Smiles @ The Farm: Raphaël Köhn | From IT to Farming

“If you told me more than a year ago that I would end up farming, I’d say you’re crazy! I wouldn’t believe you in the slightest!”

That was how Raphaël Amaury Jens Pierre Köhn - Rapha or ‘Rambo’ as we affectionately call him - responded when asked if he ever imagined he would end up as Head of The Farm’s Milking Team.

The 19-year-old native of Bockenheim an der Weinstraße in Germany turned his life around a “full 180 degrees” ever since he arrived at The Farm on 1st February 2020.

From hesitantly considering a career in IT due to his love of gaming, to confidently knowing he wants to pursue farming full-time, Rapha credits his Farm experiences for helping him discover the next big step in his journey.

The pivotal incident in this journey can be traced back two years ago when Rapha was physically fresh out of high school but mentally jaded with the idea of settling on a career path.

“I had a teacher who said I was the ‘best worst student’ she ever had. I never raised my hand to answer questions but always did enough to pass exams. I had no vision of the future for myself and no interests in anything. I liked the classes but couldn’t see myself studying it further or working in it,” he explains.

Rapha is the product of a mechanical engineer father who wanted him to study IT and a self-employed interpreter mother who wanted him to go into politics. Alas, he had no desire to pursue either field.

Despite coasting without direction, Rapha’s main hobby has always been playing video games. The ‘League of Legends’ loyalist says he spent a solid three months post-high school playing the game, much to the warranted concern of his parents.

Concern eventually turned into action, and Rapha’s father enrolled him in an university IT programme. However, they came to a compromise and scheduled an appointment at an employment agency to discuss all his options for university moving forward.

Those two hours did not go as anticipated, as Rapha remembers: “After everything, the adviser recommended I go into finance, which I thought was completely ridiculous because I already said Math was my worst subject!”

Nonetheless, as it were with the unpredictability of life, many situations that end up falling into place often stem from moments where things feel like they are falling apart. Rapha decided during those same two hours that he needed to go away from Germany to find his way back.

“Originally, I wanted to go to Canada but the visas were limited so I had to look at other countries. I already liked New Zealand and always felt like I wanted to do outdoorsy stuff, so I was keen on living on a farm and learning about farming,” he recalls his moment of resolve.

A mere week after the debacle, Rapha applied for his New Zealand Working Holiday visa. In addition to that incident, he also cites his two older brothers and their adventures away from home as motivational sources. The eldest had headed to Africa after graduating high school for a year of voluntary work at an orphanage.

“They inspired me to think of travel as a way to find a new direction. I also learnt from their mistake of taking on the pressure of studying what others thought was best for them instead of what they were passionate about,” Rapha says.

Although he was confident in his decision to dive into the Kiwi farming lifestyle, the ‘aha moment’ that confirmed he had made the right choice was when he joined the Milking Team about a year ago.

“What I like most is that we have a routine. We always know what we’re doing the next day. I like working with the animals too,” Rapha says.

His day starts at 7 a.m. with meeting his team in the family kitchen to load up the compost buckets and some empty milk jugs before driving up to the cow shed. Rapha starts preparing the area while the ‘milker’ cows are gathered in from their grazing paddock.

The entire milking process and cleanup takes about two and a half hours, after which they feed the pigs with scraps from the compost buckets. They finish off by filling the milk jugs and bringing them home to hungry breakfast folks eagerly waiting with their bowls of Weet-Bix.

Rapha has his first meal of the day around midday, then goes off for his obligatory nap. His alarm goes off at 4 p.m. sharp, signalling his final job of the day - feeding the calves - before returning to make himself a cup of coffee.

“I’ll drink coffee no matter the time in the afternoon. It has to happen!” he says with a laugh.

His day is completed with a post-dinner movie or show, an activity that other volunteers and family members have learnt to include as part of their own routine. 

The predictability with which Rapha runs his day - something he jokes as being “very German” - and the close bonds he has forged with the greater community have been key to him calling The Farm his home away from home.

This made convincing his parents to allow him to stay beyond his original deadline challenging, all the more so when he extended his stay for a second time.

“I was supposed to go back in June 2020 but after arriving at The Farm and really enjoying it, I wanted to spend a full summer here. But now that my options to stay are up, I’m ready to go home and come back to The Farm in the future,” Rapha says.

Despite learning to love the farming business, he fully recognises that there are many flaws. This informed his decision in January this year to study sustainable agriculture when he returns to Germany later in June.

In particular, a Netflix documentary called ‘Kiss the Ground’, which The Farm screened for one of our coveted movie nights, inspired him to further his studies in regenerative techniques.

“I read a lot of farming articles from Germany and it’s all about the money there, little to do with the well-being of the animals. The average mortality rate of calves is one out of ten, and as long as the cow’s disease doesn’t affect the milk, they don’t treat the cow. It’s a very bad life for the cows and the farmers who have to work heaps of hours but get paid next to nothing because of strict European Union regulations on milk production,” Rapha explains with a passionate glimmer in his eyes.

“My parents are very happy that I came to this decision to study sustainable agriculture by myself. I’m looking to do my Bachelor’s at the Rhine-waal University hopefully as soon as October,” he adds.

From never milking a cow to wanting to do it for the rest of his life, Rapha is a vivid example of how The Farm - with all its quirks and chaos - has helped someone find their next stable step in this perpetually evolving challenge we call ‘life’.

The Farm wishes Rapha our sincerest best for his future endeavours, he will be sorely missed! There will be a ‘Rapha’-shaped hole left in the colourful fabric of this special community, always.

Written and photographed by Anisa Abdullah.