Ashburton Courier: August 06, 2020

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12 Ashburton Courier, August 6, 2020 ADVERTISING FEATURE www.ashburtoncourier.co.nz RuralServices/Supplies Removal of slinkies will cost TONI.WILLIAMS @ashburtoncourier.co.nz Farmers have been notified there will be costs associated with removing slinkiesand calf carcasses from farms, following afall in international marketprices. The value of the carcasses, primarily used for pelts, was not covered in the collection and processing of them. Federated FarmersMid Canterbury provincial president David Clark said it was even unlikely there was going to be aserviceatall to collectthem. “There’s acost and a question markabout whether there’seven going to be collections this year,” he said, with international markets ‘‘just fallingtopieces’’ withthe upheaval of covid. “It’s just another knockon effect of the disruptionand upheaval in the world currently.” It was likely mostfarmers would compost their own slinkies (lambs), but there were someorganisationsgoing to collect calves and send them to landfillorfarmers could compost them down with sawdust, he said. “Numbers will vary on farm, casualty stockobviously you try to keep to aminimum but it is areality,” he said. Boviseradication hascome at asignificant emotional, financial andpersonal impact to farmers. He said bobby calves also had very little value, but FederatedFarmershoped farmerswould take along term view in supportingthe bobby calf trade so the markets were kept openfor when the world recovered and values recovered. “This is just aone year blip,” he said. He encouraged farmers to follow best practice (disposing of any slinkies) and, where possible, continuetosupport the bobby calf market with Dairyshed yard work including topand backing gates Rotaryboom irrigatorrepairs and service, including wirerope &splicing Mainline installation and repairs Anyother general engineering/fabricationrequirements Bale feeder –calf feeders Standardorcustom-made Phone 308 5903 weekdays l Email: agserve@xtra.co.nz On call 7days:Doug: 027 282 2245, Matt (Tomo): 021 518 538 15 Malcolm McDowell Avenue, Ashburton their surplus calves if they have no market for rearing calves into the beef industry. In other news, Mycoplasma bovis eradication was making good progress, on the face of the numbers being made public, he said. It has beenthree yearssince the disease was first identified in New Zealandand the 10 year eradicationresponse was well underway. The latest figures from MPI showed 250 total confirmed cases; with just three active 2300731 (two in the North Islandand one in the South Island), 28 notice of directions nationwide and 172 active surveillanceproperties. Mr Clark said he was “cautious but optimistic’’ the response to the disease was making good progress but mindful it had left atrail of destruction in its path. “It is anasty disease so the decision was made to go down the eradication path. “However that (eradication) has comeat significant, emotional, financial and personal cost to the farmers who wereimpacted. “And in some cases those costshave been unreasonably high.” There werestill cases –well overdue that have not had claims settled,including those in Mid Canterbury. “That is wholly unacceptable at any level, (they) should have beensorted out.’’ The impact on individual farmers has been far higher than it needed to be, he said. “The process of MPI to begin with was disgraceful. Massive progress was made in sorting thosesystems out but it has left atrail of destructionalong the way and Ifind it hard to celebrate the victory against boviswhen Iknow of people still going through the pain of the process.” Alliance Group visit Methven is one of the venues on Alliance Group’s annualroadshow programme starting on September 22. Some 23 meetings will be heldaround the South Island, with the Mt Hutt Memorial Hall hosting a meeting at 1.30pm on October1. The roadshow is an opportunity for the cooperative’s farmer shareholders and other farmerstohear firsthand from directors and senior managers and also to provide feedback. Those attending will receive an updateonthe cooperative’s performance, progress on strategy and details on futureplans. Allianceisowned by around4000 farmer shareholders . It exports lamb, beef, venisonand coproducts to customers in more than 65 countries. IN BRIEF WOOL PETITION Clintonsheepand beeffarmer Amy Blaikie has been ‘‘absolutelyblownaway’’by theresponseto herwool petition. Mrs Blaikie launched an online petition in June calling on theHouse of Representatives to ensureall publiclyfunded buildings and KiwiBuild homes were built or refurbished with New Zealand wool carpet and insulation. It drew 15,069 signatures and thisweekshe presented her petitiontomembers of Parliament in front of the Beehive, in Wellington. Mrs Blaikiewasjoined by her husband Victor, their children, and supporters to givethe petition to New Zealand First list MPand Lawrence farmer Mark Patterson; they were also joined by New Zealand First leaderWinston Peters. RMACHANGES SOUGHT Changestothe Resource Management Act (RMA) need to deliver reduced compliance costs for farmers, increase efficiency andimprove environmentaloutcomes, says DairyNZ. DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle is calling on politicalpartiestowork quickly on achieving meaningfulreform in thenext term of office. He said acomprehensive reform of theRMA is long overdue and would be a positive step notonly for farmers,but allNew Zealanders. “TheRMAhas become too unpredictable andinefficient forapplicants. ‘‘Farmers will be keen to see this reformdeliveraprocess which is faster, simpler and lesscostly,” said Dr Mackle. “Potentially replacing the RMA withtwo separate pieces of legislation for environment and planning makes alot of sense.’’ 2301725
www.ashburtoncourier.co.nz ADVERTISING FEATURE Ashburton Courier, August 6, 2020 13 RuralServices/Supplies Job prospectsgood for new agri students TONI.WILLIAMS @ashburtoncourier.co.nz Agri Training has been running atwoweek rural retraining course for people wanting skills to workinthe ruralworkforce. It’s the firstintake of its kind fundedand run bythe Mid Canterburybased agricultural training providerand designed to fasttrack people into rural jobs with practical farmwork lessons to help fillsome of the hundreds of rural vacancies across the industry. And there is already alist of people applying for the next course. Project manager Trina Moore saidall the course trainees had one thingin common transferable skills which saw them selected out of the more than650 applicants to the course. Most had lost their jobs as aresult of Covid19, many were looking for acomplete career changeand all were keen to get enough farm experience to gettheir foot in the door of the rural industry. “We have local businesses desperately needing staff and aprogramme that has attracted trainees from various backgrounds and with ages up to 60 yearsold,’’ she said. “We have aseismic oil vessel captain, ahairdresser, expolice officer and cafe owner, and these people are not justlocalCantabrians, they come fromasfar north as Auckland and as far south as Invercargill.’’ Agri Training ran afree introductoryonline taster course which drew ahuge response but through interviews and selection it was whittled down to 27. “Our ultimate outcomeis to place every personwho has completed the training in work. Weare 110 per cent behind finding job opportunities for our graduates,’’ she said. TutorJeff TaylorHurst, of CompliancePartners, gives instructionsonworking at height to trainees during an Agri Training rural retrainingcourse at Winchmore. PHOTO TONI WILLIAMS. It included setting up interviews with businesses to working with recruitment specialists Agstaff and New ZealandDairy Careers. Hannah Bennett, 25, of Christchurch, is apainter working parttime in the construction industry but waskeen to swap city life for fulltime work with arural outlook. She said it had beena lifelong dream to work on a farm, especially asheep farm. She hadstarted working as apainter in the construction industry straight from school and saidthere had been a realbarrier to gaining employment on afarm with no experience behind her. Prior to the course the most common options for people to get ajobon afarm, were to grow up on afarmor to marry afarmer. She said the course had proved an eyeopener and given hersomegreat insights with practical skills touse in the industry. She was hopeful of ajob offer at the end of the course. Fellow trainee Nathan Eggleton saw new avenues of employment opening up with the course than he initially thought. “There’s so many more layerstothis thanI anticipated, new avenues that Ican build on withmy current skills. It’s not just for jobs on farm, Ican lookat something likesales through seed and crop. ‘‘It’s like covid shut one door and opened another,” he said. Ms Moore said all of the candidates were seeking employment and had found their way to the training provider. ‘‘We’d ideally like to be able to work with the MinistryofSocial Development to get more people in training andmore people outinto work.’’ She said the farming industrymay be even more reliant on locallyretrained people as changes to the currentimmigration system, based on skillband,will see an increase to the wage bills of farmers employing migrant workers. “Wealready have five trainees offered employment with multiple othersinvited for interviews,’’ she said. Safety first ... Farm motorbike and quad bike safety was covered during the practical onfarm training sessions. Purpose.Environment. Partnership.Innovation. Excellence. • DairyNZ accreditedEffluent Pond Design andConstruction • Pond Constructionand Irrigation Development • Hedgeand StumpRemoval • Farm Conversions PARK UP Come on down andmeetJoshfromDeWalt Come and check out his brand new trailer loaded full of DeWalt demo tools Thursday, August 13 –10am-2pm 34 Robinson Street,Riverside Industrial Park,Ashburton. Phone 308 6415 • DairyTracks– Lime or Gravel • PumpHire • Wellsand Galleries • Bulk Earthworks • Subdivisions • Site Works • Tree Shear • Transportation 2302115 2300539 2301422 Dairy Refrigeration DESIGN INSTALLATION SERVICE Servicing Mid Canterbury for over 80 years REFRIGERATION /AIR CONDITIONING /ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS Compliant Cooling Solutions •Milk Silo Refrigeration •Pre Cooler Design •Conventional Refrigeration •Hot Water Recovery •Water Chilling •Boost Systems •Glycol systems • Electronic Valves Qualified and experienced engineers offer options for dairy farm refrigeration and process cooling From standard refrigeration to complete cooling solutions giving water conservation and effluent efficiency Service Like No Other Phone 308 7182 On call 021 597 517 211/D Alford Forest Road www.stewartandholland.co.nz
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