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The Muster- Simon Hopcroft: Southland Rural Support Trust · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Pressure.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Pushing down on me. Pressing down on you.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: No man has four.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the muster. Simon Hotcroft is chair of
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: the Southland Rural Support Trust and joins us next. Once again,
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  Speaker 2: we've teamed up with the Rural Support Trust just for
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  Speaker 2: various speakers from different farming operations talking about the situation
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  Speaker 2: that they've experienced over the past couple of months and
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  Speaker 2: just looking forward to just keeping a mindset and different
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  Speaker 2: things around having a toolbox available. G'day Simon, good to
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  Speaker 2: chat once again.
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  Speaker 1: How are you Andy?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, sunshine makes a big difference for a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people. I'm pretty well myself. But on the workload
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  Speaker 2: at the moment, yes, it's dried up. Down south where
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  Speaker 2: you're based, it's still pretty damp, I understand. And it's
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  Speaker 2: about trying to put into perspective what we've faced while
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  Speaker 2: we look ahead.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, Andy. We've had a great 15, 16
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  Speaker 1: days of weather, a couple of wee patches in between.
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  Speaker 1: But It has been sort of a period for everyone
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  Speaker 1: to be a bit more positive and get some action
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  Speaker 1: done on farm, which we're all sort of hands to
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  Speaker 1: the pump there and getting a bit achieved. So, no,
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  Speaker 1: that's been good. And then, yeah, just farmers making sure
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  Speaker 1: that they're also not getting too fatigued out there with
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  Speaker 1: catching up. And, yeah, that would be probably a wee
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  Speaker 1: message that we're sort of trying to reiterate as farmers
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  Speaker 1: plan wisely and make sure you're taking some breaks as
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  Speaker 1: well and then also just working your teams if you've
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  Speaker 1: got staff to making sure that they're getting some time
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  Speaker 1: off as well, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So with the run of good weather, from a Rural
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  Speaker 2: Trust perspective I suppose, have you seen things a bit
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  Speaker 2: quieter at the end of the phone and that farmers
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  Speaker 2: just getting on with it at the moment?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, as far as I'm aware Andy I think we
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  Speaker 1: saw sort of a bit of a peak period post
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  Speaker 1: sort of end of September into early October, and then
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  Speaker 1: once that sun came out, yeah, that sort of tapered
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  Speaker 1: off a wee bit, which has definitely helped everyone's morale.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, I guess there's always just making sure we're
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  Speaker 1: looking out within the community for those that might need
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  Speaker 1: a wee bit of a hand or a guiding bit
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  Speaker 1: of a support. So it's been pretty quiet of late.
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  Speaker 2: And we're coming up to the anniversary of the wind
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  Speaker 2: events in the south. I think it was from the
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  Speaker 2: 21st of October, which is Wednesday. 365 days later, or
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  Speaker 2: just about, it's a different time and different challenges faced
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  Speaker 2: yet again.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, Andy, and it's a good point. So
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  Speaker 1: we went sort of into that October and, yeah, the
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  Speaker 1: winds sort of were getting a bit more intense and
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  Speaker 1: then that day in particular was forecasted but not to
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  Speaker 1: that extent and I guess what it did surprise a
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  Speaker 1: lot was around you know basically lack of preparedness on
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  Speaker 1: a lot of farms in particular in the dairy sector
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  Speaker 1: with lack of generation capability on farms so I think
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  Speaker 1: it's sort of a bit of a reminder isn't it
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  Speaker 1: that those things can come out of nowhere and what
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  Speaker 1: have you done on farm to sort of help prepare
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  Speaker 1: for something similar or, dare I say it, something bigger. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that's something that as a Rural Support Trust
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  Speaker 1: we are looking into around where do we sort of
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  Speaker 1: play in this space around making sure that we can
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  Speaker 1: use our wider stakeholder network to make sure that farmers
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  Speaker 1: are preparing their businesses to be a bit more resilient
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  Speaker 1: and just having a few more tools in the shed
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  Speaker 1: or even in their tool belt to deal with some
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  Speaker 1: of these sort of adverse events that are coming a
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  Speaker 1: bit more frequent. And I guess that would, if everyone
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  Speaker 1: prepared a wee bit better and planned a wee bit better,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: then that would help overall just shift that whole curve.
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  Speaker 2: Are farmers starting to prepare better for these events? Have
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  Speaker 2: you noticed?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, personally, yes, probably a wee bit more. It's nothing
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  Speaker 1: like going through something to actually realise that you're being
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  Speaker 1: caught short a couple of times of late, and that's
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  Speaker 1: of late meaning over the last two or three years,
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  Speaker 1: and you always go back to some of those messages
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  Speaker 1: that came through potentially from some of your previous generations
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  Speaker 1: around you know preparedness whether it be going into sort
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  Speaker 1: of dry periods or wet periods you know you can
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  Speaker 1: never have enough sort of inventory of feed and planning
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  Speaker 1: and approaches around setting up your business to be a
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  Speaker 1: wee bit more resilient but yeah I guess for practicality
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  Speaker 1: like sort of the wind last year we've definitely gone
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  Speaker 1: and prepared better for generation on farm for our business
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  Speaker 1: we managed to sneak through with what we had but
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  Speaker 1: you know even like for housing for um for staff
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  Speaker 1: etc just making sure we've finished all that sort of
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  Speaker 1: off to make sure that people have actually got um
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  Speaker 1: there's a well-being thing going on there a little like
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  Speaker 1: you know like making sure that they've actually got a
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  Speaker 1: functioning um bit of electricity to to actually cook their
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  Speaker 1: meals and um you know have a hot shower etc
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  Speaker 1: so A lot of wee things to think about, but
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  Speaker 1: I think if everyone just shifted the needle a wee bit,
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  Speaker 1: that would help overall.
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  Speaker 2: Simon, as we kick off this campaign, it's probably a
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  Speaker 2: good chance for you to give a reminder about the
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  Speaker 2: Rural Support Trust and what it does.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess there's two main roles with the Rural
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  Speaker 1: Support Trust, and one of that's just our welfare role.
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  Speaker 1: where we do our business as usual with the 0800
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  Speaker 1: number and making sure we're being able to connect support
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  Speaker 1: for those in the community of need. And then the
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  Speaker 1: second main function is really around response and recovery to
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  Speaker 1: the adverse event, like we've just been talking about in
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  Speaker 1: the last few minutes. So making sure we are sort
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  Speaker 1: of the eyes and ears for the rural community around...
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  Speaker 1: feeding back information to other organisations such as MPI through
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  Speaker 1: to central government etc. But I guess the key function
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  Speaker 1: too is with that post adverse event or during and
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  Speaker 1: post adverse event is making sure people's rural communities in
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  Speaker 1: particular that wellbeing side is making sure we're looking out
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  Speaker 1: for those people in the communities.
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  Speaker 2: So with the spring being declared a medium adverse effect, Simon,
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  Speaker 2: this gives you guys the allocation of some funding from
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  Speaker 2: the government to do what you need to do for
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  Speaker 2: the community, is that right?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, in a way it's sort of a tricky one, Andy.
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  Speaker 1: So basically we can use some of that to help
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  Speaker 1: with our wellbeing cases that we're dealing with our people
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  Speaker 1: and also... being able to use that operational team to
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  Speaker 1: help coordinate our events, and then some proactive, resilient building
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  Speaker 1: potential functions that we might have going forward to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that we're preparing our farmers and growers with some
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  Speaker 1: better information and understanding of how could they get through
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  Speaker 1: this better, I suppose.
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  Speaker 2: No, good on you, Simon. It's always good to catch
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  Speaker 2: up with yourself. Regarding Southlander Support Trust, 0800 787 254
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  Speaker 2: as well. A free confidential chat for anybody who wants
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  Speaker 2: to get in touch with the team. In this programme,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to run over the next couple of weeks
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  Speaker 2: just to different farmers and just get a different idea
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  Speaker 2: regarding mindset. Always good to catch up, mate.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks, Andy. Appreciate your support. Cheers.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Simon Hotcroft, chair of the Southland Rural Support Trust. That number,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: once again, 0800 787 254. And, yeah, look, we did
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  Speaker 2: this last year as well, and it was very well received.
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  Speaker 2: And we're doing it again this year, too, based on
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: the spring that we've endured. Tom O'Brien's up next.