ACC urges safety during spring calving
Dairy farmers around the country are into the busy spring calving period.
Rural insurer FMG is this week launching a mental health initiative aimed at the rural community.
Working with the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, FMG has devised a programme intended to help farmers, growers and rural people look to their personal health and wellness.
Called Farmstrong, it launches on June 3, offering practical resources to improve farmers’ wellbeing by better preparing them to deal with the ups and downs of living and working in rural businesses.
“Farmstrong’s focus on wellbeing aims to provide farmers and their families with access to resources and information through its website, which will help them to live well and farm well,” says FMG spokesman Colin Wright.
It will also encourage rural communities and farmers to connect with each other via social media, regional farmer ambassadors and regionally focused programmes and events to be announced at the launch.
“This is an important and timely initiative for us and the Mental Health Foundation to be supporting,” says FMG chief executive Chris Black. “It has the potential to make a positive difference for all farmers, their families and staff, and to support the rural sector’s growth objectives for five-ten years.”
A Farmstrong website will be live from June 3.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
'Common sense' cuts to government red tape will make it easier for New Zealand to deliver safe food to more markets.
Balclutha farmer Renae Martin remembers the moment she fell in love with cows.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.