Harm caused by vehicles and machinery is a priority focus within Safer Farms’ Farm Without Harm Strategy.
Harm caused by vehicles and machinery is a priority focus within Safer Farms’ Farm Without Harm Strategy.
Farmers asked to share their tales, tips and takes on farm vehicle safety
Safer Farms says it wants to hear first-hand experiences about reducing harm on farms, particularly when using vehicles.
The industry-led organisation has urged farmers to share what they have learned from experience, and what works for them and their people.
Safer Farms said vehicles were almost always involved in fatal farm accidents.
From 2019 to 2023, WorkSafe recorded 22 quad bike-related fatalities. The majority involved rollovers, with steep grades and incorrect driving positions the leading causes.
Safer Farms chair and Farm Without Harm ambassador Lindy Nelson said it was “time to put the brakes on vehicle-related harm”.
All stories and experiences submitted will go into a draw to win either a $500 Greenlea voucher thanks to FMG, or one of two $250 meat vouchers from Alliance Group and Silver Fern Farms.
New Forests to acquire part of Otiwhiti Station and contribute to Otiwhiti Station Land Based Training School
Part of Otiwhiti Station, in the Turakina Valley near Hunterville, Rangitikei District, has been subdivided and sold to a fund managed by Australian-headquartered global forestry investment manager New Forests, after a deal negotiated by Arotahi Agribusiness.
The 1246-ha estate, known as Otiwhiti Farm Forest, was acquired by New Forests after Overseas Investment Office approval.
The vendor, Otiwhiti Limited Partnership, will continue to provide a licence to Otiwhiti Station Land Based Training School to operate its successful agricultural education venture on the remaining portion of the property.
New Forests intends to establish and manage production forests on its newly acquired land, while working alongside the training school to help provide enhanced rural educational opportunities to young people.
Joe Duncan, director of Otiwhiti Limited Partnership, said the subdivision and sale to New Forests followed a strategic land use review, which identified that the highly productive front (western) end of the farm offered the best potential to continue supporting the training school, which has been operating since 2007.
Duncan said 499 hectares of Otiwhiti Farm Forest is already planted under a Crown forestry right, which along with several successful neighbouring forests, proves the suitability of the land for forestry.
New Forests is one of the largest forestry investment managers globally, with over A$11b (NZ$11.8b) in assets under management, covering 1.3 million hectares of land in Australia and New Zealand, the United States, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Electric boiler now fully operational at Mataura Valley Milk - New Zealand’s first all-electric dairy processor
The high pressure electrode boiler being craned into position at Mataura Valley Milk in Gore.
The new electric boiler installed at Mataura Valley Milk in Southland is now fully operational, completing the plant’s conversion from a coal-fired manufacturing process to one powered entirely by certified renewable electricity.
The boiler conversion eliminates about 22,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent Scope 1 emissions from the site annually and establishes Mataura Valley Milk as the first all-electric dairy factory in New Zealand.
The new high-pressure electrode boiler provides all the process heat required in the operation of the plant, which converts milk collected from farmers to a range of dairy nutritional products for sale in international markets.
Other benefits from electrification include the fact that the plant operates cleaner and free from coal dust, ash, and combustion; and that there is potential for further benefits founded on flexibility arising from the shift to electricity.
Central Districts Field Days on this week
It’s all go in Feilding as Central Districts Field Days kicks off today. The three-day agricultural event usually attracts over 27,000 people to connect, discover and experience the future of New Zealand’s primary industries.
