KEY POINTS:
Police have named the Northland farmer who died after a 100kg-plus bale was found on top of him at his farm.
Paul Smith, a 49-year-old married father of three, was found with the hay bale on him at his farm near Puketona Junction, about 10km south of Kerikeri, yesterday morning.
Ambulance staff reached him soon afterwards but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kerikeri police said it appeared the farmer had been working in a hay shed at the time of the incident.
Mr Smith was understood to have put a hay bale on forks on a tractor he was driving, and left the tractor to return to the stack of hay bales in his shed.
It is believed a hay bale on the stack fell on him. Police said the rectangular hay bale was covered in plastic and weighed between 100kg and 150kg.
- NZPA
