Thomas Chatfield has made a dramatic career change and he's loving it. The 27-year-old who won the 2013 Bay of Plenty Dairy Trainee of the Year Award, had previously spent four years studying hard to qualify as a physiotherapist.

No regrets – Thomas Chatfield is happy he made the switch from physiotherapy to dairy farming.

'I really like physiotherapy and have kept my registration current but I'm convinced dairying is what I want to do,” says Thomas, who was delighted with his win, especially given it's his first season in the industry.
Thomas grew up in Tauranga. After studying in Dunedin and Wellington, and working as a physio at Tauranga Hospital, he and partner Jody Mexted travelled overseas.
When they returned, Jody worked on her parent's dairy farm and Thomas became fascinated with farming.
'I used to watch Jody in the shed and then started helping out and it just snowballed from there,” says Thomas, who is working for Rhys Watkins on his parents' 500 cow Whakatane farm. Jody continues to milk for her parents and together the couple hope to progress to sharemilking and, one day, farm ownership.
Thomas has taken a drop in income, farmed through one of the worst droughts in decades and put four years of study on the back-burner but doesn't believe he's made the wrong choice.
'I love the lifestyle and working with the animals. As this is my first season, I don't know what it's like to farm in a ‘normal' year so anything which is better weather-wise than this one will be a bonus.”
He's also started study of another kind, this time with AgITO to gain farming qualification to help him progress in the industry.
As part of his $4500 prize package, Thomas will join a tour of South Island farms, something he's looking forward to.
'It will be great to see what else is out there and how other farms, of different sizes, operate.”
While he hasn't given any cow massages yet, Thomas reckons the observation skills he picked up while working as a physiotherapist come in handy in assessing the health of the herd.
'In physiotherapy you learn to read a lot by how people move and that applies to cows too.”
Thomas is impressed at how generous everyone in the dairy industry is in sharing knowledge and encouraging the next generation of farmers to succeed.
'That's something you don't find in many other industries.”