NZ/UK contractor exchange scheme
A new partnership to try and help solve the labour shortage gap for rural contractors in both NZ and the UK has recently been established.
The new presidential team leading Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ) says the organisation plays an invaluable role educating and up-skilling contractors and promoting their interests.
At its annual conference in Masterton last month, the RCNZ board elected Southland contractor David Kean to be its new president and Waikato contractor Helen Slattery as its new vice-president.
Kean has been on the RCNZ board since 2009 and served as vice-president for the past five years.
Slattery has been on the board for six years and serves on a number of the RCNZ’s subcommittees including health and safety, training and biosecurity.
Both are second-generation contractors. In 2003, Kean took over the sheep dipping and weed spraying business his father Leo started in 1966. In 2016, his two sons, Jarrod and Nicol, joined him in the business.
Helen and her husband Roger Slattery now run the Matamata contracting business that Roger’s father and uncle started in the mid-1950s.
The Slatterys also operate a collection service and compacting unit for Plasback, which recycles waste silage film throughout NZ.
Analysis by Dunedin-based Techion New Zealand shows the cost of undetected drench resistance in sheep has exploded to an estimated $98 million a year.
Shipping disruption caused by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea has so far not impacted fertiliser prices or supply on farm.
The opportunity to spend more time on farm while providing a dedicated service for shareholders attracted new environmental manager Ben Howden to work for Waimakariri Irrigation Limited (WIL).
Federated Farmers claims that the Otago Regional Council is charging ahead unnecessarily with piling more regulation on rural communities.
Dairy sheep and goat farmers are being told to reduce milk supply as processors face a slump in global demand for their products.
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