While the industry will continue to train and recruit more New Zealand staff to meet demand, it was fortunate there had been no serious accidents this season, RCNZ chief executive Roger Parton said.
Many rural contractors were only barely able to meet farmer demand this season by working unacceptably long hours in machinery, as well as trying to supervise inexperienced staff.
“We appear to have been extremely lucky that there have not been any serious accidents, but health and safety cannot rely on luck,” Parton said.
He says the problems were indicative of the issues the industry faced as a result of the covid-19 border closures.
“The issue is this: the only way you can safely and effectively drive the big combine harvesters and that kind of equipment is to get trained in it and then get a couple of years’ experience under your belt,” he said.
However, the nature of the industry meant there was no work for a newly trained person once the season ended. In the past, that person could travel to the Northern Hemisphere and work on farms over its summer to further hone their skills and gain valuable experience. At the same time, NZ contractors employed Northern Hemisphere workers looking to work over the NZ spring and summer to fill any staffing gaps.
“These problems are not new. They have been around for a long time, but what has happened is the whole issue with covid and overseas travel has just compounded the issue beyond recognition,” he said.
One contractor’s wife said in the survey that they had been so short-staffed, that she and her husband had to drive almost full-time for six to eight weeks.
“I had my three-year-old with me a lot of the time in the tractor and believe me, it was not pleasant after five or six hours. I was very lucky I had a few people to help share the load,” she said.
Another said all his staff but one this season was a New Zealander.
“It has not been easy getting all these new people trained into qualified operators and I have had more machine damage than I care to think about,” he said.
“A number of these people have found it hard with the hours we work and the fact it is a seven-day operation. We were lucky that we were able to get some experienced staff but a high percentage were new to our industry.”
One contractor employed some university students to get through, but their return to studies left them severely understaffed for the key maize-cropping season.
“Employing under-skilled staff has resulted in a huge increase in damage to expensive machinery, farmers’ property and increased insurance claims,” the contractor said.
Other contractors said they were losing experienced managers who had become frustrated in trying to meet farmer expectations with inexperienced staff. Some questioned whether to continue in the sector.
More than one contractor said gaining the skills to drive complex harvest machinery could only be gained in short and busy windows.
“Due to the fact that we can only employ these experienced employees for around six months of the year, it makes it impossible to train up New Zealanders to do this position, as we do not require these experienced harvest operators for 12 months of the year. This is the nature of our business,” a contractor said.
The industry will, however, continue to train more New Zealanders, some of who had fitted in well to the rigours of farm machinery operating.
“We will continue supporting the training of Kiwis, which includes providing machinery and tutors to short courses such as those at the Telford and Taratahi agricultural campuses which teach tractor driving and other basic skills,” he said.
“However, the survey confirms you need a lot of on-the-job practice to cement in even elementary skills, and contractors and insurance companies are paying some of those costs.
“Contractors often won’t risk putting someone coming up to speed driving a tractor into the cab of a half-million-dollars plus combine harvester for a silage machine. That requires someone with a whole different level of skills.”
RCNZ is now working with the Ministry for Primary Industries to develop a request for a Critical Workforce Border Exception.
“We are grateful the Government allowed us to bring in 210 specialist machinery operators for the season just concluding. That helped, but we need 400 for 2021-22,” he said.
