Free health check for delegates

Several workshops and one of the keynote addresses dealt with the topic, meanwhile in the sponsors’ hall delegates could get blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass index checked.

“I’ve not had [a health check] before and I wouldn’t go to the doctor for one,” 19-year-old herd manager from Golden Bay, Lydia Freeman, told Dairy News after a check-up at the Dairy NZ Health Pitstop stand.

Freeman was in good shape, but as DairyNZ developer Dana Carver highlighted in a workshop at the event, that’s not so for many in the industry. Pitstop results in 2011-2013 found 41% of farmers had high cholesterol, 57% of male farmers had high blood pressure and 32% reported pain interfering with work.

Figures presented in another workshop by Kaikoura GP Chris Henry suggest the situation’s getting worse: Henry said in 2014-15 the Pitstop survey found 70% of farmers had high cholesterol, 50% high blood pressure and 70% were overweight.

“These are primary risk factors for heart disease,” he said, noting the traditional image of the farmer walking over the hills with a dog at his heels is far from the reality in the dairy sector.

“This is going to emerge as quite a significant problem,” he added, warning that being busy is not the same as being active.

Henry also highlighted the rising rural suicide rate, averaging 22/year, and contrasted that with the falling toll from farm accidents.

“Is there the same Government interest [in suicides]? Sadly not,” he commented, noting there would be “a lot of stress on [dairy farmers] in debt at present.”

Closing keynote speaker Ed Timmings offered solutions to stress, but warned that people often only change their ways after a big event such as a breakdown.

“As soon as you get a little sign you need to stop it,” he said in a quickfire walkabout presentation on everything from diet to depression. “When dealing with stress every little step counts.”

Timmings issued delegates a 30-day challenge starting with picking ten areas to improve over the next month. Day two’s challenge is to define your purpose in life, day three to refine the ‘areas to improve’ into goals, day four’s to focus on behaviour.

“You’ve got to change your behaviour by doing things slightly differently everyday…. The trouble is, changing your life is tough. We all say ‘I’m going to do this’, and then we never do.”

Carver offered tips that could fit Timmings’ “slightly differently” recommendation, as well as avoiding the quest for wellness becoming “just another pressure we put on ourselves”.

Mobiles should be off 6-9pm with staff told how to find you in an emergency, she suggested. Jogging to and/or from the shed a few times a week would raise physical activity and presenting and choosing fresh fruit in the home and shed rather than biscuits and baking would help with diet.

“The reality is that if we don’t find time for wellness… we may have to ask ourselves the hard question ‘what do we prefer: a holiday or a hospital?’ Both require us to take time off work.”