operate,
and kind of apply some of those learnings back to
back to systems like you farm.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Now you say you've looked at different systems of farming
as such, tell us a bit about what you guys
have been up to.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah, well, if I go right back, like Michael started
with a dairy farming background in the Far North, so
that bet in it South is varied, and I grew
up down here in South and was probably exposed to
sort of large scale farming. And then once we were married,
we actually before we were married, we were working for
(01:44):
Land Court both in the North and South Island, and
then moved to sort of the wai KaiA area and
Michael was on Glen Lapper and I was on the
Deer Improvement l I see deer farm out at Belfa.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
And then once we were married.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
We started at Kettle Flat Station for Jifree Young for
about three or four years, so that's sort of Southland
hill country. From there we moved way up to Muller
Station in the Arlitry Valley up in Blenham, so the
Marino Real high country, isolated style, and that was an
awesome experience. And from there, when it was time to
(02:23):
get the kids into school, we actually moved to Hunterville
in the Lower North Island and managed Odawadi Station, which
is another cadet farm, taking on about eighteen cadets for
a one.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Year course each year eighteen. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, so it's different again, but really cool community and
it probably just made us realize how much we enjoyed
that that training, the training of school leavers and giving
them a shot at farming, and it was quite a
rewarding and satisfying type role.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
A lot of fun too.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, so was that the catalyst for you coming to
South London?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
No, we loved Odawady and unfortunately things just didn't pan
out there in terms of I think, you know, more
than half the farm got plundered and pine trees and
it sort of just with a young family, we weren't
sure that it was for us anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
We actually headed to a marama after that.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
It's probably one of the only Romney farms and a
marama there and did that for about three years. Another
awesome rural community and lovely climate.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Then when.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
John chadag actually we heard that he was looking for
a two ice and I already had an affinity with
Jeff Farm from my dad was the headship of there
years ago when I was a preschooler, and you know,
we knew John well, my family knew John Well, and
we're just said, old, let's let's go check that out
because that could be something we're interested in. And yeah,
(03:57):
so that's how we ended up at Jiff Farm. But
we started in like a May of twenty twenty two,
I think, and by July.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
We're are scratching your heads, going what have we done?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Because we've gone from shifting break fences in their gym
shows to just yeah, needing flippers. But it's been it's
been an experience and yeah, I think we've done a
lot of growing.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Look, we talked about the cadets where you guys are
based here at Jeff Farm and certainly a different dynamic,
but what did you say you had eighteen cadets under
your wing up there.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, and it's in now that we've had the now
that we've been at Jeff Farm and having you know,
four or five kidets, I find it a much more
personal experience, like you really get to know them, sort
of become part of your family type thing, and get
to know their personalities, their strengths, their weaknesses, where you
can where they need more support. And you've got them
(04:53):
for two years versus one, So I think it's a
better model that works for us any But in the
same breath, we just need more more places to take
on these school leaders who want to get into farming.
So without the bigger places like Odawidy doing what they're doing,
it's pretty Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Tough getting young people to come along to places like
Jeff Farmer doesn't seem to be a problem.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
No, So we've just had our open day on the
start of August there and we had more than thirty
cadets come and we were only looking to take two. Wow,
and we had over twenty applications, good solid applications.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It gets pretty hard to split them.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
So in the end we've we just selected our cadets
last week for twenty twenty six and we've taken three.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
We have room for three, so.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
We just thought, this is what we're here to do,
so let's take as many as we can.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So how do you get three people from a number
like that.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
It's probably the thing we dislike the most about the
job because it's, yeah, those three phone calls you get
to make and say, hey, you've made it, you know, great,
But it's the twenty odd other phone calls you've got
to make and see sorry mate, and they go, well, why,
you know, what could I have done better? And it's
like nothing like. So it comes down to age, but
(06:17):
not just age. You know, we prefer to take the
seventeen eighteen year olds, but age is just a number.
So more maturity and having their independence. So we want
them to have their restricted license ideally, and we're there
for people who wouldn't have a shot at farming otherwise,
(06:39):
So we probably look favorably upon people who perhaps don't
come from they might have a farming background, but not
from a farm of their own or from parents who
are sheep and beef farmers.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Do you ever get any cadets leave halfway through the
course or half way through the internship or such.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah. So we've just had and May, a kidect who
was in her second year hand in her notice, which
it's a shame, but I think when people are this young,
they're still trying to figure out what's for them and
so they give it a go.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
But you get so far through the course.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
And I mean in this situation, she had a pre
existing back injury and we've got big sheep, and so
she found it. She did find it tough when it
come to things like the sharing course and things like that,
and it was a decision she made on her own
after some back surgery. Actually, So yeah, it's tough and
(07:38):
ideally that's not that we don't like them to leave
halfway through, but we also understand that, you know, when
you're at that age, how many career chops and changes
have we all had when we were back at the
same age.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
So, so, just about landing season, you guys are all ready.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
For it, I think so, I hope.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
So we're in it anyway the earlies, the earlies have
started and well into it, and everything else is spread
out over the farm ready to go.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So Eiler, what do you like most about lambing.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
That you get to have pets?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
How many pet lambs do you get? I've only got
one now because I want a calf this year? You
want a calf? Wow? Calfs are pretty cool that way. Hey,
thanks for coming in, guys. Great to catch up and
just learning about what you guys are doing out there
regarding the cadets ships are like Taran and Ila, thanks
for coming in, great to catch up.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Thanks for having us Andy.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Taran and Ela Benton. Great to have him in studio
as well. You talk about cadets and about things that
are going on in this world and getting young people
involved in the agriculture certainly one of the stories I
really enjoyed telling here on the muster. Mary Coburn is
up next out of Mainlamb minerals
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