Born and raised on a stud farm near Hampden, Mr Caldwell attained a diploma of agriculture and farm management at Lincoln University.
He then did a year at Glenaray Station in Southland followed by five years at Deep Hill Station at Clarks Junction.
‘‘I was going to head over to Australia and work but then, of course, Covid kicked in and I thought I might go home and give the old man a hand.’’
Mr Caldwell’s father, Neville, runs Moeraki Downs, a Coopworth and Coopdale sheep stud near Hampden.
‘‘I always take two weeks off work to go home at lambing time and give him a hand tagging the stud lambs.
‘‘When Australia fell through, I sort of hoped I might find enough work on the home farm to keep us both busy but Dad’s pretty happy as a one man band for now.’’
It was while playing rugby for Kurow in North Otago last year that Mr Caldwell met contractor Tim Anderson.
‘‘I got a foot in the door as a dog man on his tailing run last year. It didn’t take long to meet a few of the farmers we were tailing for, and I got a bit of casual work with them and before I knew it, I was pretty well booked up a few months in advance.
‘‘Word of mouth has been pretty much how I have got all of my work.’’
Mr Caldwell’s work has him travelling through the Waitaki and Hakataramea Valleys as far as Otematata.
‘‘I usually get booked for a few days at a time and I will be housed and fed as well.’’
The farm jobs can be anything from picking up lambs in a tailing pen, animal health jobs up a race or out in the hills mustering.
‘‘The reality of casual work is that you’re only there during the busy times so it’s always job on, there’s never a cruisy day, and I tend to like that.’’
The highlight of the job was seeing different farm systems at work and meeting different people.
It was through this casual work that he was approached by a farm owner to take on a fulltime management role.
‘‘I wasn’t actively seeking a fulltime job as I’ve been pretty happy with the casual work and the money is also pretty good, but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.’’
The new job starts in March next year which gives Mr Caldwell the chance to finish up the casual work commitments he had been booked to do.
His advice for others thinking about taking the plunge into self-employment and casual farm labour was to give it a crack.
‘‘You have to be prepared to work hard; they haven’t got you there for a cruisy day. Word of mouth will get you far.’’
