Wednesday, 14 September 2016 07:55

Co-op, bank sign for good yarns

Written by 
Dana Carver, DairyNZ. Dana Carver, DairyNZ.

Award-winning mental health scheme GoodYarn is writing a new chapter as it grows around the country.

Fonterra and Rabobank have signed to run the scheme's workshops for their staff; 14 organisations are now doing GoodYarn.

The scheme was last month named joint Best Mental Health Promotion/Illness Prevention effort at an Australia and New Zealand mental health conference.

It is the work of WellSouth, a primary health organisation, and DairyNZ, as part of the Transforming the Dairy Value Chain Primary Growth Partnership, a seven-year, $170 million scheme led by DairyNZ, Fonterra, the Ministry for Primary Industries and others.

Organisations wanting to be part of GoodYarn have to go through a licensing programme to train their own staff.

Terry Buckingham, Fonterra's health and wellbeing manager, says the co-op was keen to do it.

"This season we are delivering GoodYarn workshops to our 1500 tanker drivers. They are our biggest team of people spending time on farms and they recognised they could do better in talking to farmers. They recognised that farmers have pressure and stressors from a number of directions."

The co-op realised the drivers and farmers would benefit from GoodYarn's workshops that teach how to stay healthy, recognise stress in others and respond effectively.

Buckingham said tanker drivers were involved first because they were "farmer-facing", but others in Fonterra might also participate in the training.

"Many of our Farm Source team have already been through the training and we are including more technical sales reps to prioritise staff who are working alongside farmers on a regular basis," he says.

"In time we hope the programme will benefit our wider Fonterra team and may be adapted further."

Hamish Midgley, Rabobank's national manager, major agribusiness clients, says the GoodYarn workshops will help bank staff better recognise and manage their own stresses and be "more attuned to our clients' and communities' needs".

"The training will also allow Rabobank to take a leadership role in communities to help change the 'industry language' and stigma about mental health and get people talking about this issue in a more constructive way," he says.

Midgley says the bank would like to support other organisations looking to deliver the GoodYarn workshops to a wider audience.

Dana Carver, DairyNZ wellness and wellbeing programme leader, says teaming up with Fonterra and Rabobank would take the workshops to thousands more people.

"Working for Fonterra or in rural banking at the moment is not easy and GoodYarn will help the employees of these organisations to keep themselves well, which is paramount for the industry."

She says other organisations and businesses would be approached. The 14 organisations now signed include LIC, CRV, Farmlands, Ospri, the Pharmacy Guild and several Rural Support Trusts. Also thinking about it are ASB Bank, Primary ITO and New Zealand Young Farmers.

More like this

Strong uptake of good wintering practices

DairyNZ has seen a significant increase in the number of farmers improving their wintering practices, which results in a higher standard of animal care and environmental protection.

Fonterra trims board size

Fonterra’s board has been reduced to nine - comprising six farmer-elected and three appointed directors.

Returns 'not good enough'

Fonterra leaders are making their case for offloading the co-operative's $3 billion consumer business, noting that its return on capital has been nowhere near respectable.

Record milk price!

A record farmgate milk price for Fonterra shareholders is all but confirmed for this season.

Featured

Massey Research Field Day attracts huge interest

More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.

National

Winter grazing warning

Every time people from overseas see photographs of cows up to their hocks in mud it's bad for New Zealand.

ANZ defends farm lending rates

The country's largest lender to the agriculture sector says it's not favouring home loans over farm and business lending.

Machinery & Products

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo…

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Review SOEs!

OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…

Bank reset

OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter