Staffing shortages persist as contractors are beginning another season of mowing and planting summer feed crops.
Wet unpredictable weather has meant a sluggish start to the season for the country’s rural contractors.
Spring is one of the busiest times of the year for the industry as they cut pasture for silage and plant summer crops.
Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ) president Helen Slattery says heavy rain in parts of Northland had delayed work to get maize in the ground.
“They have had very intermittent and small windows where they have been able to do harvesting and planting,” Slattery said.
Northern Waikato had also been wet, while eastern parts of the region were dry and cold, which she says had delayed pasture growth for cutting grass silage.
Maize sowing had been going well, but cool soil temperatures were delaying germination.
“Once it does, I’m sure it will be over the fence by Christmas,” she said.
In Manawatū, feedback from members also suggested a slow start to the season, particularly for spraying. In Southland, most of the summer crops – oats and fodder beet – had been sown.
Despite the start-stop beginning to the season, she says the industry knows the busy period is still to come.
“We know that the majority of the bulk is coming and we know there’s big work ahead of us,” she said.
Contractors had also spent considerable time training new staff over winter in anticipation of further staffing shortages this spring. The staffing issue was putting enormous stress on these business owners.
“It’s been so stressful trying to get staff in, organised and trained and the stress from changing the goalposts from the Government on how we can get people in – we need to keep an eye on the contracting business owners and make sure they’re okay,” she said.
She says contractors will have to be very patient with these new staff to make sure they were not assigned jobs above their skill level.
The industry was still desperately short of around 500 staff, despite the training.
“We will as we did last season – manage – but it is incredibly difficult and incredibly nerve wracking for both employers and workers for the amount of hours that have to be done and the amount of pressure that’s put on contractors to get the job done in that specific time,” she said.
Some of the 175 staff that were allowed into the country by the Government were already in New Zealand, having stayed on over winter, while others had been lured across to Australia on the promise of better wages.
“We’re still short of the top-skilled workers,” she said.
It would take at least four to five seasons to get these newly trained staff up to that level.
This point was made in the organisation’s submission to the Primary Production Select Committee on the Government’s Inquiry on future workforce needs in the primary industries in September.
RCNZ chief executive Andrew Olsen says contractors were entering the season with a workforce that was already short.
“They will not be able to operate to their capacity. Crops will not be harvested (causing economic loss to a $2 billion contracting sector and inestimable loss in total harvest.) Employers will work unsafe hours, risking their health and safety,” Olsen said.
“Farmers will not plant crops, will plant conservatively and/or face feed shortages. This will result in job losses or reductions in hours for working rural New Zealanders, including rural consultants, fertiliser and seed and other farming supply representatives.”
He urged the committee to future-proof foreign workforce entry to NZ.
“There is no alternative. Harvest is totally dependent on skilled labour. Without the crops being harvested at the correct time, New Zealand’s primary industry outputs will be impacted and the national economy will suffer,” he said.
