Events
Rural Contractors News
Rural Contractors NZ is the voice for the $1.5b rural contracting industry accounting for 0.8% of GDP and 0.9% of national employment. Source: Infometrics 2018 report available here
RCNZ media releases and comments below – or contact our Communications advisor Brendon Burns (0274 305501)
Media Comments
Time to prime the pump on new agrichemical standard
Dean Bowden has been around agricultural chemicals most of his working life and still gets pumped about using them safely. Thirty years ago, he was among the first couple of dozen spraying contractors to be registered with the New Zealand Agrichemical Education Trust...
Want a free lunch? Become a rural contractor
Who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch? In June, rural contractors will be getting free lunches, free dinners and even free beer. After a couple of tough years which have seen rural contractors working through floods, droughts and labour shortages, they are...
We do need education but not a brick wall
By RCNZ CEO Andrew Olsen Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters says his song, We don’t need no education, was actually about British schools being more interested in keeping kids quiet than teaching them anything useful. I think New Zealand is in a similar place. I’m not...
Rural News opinion article from RCNZ CEO Andrew Olsen
Since the end of World War II, New Zealand has had nine recessions. I’m not sure any of these previous ones have been engineered by the Reserve Bank – or at least no Governor has so proclaimed responsibility. However, whether shallow, technical or deep,...
NZX November update on cost indices
Earlier this year, as inflation began to bite, Federated Farmers and Rural Contractors NZ engaged NZX to devise new cost indices tool to support new forage contracts between farmers and contractors. NZX Dairy Analyst Alex Winning has built the index as a tool for both...
Know your numbers, rural contractors told
Rural contractors really need to know the numbers that drive their business and share them with their farmer clients. That was the advice from NZX Head of Insights, Julia Jones, to the first of three Rural Contractors NZ roadshows, held in Palmerston North, Whangarei...
Mat and Josh our top trainee rural contractors
Following judging of eight finalists, Rural Contractors NZ is proud to announce the winners of the inaugural RCNZ trainee contractor of the year awards. The awards were segmented to recognise excellence in contracting in both the North and South Islands. North...
Rural contractors focus on costs in inflationary times
Rural contractors will gather at five roadshows next month to focus on cost volatility and drivers as the industry seeks to remain viable during the highest levels of inflation in recent memory. Andrew Olsen, CEO for Rural Contractors NZ, says his organisation has...
Finalists for Rural Contractors NZ Trainee Contractor of the Year award.
Eight finalists from Kaikohe to Invercargill have been confirmed for the Rural Contractors New Zealand Trainee Contractor of the Year award. All come from the ranks of those who joined the HanzonJobs initiative which sees trainees record their daily work experiences,...
Time to get your new bible
Wairarapa-based spraying contractor Clinton Carroll refers to the new agrichemical standard NZS 8409:2021 as the contractors’ bible – and he says it needs more disciples. Clinton is Rural Contractors NZ vice-president and represents the organisation on the New Zealand...