Support that makes a difference | Ep. 123

When the pressure is on, having the right support makes all the difference. In this episode of Talking Dairy, we hear directly from the organisation supporting farmers through challenging times. Rural Support Trust national chair Michelle Ruddell joins DairyNZ people specialist Jane Muir to discuss the common pressures they’re seeing across dairy communities and what they do to ensure the right help is available at the right time. They also share practical insights to help ease the load and reset for the season ahead. 

We’re proud to partner with Rural Support Trust. 

Whether it’s financial pressure, a weather event, or personal struggles, they’re here to help. And so are we. 

Rural Support Trust provides essential support during adverse weather events to help farmers respond and recover. Their team of local rural people understand firsthand the pressures that can mount up. Their network and training can help with a wide range of situations.

Our partnership helps ensure farmers, their teams, and their families get the support they need, when they need it most. Together, supporting farmers through every challenge.

Find out more about the Rural Support Trust

See how your levy is working harder through partnerships 

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes? Email us at talkingdairy@dairynz.co.nz

Connect with DairyNZ

Stay up to date with advice, latest research, tools and resources. Read, browse, scroll, listen, or be there in person. Visit dairynz.co.nz/get-connected 

Transcript

Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Kyota and welcome to Talking Dairy. I'm your host Jack McGowan from DairyNZ. It's great to have you with us. If you've had a challenging season, whether it's been managing people, navigating change on farm, or dealing with the impact of weather, you're not alone. Many farmers are working through similar pressures right now. Today we're talking about the practical support available when things get tough and the steps you can take to reset well for the season ahead. Joining us are two people who work closely with farmers across the country. Jane Muir is the senior people specialist at DairyNZ, focused on helping you build strong teams and positive workplaces. And Michelle Ruddell, National Chair of the Rural Support Trust, leads the network that supports farmers, families, and rural communities through personal, financial, and environmental challenges. Together we'll look at the common issues coming through right now, how the DairyNZ and Rural Support Trust partnership helps you get the right support at the right time, and simple actions you can take to stay well and connected. Let's get into the conversation. Alright, let's start with quick intros. Michelle, tell us a bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Yeah, hi Jack and hi Jane. Thanks for having me here. Michelle Ruddle, I am a born and bred Northland girl, and my background is in health science, where I trained to be an occupational therapist. And so my background with rehabilitation and marrying a dairy farmer saw me work with the rural support trust firstly as a facilitator. So I was out there helping support farmers, particularly through MVIS. And then progressed from there into a Northland trustee and then became Northland Chair and now am National Chair for the Rural Support Trust, which I am immensely proud of.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Awesome. Thank you, Michelle. How about you, Jane? Tell us about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Well, I grew up on a sheep and beef farm and I have a master's in chemistry, but now I'm focused about people. So I work across the sector with farmers and partners to support dairy farmers in New Zealand to have great people and great jobs and great workplaces. And I love doing that. There's a huge effort by a lot of people across the sector to attract, grow, train, retain health, safety, and well-being initiatives. And we want all people working in dairy to be able to thrive in both their jobs and their lives and achieve their goals. And that's where I work.

Top Challenges Farmers Are Facing

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Thank you, Jane. Now, to start us off, what are you hearing from farmers about the pressures they're facing at the moment as we move into autumn?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, well, I can um kick that part off, Jack, if you like. One of the biggest pressures that, well, the biggest pressure that we're getting with our rural support phone line is employment pressures. So 16% of our callers are calling because of the employment issues that they're having. After that comes in the natural disaster and the effects that the natural adverse weather events are having on their business. And relationships and mental health make up the next 20% of our phone calls. So slightly different themes in those issues, but some very important ones that impact their day-to-day.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Rural Support Trust is always taking a number of really, really tough calls. That's its purpose is to be there for people in times of need. Outside of that, in general at the moment, we are seeing farmer confidence as quite high. So if I talk to the regional teams across New Zealand and when I'm talking to farmers, there is a lot of upbeat and positiveness. That's sort of on the back of a relatively strong summer and most people having a lot of feed around. There's, of course, these people dealing with really the cleanup from the adverse events, and that's super tough for them. I spoke to a couple of those farmers last week. And I think now increasingly everybody's keeping an eye on the war and the potential of fuel availability or lack of availability and pricing. I think that's starting to have an impact. As Michelle said, I really think farm team capability is a growing concern for people. It's a weight on people's shoulders. Just how to get the best out of people, how to manage rosters, hours of work, provide work-life balance, and really how to do that when there just isn't a heap of additional people available in rural New Zealand to employ. We do have an increasing unemployment rate, but we don't in rural New Zealand so much. I think that weighs on people.

Why Employment Issues Keep Escalating

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yeah, so as Michelle said, employment questions make up a big share of the calls to rural support trust. What's driving that and how might farmers prevent this?

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Michelle's exactly right. The numbers every month, every quarter, Rural Support Trust put out a note with where the calls are. And employment's pretty much always right at the top. And when you dive into it, I think it says employment agreements, harassment, dismissal, tenancy, and wages are right up there with what those calls are about, which is really concerning, actually, because some of that's quite the basics. So it just shows the importance of getting that stuff right. And the best way of doing that is always communication, clear expectations and understanding between employer and employee, you know, at the beginning, of course, but always ongoing. And having those critical things documented. And then I would add, always staying above the line in terms of behaviour, even in times of stress. The other thing Michelle really alluded to this as well is that RST always gets involved because of tough times. So tough times exaggerate any relationship challenges, whether that's impersonal or employment-related relationship challenges. So what the ideal situation would be is that when those tough times hit, those relationships are your resilience, like your team, your family, your relationships actually form a level of resilience rather than a stress. So I think those numbers are a good reminder to prioritize the people in your life and in your business so that they can help you do that. But I'm sure Michelle's got a lot to add on that one.

RESH Support For Farm Employees

SPEAKER_02 6:09

No, I think you've touched on it too, is that expectations between employee and employer is really important. And there's a lot of expectation that all employers know how to do it right. But equally, employees don't know any different sometimes. So there's really got to be some education and connection around how do we help those employees become more knowledgeable and empowered when they are negotiating these contracts. Because to have the contract as one of the number one reasons and dairy farm assistants being the number one group of callers, you know, there's something that's not quite aligned there. And at Rural Support Trust, we like to empower to enable so that the next time the tough time comes along or the next time they're looking at their contract, they're actually more informed and they understand a little bit more better perhaps than that time that they've experienced where it hasn't gone as well. And I think we're all responsible for participating and actioning in that.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

So Michelle talked about employees calling Rural Support Trust. We also have the Rural Employee Support Hub. Jane, can you tell us more about that?

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Well, you know, Jack, this is one of my favorite topics. So the Rural Employee Support Hub, or more commonly called RESH, was established in 2020 by Dairy and Z, and it's specifically for employees working on any farm in New Zealand. It's not just for Dairy Farmers, it's for any farm. And it's about answering their questions, most commonly about their employment situation or their mental health and ensuring they have answers to the access and support they need. Because of the reasons Michelle said, we're just trying to level up so that there's good communication and expectations on both sides, and both sides can get the information that they need. So that service, it's delivered by RST, which is a perfect fit. It's an absolute perfect fit. And it includes access to legal advice if required. So what I really encourage employees who have a question about what's happening on farm or who are feeling down or alone, is to reach out and ring 0800-694-121. Because the goal of RESH is really to help retain people on farm and to ensure they're supported so that we keep people. If you're in a bad situation, we want people to reach out and get the information. So RST across the board, if you're an employer, if you're self-employed, or you're an employee, RST is there to help all those groups of people. If you're an employee, often the best places to start is RESH. So that's 0800-694-121 Jack.

How Rural Support Trust Helps

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Very good, Shane. Thank you. Now, we've been talking a lot about the employment side of things, tough employment situations. Michelle, you talked about other calls, about other things. What kind of support can the Royal Support Trust provide when a farmer or a family is dealing with a tough situation?

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Why I think RST is so impactful in the work that we do is because we are that constant through that entire period of someone experiencing a tough time. So we can be there from the moment they ring us through to the moment they feel they're back in control and don't need that same level of support anymore. So that's really key. So we aren't about advice, but we are there with them through the journey. And we help them bring in that professional advice along the way, whether it's accounting, whether it's banking, whether it's legal, whether it's counseling or it's health. We're not the expert in those fields, but we are the expert in supporting that person or that family or that business through their tough time. And that's why it's so individual and it's about how support looks for that person in their family at that particular time. And it's not the same for everyone. So yeah, that's where our facilitators who are farmers themselves often or have been have got that rural background, they understand those challenges that we face in the rural sector.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

It sounds a little bit like health navigators almost. Have you heard of that?

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Yes, I have. Yes. And I do think of them as navigators, um, although that's a term used in other sectors as well. But a facilitator is that person that's helping someone navigate that tough time, because often we can't see the wood for the trees. And they may be ringing about one thing, but when that person gets in there to support them, that one thing has impacted so many different parts of their business that they probably didn't realise they'd lost control or they'd lost touch on that. And that's why I'm not surprised to see that after employment and natural disasters that relationships are the next top issue people phone about because we live and breathe our work and our home life together, and naturally that's going to take its toll on us when those external factors impact our home life.

Recovery After Weather Events

SPEAKER_01 11:12

And you mentioned weather, adverse events. I imagine the response to those is a little bit different. So, what does rural support trust's role look like in those early days and weeks after a weather event?

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Yeah, so the beauty with having our individual regions is that we can respond to our community the way we know our people. But essentially it is doing that needs assessment. You know, we've got the networks across the region and we can use that to fully understand the impact that has occurred in our rural community and therefore help assess the possible needs that are going to be immediately felt, but then also those ongoing needs and helping communicate that across industry partners, up into government, and really being a voice for our rural communities.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

What tends to make the biggest difference for farmers during recovery?

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Well, there's a few things, but I'd say one of the biggest things is to stay connected, sharing with each other, making sure you get off farm to that local barbecue, to the local hall, hearing how others are doing it in your area and how they're responding and adapting to what's going on to that same event. It's really quite powerful when you get farmers in a room together over some food and they just chat. You know, there's nothing else but to hear chew the fat. But then that leads into more, you know, connections and sh sharing ideas helps you prepare for next time, but it also helps you prepare for tomorrow when you know you've got that massive tree that you've got to clear to get the cows fenced in so that they can stay contained. It helps farmers to kind of break down those challenges that they've got practically on farm. So keeping connected is really important.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Jane, how does DairyNZ's people and technical support complement the work that Rural Support Trust does in those moments?

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Well, I think Michelle mentioned it's a real team effort in these adverse events. So one of the things DairyNZ does is work with partners such as RST and their work, and that might be providing technical expertise or helping cook one of those barbecues or local gatherings that Michelle talked about. And obviously, Feds often oversee a bit of a feed program, so we work in with them. Other things that we do is sometimes we're asked or we deliver our own events to support farmers. They're about providing critical information on farm systems and ideas to manage, but also just providing that opportunity to connect with others and ensure people don't feel alone. We also get out, visit farmers, listen, encourage people to reach out when they need and connect to people who can help. And of course, our website, it's you know, in adverse events, that's an area that a lot of effort goes into just because it's a good way of getting a lot of information to everybody quickly. So making sure that's up to date with how to manage different areas of the farm to support decision making from milking frequencies, feed, animal health, people and environment. If people have information, they can take a little bit of stress off their shoulders, knowing they have that information to support a good decision.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

And for the farmers that may have been going through a tough time, wanting to reset for next season, what are some practical steps that help, whether that's planning or conversations?

SPEAKER_00 14:36

I mean, I'm big on thinking about what success looks like for a person. So both for your own life and for your business and kind of making a plan to achieve that. For dairy farmers, we know that once the season starts, carving is so busy. So heading into that with both, you know, everybody on farm rested, warm and dry housing, the firewood stacked, like making sure the team's trained to do what they need to do to be competent and successful, that they understand the why, especially if they're new to dairy farming and what you're trying to achieve, that the employers understand the employees' goals. And really putting that those weeks that you have before carving starts into making sure you've got the right tools to do the job and that you've had some fun and that you've got camaraderie and like a team spirit kind of going on, that stuff's a really good start. So it's about investing into the people in your life and in your farming business so everyone feels valued and excited.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Yeah, exactly. Just what Jane said. It's about those expectations, isn't it? And understanding what success looks like. But using that downtime to really just stop and pause and then reflect and prepare. I think's really critical. And as business owners, we often do that without realizing we're doing it. But it's about bringing your team along on the journey with you and ensuring that they're part of those decisions and understand the decisions being made so that they can be part of that success. And then in that you'll get a healthy and thriving team. And I think that's critical and that communication is critical as well for the dairy team and for any farming team to have a successful season.

Making Help Easy To Access

SPEAKER_01 16:22

And how does the partnership between Dairy and Z and Rural Support Trust make support more accessible for farmers?

SPEAKER_02 16:29

This partnership is so valuable. We are just so grateful for this partnership and it is critical and is so easy to access for our farmers. And I think that's the intention. I know Jane mentioned earlier, like we just want those who are going through tough times to know that when they pick up the phone, there's someone at the end of it that cares, who understands and can actually make a tangible difference.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yeah, I'd add, look, DairyNZ, we just know that RST are incredibly good at what they do, which is supporting farmers in tough times primarily. And our partnership and the funding that we provide is about supporting RST to continue with that good work because they do it best, and we don't want them constantly worrying about where funding is coming from. And of course, it's not just DairyNZ that fund RST. They've got a range of great partners. So there's other organizations sitting along DairyNZ and doing that, and it's a team effort just the way that it should be. And I'd really just like all people on, you know, farms in New Zealand to know, yeah, that there is someone just to reach out to and asking for help is a sign of strength.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Michelle, what would you like farmers listening today to know about getting in touch with you?

SPEAKER_02 17:40

I'd like them to know that they can do it, that they're brave, they're courageous, and whether it's picking up the phone or if it's going through our website and sending in a connection that way to get it for us to be in touch. We're here to listen, we're here to support. Um, we're free, we're impartial, and we're here to help you through your tough time. And just really encourage anyone that's experiencing that to um know that rural support trust are here. Our teams are your local community who have been through tough times themselves.

Episode Summary

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you for sharing your insights today. If you're dealing with pressure on farm, whether it's people challenges, financial stress, or recovering from weather, you don't have to manage it on your own. Support is available and it's delivered by people who understand rural life. If you'd like to talk to someone or learn more about the services in your area, you can visit the Rural Support Trust website or dairynz.co.nz. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time. Matiwa. If you'd like to get connected with DairyNZ's latest advice, research, tools, and resources, whether it's reading, scrolling, listening, or in person, you can visit dairynz.co.nz forward slash get-connected, and don't forget to hit follow to keep up to date with our latest episodes. As always, if you have any feedback on this podcast or have some ideas for future topics or guests, please email us at talkingdairy at dairynz.co.nz. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time on Talking Dairy.