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Sheep and beef farming remains one of New Zealand’s largest agricultural sectors, and livestock farms across the North and South Islands regularly look beyond New Zealand’s borders to fill shepherd, stock hand, and general livestock roles. This guide covers what these jobs actually involve, what farms expect from an overseas applicant, and how pay and visa sponsorship work in 2026.
Types of Livestock Farm Roles
- General hand / farm assistant: fencing, feeding out, animal health checks, machinery maintenance, and general farm upkeep. The most common entry point for someone with limited New Zealand farming experience.
- Shepherd / stock hand: mustering, drenching, docking, shearing support, and lambing or calving season work. Requires genuine stock sense — ideally hands-on experience with sheep or cattle before applying.
- Head shepherd / stock manager: supervising a small team, managing stock rotation and pasture, and making day-to-day farm decisions. Requires several years of proven experience.
- Dog handler roles: many stock positions expect (or strongly prefer) experience working with trained sheep or huntaway dogs — this is one of the biggest gaps for overseas applicants and worth being upfront about in an application.
What Farms Look For
- Genuine animal handling experience — even if it’s not from a commercial New Zealand-scale farm, relevant hands-on experience with livestock strengthens an application considerably.
- Physical fitness — the work involves long days outdoors, often on hilly or difficult terrain, in all weather.
- A full driver’s licence — most livestock roles require driving farm vehicles, and rural properties are often not accessible by public transport.
- Willingness to live rurally — many sheep and beef stations are in remote areas, and accommodation is often provided as part of the package.
Pay Rates
New Zealand’s minimum wage rose to NZD $23.95 an hour from 1 April 2026, and that’s the legal floor for any farm role. In practice:
- General farm hands with limited experience: typically start around $23.95–$26/hour.
- Experienced shepherds and stock hands: commonly earn $26–$30/hour, and reports on farm-sector pay through 2026 show wages for skilled stock roles climbing well above minimum wage as farms compete for experienced workers.
- Head shepherds and stock managers: can reach salaried packages well into the $60,000–$75,000+ a year range, particularly on larger stations, often with accommodation included.
- Many livestock roles include free or subsidised on-farm accommodation, which meaningfully changes the take-home value of the job compared to the headline hourly rate.
Visa Pathway
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The realistic route into livestock work for a Nigerian applicant (or anyone outside New Zealand’s RSE-eligible Pacific nations) is the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV):
- You need a genuine job offer from an INZ-accredited farm employer.
- Since 10 March 2025, the employer must pay the market rate for the role — at least the minimum wage — rather than a fixed median-wage threshold, which has made more entry-level and mid-level farm roles realistically open to AEWV sponsorship.
- The employer generally needs to show they tried to source the role locally first, unless the role qualifies for an exemption.
- Shepherd and farm-related occupations with strong skill requirements can, in some cases, sit closer to New Zealand’s Green List pathway — always confirm the specific occupation classification with the employer or a licensed adviser rather than assuming.
How to Apply
- Be honest about your experience level — farms would rather know exactly what you can and can’t do than discover gaps after you arrive.
- Highlight any hands-on animal handling background, even informal or smallholding experience, and any driving or machinery skills.
- Target sheep and beef stations directly, particularly in Otago, Southland, Hawke’s Bay, and the East Coast — regions with a high concentration of large-scale livestock operations.
- Confirm accreditation before investing time in an application — a legitimate AEWV job offer only comes from an INZ-accredited employer.
- Ask directly about accommodation as part of the package, since it’s common on livestock farms and affects the real value of the offer.