New leaders for Insurance Council
The Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) has appointed a new president and vice-president.
A JOINT study by rural insurer FMG and Lincoln University suggests three actions farmers and growers can take to help prevent storm damage to their irrigators: point, park and anchor.
The research, prompted by the September 2013 Canterbury wind storms, saw 100 irrigator owners talk about how they prevented damage to their machines. The outcome is an irrigator advice guide now available free at www.fmg.co.nz
“Irrigator owners will find the guide very useful,” says FMG’s Conrad Wilkshire. “To our knowledge there’s not another one like it. It’s got sound, practical advice on what people can do in the days and hours leading up to a storm, and measures they can take all year to help keep their irrigator upright.”
FMG’s research with Lincoln University highlighted the effectiveness of three steps: point the irrigator downward into the prevailing wind; park (make a parking space for the irrigator) if possible away from any other objects; anchor, i.e. along the parking space install anchor points to tie the irrigator down.
The company says the guide is not a ‘how to’ manual, but a starting point for wider research efforts.
FMG paid out more irrigator claims than any other insurer following the 2013 storms; 260 claims were lodged at a cost of $7.6m. Its response to the storm claims resulted in client satisfaction in the region reaching its highest levels ever, Wilkshire says.
“[But] we won’t be resting on this. We too have taken lessons from these storms and as a direct result have changed and enhanced our insurance offering to include nominated replacement cover as well as present day value and clients should call and talk to us about these. We also now have much closer ties in the irrigation industry, including suppliers.”
The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has found itself in a stoush with NZPork over the controversial National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL).
Fonterra says the sale of its global consumer business and its Oceania and Sri Lankan operations could take 18 months to complete.
The lobby group the Methane Science Accord (MSA) says it welcomes a recent government move to seek outside advice on reducing biological methane targets, rather than relying on recommendations made by the Climate Change Commission.
Well-known scientist Jock Allison has passed away.
After a decade of consultation and court battles, Environment Southland has officially adopted a plan to prevent further decline in the region's water quality.
Farmers are throwing down the gauntlet to politicians - hold an independent inquiry into rural bank lending or face tough questions from the farming sector.
OPINION: Good on the UK'S NFU for battling to get supermarkets to prioritise local farmers' produce.
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