Ditching the high-flying world of media and politics for life on a dairy farm has paid off for 2016 Auckland/Hauraki Share Farmers of the Year winners Brad Markham and Matthew Herbert.

Two novices running a dairy farm have taken the title of regional Share Farmers of the Year – and it's not just their career change that's gaining attention.

Matthew Herbert and Brad Markham say they are also the first same-sex couple to win a trophy at the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards.

The former political advisor and journalist crossed the ditch two years ago, swapping talk with Australia's top politicians to pulling teats on a dairy farm.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY / FAIRFAX NZ Matthew Herbert (left) and Brad Markham see themselves as role models for urban professionals considering a career change to farming.

"We liked the idea of working with cows every day more than working with politicians every day," Herbert said.

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When many dairy farmers are considering walking off their farms, this couple have embraced their new lifestyle and livelihood.

Herbert worked in Tasmania as an advisor for an Australian cabinet minister, and Markham as an Australian Broadcasting Corporation political reporter.

Both jobs were high pressure and they wanted career changes after working through two elections.

"After a while cows that don't talk back are actually more enjoyable to work with," Markham added.

Being a less-than-traditional Kiwi farming couple hasn't held them back at all.

"There's never been any, 'Look there's that gay couple there'. It's been, 'Look there's Matt and Brad'."

Markham grew up on a nearby dairy farm and had strong family ties to the area with his sister and brother-in-law now running his parent's farm.

He saw the couple as role models for those living in cities looking for a career change in farming. "It is possible to give it a go. You don't have to have grown up in the country or anything like that to make a go of it."

Many of the finalists and winners of the Dairy Awards have changed their careers to dairying, he said.

And winning the award showed there were "no barriers" to success in the dairy industry.

"We were stoked just to win full stop. It's a little bit of an honour in a way, but we know lots of gay and lesbian couples in the dairy industry who are progressing up the ladder and doing a really great job."

The couple are now in their second season contract milking on a 92ha farm owned by Markham's younger brother Lee at Pepepe, west of Huntly.

Looking back, it was initially a huge learning curve.

"Here on day one, we were milking a mob of 100 cows," Markham said. "Our flat paddocks go under water at multiple times of the year, so we have really jumped in the deep end."

There were times – particularly during cold, frost-covered mornings when they have to get up at 5 o'clock for milking – that they briefly miss their old lives.

"But then you think of all the great things that come with this lifestyle, we don't actually miss living in town at all.

"We love it out here, we don't miss having news editors screaming at us every day and the ins and outs of politics. We love it here and we wouldn't go back."