New associate director for DairyNZ
After 20 years of milking cows, Northland farmer Greg Collins is ready to step into the governance side of dairy.
As calving season approaches, so too does the increased risk of sprain and strain injuries for dairy farmers.
However, scientists and farmers have joined forces to find ways of avoiding these common injuries during spring, to help farmers keep farming when they are at their busiest.
DairyNZ’s three-year Reducing Sprains and Strains project set out to understand the common causes of injuries and work with farmers to develop practical solutions to reduce them on New Zealand dairy farms.
Dr Callum Eastwood, DairyNZ senior scientist, says the overall aim was to reduce lost time and productivity and support farmers’ wellbeing, especially during calving.
The physical nature of farming means that even when health and safety is prioritised, preventable sprains and strains can still happen.
In 2022 and 2023, there were approximately 1,500 claims, totaling $5-6 million to ACC each year.
Most injuries were to the back, often from calf-related activities, including lifting heavy objects like calves, buckets, or bags of meal.
“Research has shown that sprain and strain injuries make up around 40% of dairy farm injuries, with the highest risk period during the spring calving season,” says Eastwood.
“We were focused on working directly with farmers, every step of the way, to understand the issues, and together innovate, design, test and refine product designs that were easy to use and worked for current farming practices,” he says.
“Our workshops involved farm owners, employees, health and safety experts, engineers and other professionals with insights and experiences to help develop solutions that reduce risks around essential tasks.”
Following the initial designs, DairyNZ has worked with manufacturers to help develop and produce some of the successful solutions. This includes Kea Trailers who are now selling the popular Easy-Entry Calf Trailer Gate, and Gallagher who are taking expressions of interest for the Easy-Access Calf Pen Gate.
Eastwood says the successful workshop concepts were built into physical prototypes with the manufacturers, and then tested and refined based on farmer feedback.
“It includes the calf trailer gate, which was intensively tested by farmers last calving season, then refined to ensure it is farm ready,” he says.
“New Zealand has many different farm types and so the solutions aren’t a one-size-fits-all. However, the project’s co-design approach, with farmer testing, feedback and refinement, meant the creation of tangible options for farmers to reduce these injuries on-farm.”
The project was funded by ACC’s Workplace Injury Prevention Grants programme, with co-investment from DairyNZ.
Recent rain has offered respite for some from the ongoing drought.
New Zealand's TBfree programme has made great progress in reducing the impact of the disease on livestock herds, but there’s still a long way to go, according to Beef+Lamb NZ.
With much of the North Island experiencing drought this summer and climate change projected to bring drier and hotter conditions, securing New Zealand’s freshwater resilience is vital, according to state-owned GNS Science.
OPINION: Otago farmer and NZ First MP Mark Patterson is humble about the role that he’s played in mandating government agencies to use wool wherever possible in new and refurbished buildings.
For Wonky Box co-founder Angus Simms, the decision to open the service to those in rural areas is a personal one.
The golden age of orcharding in West Auckland was recently celebrated at the launch of a book which tells the story of its rise, then retreat in the face of industry change and urban expansion.
OPINION: The appendage swinging contest between the US and China continues, with China hitting back with a new rate of…
OPINION: The irony of President Trump’s tariff obsession is that the worst damage may be done to his own people.