increase font size
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor.
A $3.5 million programme aimed at helping Covid-19 affected workers into farming careers, has been launched.
The 2020 GoDairy campaign was announced, today, by DairyNZ – in partnership with the Ministry for Primary Industries, the Ministry for Social Development (MSD), and with support from Federated Farmers.
“We know that people have lost their jobs because of Covid-19, and we know there is significant and urgent demand for trained workers in the dairy sector,” says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor.
“We want to continue to connect people with jobs in dairy, and more broadly in the primary industries because we know these sectors will be key to our economic recovery.
“GoDairy has a crucial role to play. The Government and the sector are giving it a welcome boost to encourage new-found farmers, by investing $3.5 million to expand this crucial work during our economic recovery,” O’Connor says.
DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle says while the new campaign is still in its early days, there is good interest from people wanting to pursue a dairy farming career.
“Like all successful businesses, dairy farming needs good talent. Currently there are 1,000 job vacancies on dairy farms nationwide,” says Mackle.
“There are excellent career opportunities in farming – from doing the books, to working with machinery, caring for animals, and managing staff. Technology plays a major part in the business too.”
O’Connor says GoDairy’s training module will be available to other primary industry sectors outside of dairy to adapt – such as beef, lamb and horticulture.
OPINION: Welcome to the second annual NZ Dairy Expo at Matamata – an event created to bring together the best of the New Zealand dairy industry in a focused, grassroots environment where dairy farmers and rural professionals can meet, talk, compare products, and make smart decisions for their farms.
It's a bloody tough year for sheep farmers, but the worst may be over, and the future looks optimistic.
One of the country’s two largest supermarket chains is reporting that for the first time since the disruption of Covid, they have largely full supply on almost all fruit and vegetables grown locally.
Covid-19 took global shipping rates to mind boggling highs, but over the subsequent 12-15 months they returned to more sustainable levels. Fast forward to July 2024 and rates have nearly doubled over three months.
Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) chief executive Nadine Tunley says the industry-good body’s support for growers has proven to be multifaceted.
Commodity prices and interest rates play a huge role in shaping farmer confidence, but these factors are beyond their control, says Federated Farmers dairy chair Richard McIntyre.
DairyNZ is supporting a proposed new learning model for apprenticeships and traineeships that would see training, education, and pastoral care delivered together to provide the best chance of success.
Two agritech companies have joined forces to help eliminate manual entry and save farmer time.
The recent squabble between the Cook Islands and NZ over their deal with China has added a new element of tension in the relationship between China and NZ.
The world is now amid potentially one of the most disruptive periods in world trade for a very long time.
Former Westland Milk boss Richard Wyeth is taking over as chief executive of Canterbury milk processor Synlait from May 19.
OPINION: Nearly four years after buying a 75% stake in Southland processor Mataura Valley Milk (MVM), A2 Milk is still…
OPINION: Fonterra isn't backing down in its fight with Greenpeace over the labelling of its iconic Anchor Butter.
