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Federated Farmers employment spokesperson Chris Lewis.
Federated Farmers is backing an industry and government partnership helping Kiwis towards a career on dairy farms.
The 2020 GoDairy programme, backed by $3.5 million in Government funding, aims to help Covid-19 affected workers into farming careers. Read more about the programme here.
"This is a win:win for New Zealanders who want to work on the land and farmers who need to fill workforce gaps made worse by the pandemic restrictions," says Federated Farmers employment spokesperson Chris Lewis.
DairyNZ, with support from the Ministries for Primary Industries and Social Development, is offering a free three-week introductory course that is open to New Zealand citizens and permanent residents.
The mix of online and practical on-farm training covers the basics of staying safe while working with animals, farm vehicles and machinery.
"Dairying is not an easy job. It’s increasingly technical, requires a range of skills and at certain times of the season is quite hectic," says Lewis.
"But it’s also hugely satisfying for those who take to it and as the recent Federated Farmers Rabobank Remuneration Survey showed, it pays well. Across nearly 1700 respondents, the mean salary for a dairy farm assistant was $48,584, for an assistant manager $62,317 and for a farm operations manager, $85,986."
Federated Farmers dairy industry chairperson Wayne Langford says for those who find their feet through the GoDairy introductory training, a next step could be the Federated Farmers dairy apprenticeship.
"I’d encourage anyone who enjoys animals and outdoors work to think about this opportunity. I’ve worked my way up from dairy assistant to farm owner and it’s been a great lifestyle for myself and my family," says Langford.
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Certainty and a clear understanding of the needs of rural communities is a critical outcome in the series of government reforms that are taking place at present.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
Red meat farmers are using higher farmgate returns to make their farms more resilient, says Federated Farmers meat and wool industry group chair Richard Dawkins.
On a farm in Tikorangi, North Taranaki, Brent Stevenson is sharemilking 1,400 cows.
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson says his party – NZ First - isn’t opposed to the “trade element” of a free trade deal with India.
The managing director of a company seeking to build a solar farm in Canterbury says receiving fast-track approval is a “really positive outcome”.
Retiring MP and dairy farmer Mark Cameron is blasting the Green Party for proposing to ban the use of synthetic fertiliser and cutting cow numbers.
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Wayne and Ange Moxham of Horowhenua have just been named as Fonterra's top organic performer for milksolids. As well as providing organic milk to Fonterra, the couple also sell Udderly Organic milk to more than 100 outlets in the region and are embarking on another exciting venture producing organic gelato. Reporter Peter Burke went along to see their farming operation.
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