Ruralco boosts rural mental health support with $10,000 donation
Ruralco has donated $10,000 to the Mid Canterbury Rural Support Trust following a recent fundraising golf tournament.
Rural Support Trusts from regions badly hit by the recent disastrous storms and cyclones are getting much needed assistance from other parts of the country, says the chair of the National Council of Rural Support Trusts, Neil Bateup.
He says it’s a very busy time for trusts, trying to help farmers and horticulturalists deal with the huge problems they face now and in the future. He says different regions are in different phases of dealing with problems.
He says in places such as Tairawhiti and Hawke’s Bay, RST people still don’t have access to some farmers because of damage to roads, bridges, power and lack of phone coverage. He says in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne, most farmers still have their heads down trying to sort themselves out as best they can.
“In these early days a lot of people are running on adrenalin and that sort of thing, but sooner or later they will have to stop and think about their businesses and look at how they will get through the winter and into next season,” Bateup told Dairy News.
“Given what’s happening right now, it’s probably too early for the RST people to become very involved,” he says.
But Bateup says once farmers get over the initial phase of dealing with the immediate issues, they will probably need some advice around the next steps, so the RST can work with them and point them in the right direction to get help and support. He says they are there to provide with advice on what funds they can access and support them to deal with stress.
RST staff are helping their counterparts in Northland, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay to field calls for help.
Bateup says trusts in other unaffected regions are coming to the rescue.
“Calls coming into Northland have been rerouted through to Taranaki, who have some capacity and haven’t been affected and so Taranaki has been supporting Northland.
Bateup says in the case of Northland, the Waikato and the Coromandel, RTS’s are more involved in the recovery stage. He says as a result they are busy organising barbeques and other events to get people together to share their experiences and offer mutual support. In Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne, he says the focus is still on response.
He says for RST’s the focus is getting farmers to talk to their accountants and other advisors and start to put together a plan for the future.
“You can’t change what’s happened but sitting down and having a plan going forward often takes some of the weight of the problem away. It’s the unknown that often causes most of the worry, but once you know what it means, then you can start to plan to go forward from there,” he says.
The CEO of Apples and Pears NZ, Karen Morrish, says the strategic focus of her organisation is to improve grower returns.
A significant breakthrough in understanding facial eczema (FE) in livestock brings New Zealand closer to reducing the disease’s devastating impact on farmers, animals, and rural communities.
Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.
OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).
The 2024-25 season apple harvest has “well and truly exceeded expectations”, says Apples and Pears NZ chief executive Karen Morrish.
Through collaborative efforts with exhibitors, visitors, and industry partners, Fieldays says it is reaffirming its commitment to environmental responsibility with new initiatives for 2025.
OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.
OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…