News & Events
Rural Contractors News
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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
Rural Contractors and Nufarm add ink to long link
Global agrichemical player Nufarm has signed a new 5-year partnership plan with Rural Contractors NZ, announced at their annual conference in Invercargill today. Both say it recognises their history in working together as well as the need to address increasing demands...
Alligator weed is spreading as major research programme starts
Rural contractors and regional councils are among those supporting a new AgResearch programme on invasive alligator weed which has plagued northern farmers and growers for many years and is now spreading south. Dr Trevor James, a senior AgResearch scientist leading...
Golden Bay contractor raises $50k for flood regions – challenges others to match
The organisers of a community effort in Golden Bay which raised nearly $50,000 to assist those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle are now encouraging other rural communities to adopt their model. Rural contractors Stacey Strange and her husband Tristan brought The Farmers...
Loving the craic and mastering big machines
Leanne Hartnett, a 25 year old Irish woman doing her first season in New Zealand as a rural contractor, is loving the life here – though it took a while to get used to the size of machinery she’s required to drive. “You have to drive way bigger machines over here. We...
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...
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