Federated Farmers Golden Bay Meat & Wool Chairperson Pax Leetch missed out on attending the National Council in Wellington earlier this year because he was couch-bound. We’re going to leave his story in his own words – a episode he re-told in the province’s newsletter with a view to inspiring other farmers to stay safe. […]
Health and Safety
Call for seat belts on school buses
Federated Farmers transport and health & safety spokesperson Karen Williams is asking rural residents to sign a petition calling for a law change requiring seat belts in school buses. Philippa (Pip) Cameron, who farms on Otematata Station in the Waitaki Valley, lodged the petition with Parliament on 6 April. The closing date for signatures is […]
Arguing the case for extra dairy workers to cross border
By Chris Lewis, Federated Farmers national board member With the developing and serious workforce shortage on dairy farms top of mind, Federated Farmers and DairyNZ have combined to put the case to government for 500 migrant staff to be allowed into New Zealand to head off critical animal and human welfare issues. A survey conducted […]
High five to the essential services workers everywhere
There’s so many people to thank on Essential Services Day. When Federated Farmers and many other agencies and organisations in the Team Ag/primary industries ‘family’ came up with the idea of saluting all those others who worked through last year’s Covid-19 lockdown, enabling us to continue producing top quality food and fibre, we soon realised […]
Government agency thirsty for more water rules
A new government agency charged with improving national drinking water standards is trying to find more than 50,000 water suppliers, many of whom will be farmers supplying a handful of households. The new agency called ‘Taumata Arowai’ opened its doors on March 1. It wants to register water suppliers so they can be monitored and […]
Safe and legal hunting for the deer roar
Federated Farmers, the Mountain Safety Council and NZ Police would like farmers to remind the hunters that use their properties to take extra care as the deer roar approaches. Because of the COVID lock-down last year, hunters will be even more keen to get into the hills this season. Unfortunately the months of March and […]
Vaccinating animals for their health – and ours
by Mark Ross, Chief Executive of Agcarm OPINION: As we struggle to fathom how we ended up in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’re reminded of the importance of vaccinations to protect us from life-threatening diseases. The same applies to animals – to preserve their health and wellbeing as well as ours – due […]
Maintaining roads is key step to traffic safety
By Rhea Dasent, Federated Farmers Regional Policy Advisor Federated Farmers supports road safety as a priority in its submission on the Regional Land Transport Plan for Hawke’s Bay. Ensuring road maintenance is adequately funded and actually carried out will complement the safety strategy. Many rural councils are falling further behind in essential maintenance of roads, which shortens the lifetime of […]
A new way to encourage the use of seat belts
WorkSafe New Zealand has launched a new side-by-side vehicle simulator to try to get the message about wearing seatbelts to click with farmers. Federated Farmers vice president and spokesperson for workplace health and safety Karen Williams and the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Michael Wood gave the simulator a go at the Wellington demo […]
Sharing a farm with the public
Kate Scott, a Federated Farmers member, is the co-owner of remote Rees Valley Station, near Glenorchy. Thousands of people visit her farm each year. Late last year she talked to the Walking Access Commission/Ara Hīkoi Aotearoa about why she and her family support public access and what it’s like to have a stream of tourists on […]