By Cherrie Chubb, Dairy Chair, Federated Farmers Golden Bay OPINION: It is no understatement to say that we live in challenging times. While we can be thankful to have avoided the worst of the impacts from the Delta lockdowns, we have not been spared from the weather. Floods, storms and the persistent number of wet […]
Health and Safety
Residency pathway will ease rural GP shortage
While farmers were heaving sighs of relief that the government had finally announced a clear and achievable residency process for international workers and their families that was certainly matched in the offices of the NZ Rural General Practice Network. It was long-awaited news for an estimated 9000 ag sector workers, and also for around 5000 […]
Building a case for self-isolation on farm
By Simon Edwards What happens if a sole-charge farmer or farm/herd manager tests positive for COVID-19? That question became very real with the recent surge of the disease in Auckland and the subsequent spread of cases to the Waikato. An industry working group that includes Federated Farmers representation has been putting together a case for […]
Feds asks farmers to get vaccinated
Federated Farmers is calling on farmers and growers to remember the critical link between vaccination rates and maintaining growth in the New Zealand economy. Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard says Feds has taken a little bit of stick from a handful of members about the organsiation’s promotion of the need for as many people as possible to get vaccinated. “We got told to ‘stay in our lane’ and to stop […]
Sunsmart farming, is smart farming
Federated Farmers is throwing its support behind the Melanoma New Zealand campaign to save farmers’ lives from skin cancer. The annual campaign for this year ‘Get Spotted’ has just wrapped up, but the Melanoma New Zealand quest to see zero lives lost in New Zealand from melanoma goes on. Federated Farmers vice president and Wairarapa […]
Sunsmart farming, is smart farming
Federated Farmers wants to remind farmers and growers this is a good time to be thinking about getting “sunsmart” for summer. More than 4000 people are diagnosed with melanoma every year, accounting for 80% of skin cancer deaths in New Zealand. It has been estimated up to 25% of farmers and growers have had a […]
Feds gives thumbs up for cross-border, jab efforts
Federated Farmers is giving a shout out to government agencies handling the movement of essential workers across alert level boundaries, and to those DHBs and medical centres reaching out to rural people over COVID vaccinations. “With Auckland now at Alert level 3 and access to takeaways resumed, there are still essential workers having to cross […]
Top shots capture on-farm safety theme
Federated Farmers launched a safety awareness campaign at the start of September to try to avoid a spike of on-farm fatalities in spring such as occurred last year. Vice-president and healthy and safety spokesperson for Federated Farmers, Karen Williams, was determined to engage with rural New Zealand and encourage safe practices. The safety on-farm photo […]
Update from the Canterbury floods
We are now at day 106 after the 2021 Canterbury floods, and even though his own farm was ravaged by floodwater in the May 30th floods, Federated Farmers board member Chris Allen still managed to document the journey via a series of short videos. We have put them all together in a short video that […]
Farmers urged to enable staff to get vaccinations
Farmers should do all they can to enable and encourage their staff to get their COVID vaccinations, Federated Farmers employment spokesperson Chris Lewis says. “I know dairy farms are flat tack with calving and workforce shortages have never been worse. But there’s nothing more important than your family’s health, and that of your staff and […]