From gold standard to the gold card!
If you’ve made the trip south on SH1 from Christchurch, and passed through Hinds, you can’t have failed to notice the busy factory making bright red farm machinery.
TAKING FARM vehicles on the road, legally, looks set to become much simpler, judging by a consultation paper released last week by Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee.
The core proposal in the Review of Agricultural Transport Legislation document is a new E class X registration which would allow unlimited mileage at up to 40km/h, without a warrant or certificate of fitness, or excessive driver licensing requirements.
It’s enthusiastically welcomed by industry representatives.
“This is an overwhelming victory in the simplification of operating agricultural vehicles on the road,” Mid Canterbury farmer and Federated Farmers representative on the Agricultural Transport Forum, David Clark told Rural News.
While the proposals won’t meet every farmer’s every wish, they are a “significant step forward” from the current morass of regulations and amendments which confused even those charged with enforcing them, he says.
“It takes away the confusion of whether you are a farmer or contractor, and means you’re not captured by the working time rule.
“In consulting on this, Federated Farmers was very aware Government would not compromise [on] road safety and this proposal achieves that, while still meeting most of our aims.”
Clark says if farmers identify points in the proposals that could be done better, let the federation know and/or attend one of the five consultation meetings (see panel).
“We’ll go through [any points] very carefully and listen to the feedback from our members at the five meetings. So far the feedback we’ve had has been overwhelmingly supportive.”
That’s echoed by Rural Contractors Association executive director Roger Parton.
“This is a huge leap forward...,” he told Rural News. “It will take a lot of pressure off the agricultural sector and allow it to operate as it needs to without overly restrictive legislation, but without putting at risk road safety.”
Parton says the increase in registration fee, from $23 to $46 under E class X, is because time licences have gone.
Abolition of E class B registration for trucks and utes is “a separate issue”.
“This review is just about tractors and self-propelled agricultural vehicles.”
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford is claiming “some real success” on the 12 policy priorities it placed before the Coalition Government.
Federated Farmers is throwing its support behind the Fast-track Approvals Bill introduced by the Coalition Government to enable a fast-track decision-making process for infrastructure and development projects.
The latest report from ANZ isn’t good news for sheep farmers: lamb returns are forecast to remain low.
Divine table grapes that herald the start of a brand-new industry in Hawke’s Bay have been coming off vines in Maraekakaho.
In what appears to be a casualty of the downturn in the agricultural sector, a well-known machinery brand is now in the hands of liquidators and owing creditors $6.6 million.
One of New Zealand’s deepest breeder Jersey herds – known for its enduring connection through cattle with the UK’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II – will host its 75th anniversary celebration sale on-farm on April 22.