NZ/UK contractor exchange scheme
A new partnership to try and help solve the labour shortage gap for rural contractors in both NZ and the UK has recently been established.
The new presidential team leading Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ) says the organisation plays an invaluable role educating and up-skilling contractors and promoting their interests.
At its annual conference in Masterton last month, the RCNZ board elected Southland contractor David Kean to be its new president and Waikato contractor Helen Slattery as its new vice-president.
Kean has been on the RCNZ board since 2009 and served as vice-president for the past five years.
Slattery has been on the board for six years and serves on a number of the RCNZ’s subcommittees including health and safety, training and biosecurity.
Both are second-generation contractors. In 2003, Kean took over the sheep dipping and weed spraying business his father Leo started in 1966. In 2016, his two sons, Jarrod and Nicol, joined him in the business.
Helen and her husband Roger Slattery now run the Matamata contracting business that Roger’s father and uncle started in the mid-1950s.
The Slatterys also operate a collection service and compacting unit for Plasback, which recycles waste silage film throughout NZ.
China’s Ambassador Wang Xiaolong says bilateral economic and trade cooperation between China and New Zealand has made significant and rapid progress.
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.