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Criminal history check

How to hire someone subject to a satisfactory criminal history check? Requirements for hiring subject to a criminal history check How to do a criminal history check? It is not quite as easy as it was when I last did one myself in early 2020, when it just required a signed form and a copy of an ID.  Requesting own criminal history  You can get the candidate to request their own criminal history and show it to you. This can be done online and is free. It requires the employees ID and the...

Employed the wrong person for your farm?

Those of you that have experience with employing people and judging if they fit your farm, also unfortunately have been taken in by someone presenting themselves very well at an interview and turning out to be the total opposite of nice and experienced once they start work. One of my clients is going through this scenario at the moment which prompted this blog post. As the shortage of employees continues farmers are virtually forced to employ people they have doubts or reservations about an...

Farm Emission Plans

From Fed Farmers NewsOctober 11, 2022 by Bronwyn WilsonThe greenhouse gas reduction plan released by the government this morning will rip the guts out of small town New Zealand, putting trees where farms used to be. The plan aims to reduce sheep and beef farming in New Zealand by 20% and dairy farming by 5% to achieve the unscientific pulled-out-of-a-hat national GHG target. This is the equivalent of the entire wine industry and half of seafood being wiped out.The government’s rehash...

One-off Public Holiday

𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝟮𝟲𝙩𝙝 𝙎𝙚𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 - 𝙊𝙣𝙚-𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙋𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙘 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙙𝙖𝙮 The government announced on Monday the 12th of September that New Zealand will mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with a State Memorial Service and one-off public holiday on Monday 26th September. Normal rules for working and paying employees on public holidays will apply.  This is an unprecedent...

A graduate program for the dairy industry.

Young dairy farmers are hitting the ground running thanks to a new graduate training programme in Canterbury. When Tony Dodunski visited a Lincoln University careers expo last year, he spotted a gap in the training market. "Many individual businesses and professions offer graduates something the general dairy industry doesn’t — and that’s a graduate training programme.” Tony and others set about plugging the gap by developing the...

Queen Elizabeth 1926 - 2022

We all have seen a lot of documentaries, comments and personal memories about our queen's 70 year reign since her passing on the 8th of September in Scotland.  Apart from having a lot of respect for the dedication of someone on the job for 70 years, what struck me personally was how much she was a country person at heart.  She was at her happiest at Balmoral and her personal interest in dogs, horse and cows was even longer lived than her reign. The 47 year relationship with a family in...

Farmer confidence plumbs new depths, Feds survey finds

August 1, 2022 by Simon EdwardsIn January farmer confidence was at the lowest level recorded in biannual surveys that Federated Farmers has been running since 2009. Last month’s survey found it had dropped even further.More than 1200 farmers from around New Zealand responded to the July survey and a net 47.8% of them considered current economic conditions to be bad, down 55.6 points from January when a net 7.8% considered conditions to be good.Despite the slide in confidence, farmer...

Recruiting Staff Update via Dairy NZ

Latest immigration news Dairy Class Border ExceptionThe dairy sector was granted 1,000 employees (plus their families) to cross the NZ border to work on dairy farms. This is called the Dairy Class Border Exception and is open for applications until 7 August 2022. More information and an application form can be found here.New Accredited Employer Work VisaOn 4 July 2022, the final stage of the new Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) process opened. The AEWV effectively replaces the Essential...

Dairy Farm Expense Price Index up

New Zealand is up in arms about the consumer price index, with inflation the highest it has been since the GFC in 2008.  Everyone is curbing their spending to be able to afford the basics.  For farmers it is the same story, only magnified. Farms are doing it tough despite the record milk pay out, the Dairy Farm Expenses Index is 10.6% up between March 2021 and March 2022. Now in July 2022 it is more like 12-13%. Higher input farms are hardest hit as diesel/petrol, fertiliser and f...