Contractors have been hard at work in Northland since early February, while further south in Waikato, harvest started a few weeks later.
Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ) vice-president Helen Slattery says the New Zealanders that had been retrained and were employed by contractors were fitting in well in their new vocation.
“In saying that, we do still need those experienced harvest operators. You don’t learn how to operate a harvester in your first year,” Slattery said.
The efforts by the industry to recruit and train people made unemployed due to covid-19 had helped relieve much of the staff shortfall that in the past was taken up by Northern Hemisphere workers.
Slattery says there would be some contractors still looking for staff, but there are also some workers who were holding out and for the best deal for their services among different contractors.
Bluegrass Contracting director Brook Nettleton says his business should be able to get through harvest okay without major staff shortages.
While the staffing situation was better, he too says there was still a shortage of experienced machinery operators.
Industry and government incentives to train up new employees had helped, but were no substitute for experience.
“You can’t train experience. I’m all for employing Kiwis, but they cost us, they hit things. They don’t have the experience and knowledge to do the job properly,” Nettleton said, adding the staff also required more supervision and more management time.
Nettleton says he took on three airline pilots for his Waikato business who were made unemployed because of covid. Two of them have since left after finding work again flying planes.
Slattery says the training courses that were put in place or expanded last year will continue operating because of the likelihood of further border interruptions.
“It’s going to continue and it’s going to expand further, but these people do need work experience, and we need to work out how we can give that experience in the industry,” she said.
That will require working closely with the Ministry for Social Development, so the workers are not completely inexperienced for next season.
She says it will also ensure those workers know what to expect when the season starts.
“You not only have to have the training on the machinery, but it’s also looking at the situation holistically, pastoral care, as well as making sure that they are mentally prepared for the long hours alone in the tractor,” she said.
While those hours are largely weather dependent, many contractors would be using the Critical Agricultural Variation clause, which allows them to extend their logbook hours.
“At this time of the year, it’s definitely not a 40-hour week job and you have to be mentally prepared for that,” she said.
