20 | Coming to New Zealand a dream realised In 2006, aged 27, Ibraam started his New Zealand dairying career. Lindy Andrews DAIRY PEOPLE » Sandle 2 Dairy Farm When bird flu annihilated his El Fayoum farm, killing some 15,000 of his chickens, Egyptian farmer Ibraam Saad knew it was time to realise his dream of coming to New Zealand. El Fayoum is a rich agricultural area, known as the “Garden of Egypt”. The main cash crop is cotton, and the fruits of over 700 square kilometers of orchards are exported to Cairo. Fayoumi chickens are reputed to be the best of the country. “A small number survived, maybe 5000,” says Ibraam, who graduated from Cairo University with a Bachelor of Agriculture in Animal Science. “I was already thinking that I needed to learn more about larger animals – that was the main reason I came here.” In 2006, aged 27, Ibraam started his New Zealand dairying career as a farm assistant near Oamaru. There was the language barrier to overcome, but he quickly got used to the Kiwi accent. Within 18 months his English had markedly improved. As he began to climb the dairying ladder, Ibraam graduated to become a herd manager and farm manager before moving into 50/50 sharemilking on Peter Sanford’s Springhill farm three years ago. His early experiences of dairying in this country were in stark contrast to agricultural practices in his homeland. “It was a little bit new to me because back home cows are farmed in barns, not paddocks. In Egypt they feed maize, silage and concentrate, a lot like the winter feed in New Zealand,” he says. Animal health is also vastly different. Antimicrobial-resistant mastitis is a significant disease affecting Egyptian dairy farms. Bovine ephemeral fever is prevalent in cattle and water buffaloes, and foot-and-mouth disease is not uncommon. New Zealand farmers, Ibraam says, are fortunate. “Animal health is better here because there is far less disease. The viruses and other diseases we see in Egypt are the same as you see in Europe and the United States. They spread easily as animals are moved around. “We are lucky here because it’s very pure – it is an island country, a new country and New Zealand controls diseases very well.” Fifty/fifty sharemilking brings Ibraam and his wife Reneh - who is also Egyptian – one step closer to their ultimate goal of owning their own farm within 3 to 5 years. Now the owners of 420 head of cows and the parents of two sons, Mark aged 13 and Patrick, 12, the pair have no regrets. “I had planned to go home but there are really good opportunities here and really good pathways to get into farm ownership,” says Ibraam, adding that he could not have got to where he is today without Reneh’s unwavering support. “That’s the most important thing, she always supports me, pushes me to do better and is beside me when I need help on the farm.” United in their goals, the Saad family have set their eyes on Southland – where the grass grows well year-round and “people smile at you in the street” - as their future dairying home.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=