John Blackwell: The autumn rituals begin

John Blackwell. Photo / File

It is now April, and daylight saving is behind us.

Autumn is that time of year when we are winding down the financial year and planning for the next. This is very much the case for Federated Farmers, with our Northland AGM coming up in Kaikohe on May 3. This will be held at the RSA, with guest speaker Anders Crofoot, our national vice-president and spokesman for fertiliser, rural fires, telecommunications and climate change.

Not only are our members most welcome, but everyone in the farming fraternity. Come along and enjoy a light lunch, and be informed on what we have accomplished in the last year, and what's ahead.

We need to be on the alert for friends and workers who are under stress, and reach out to them.

Last month's Northland Field Days were very successful, with a record number of new farmers signing up as members. When you take into account that Feds members get policy advice and documents on issues such as workplace drug and alcohol testing or New Zealand herd-owning sharemilking at a much reduced rate, it makes the membership fee very cost-effective.

There are other benefits too, such as the Feds' Green Card, offering discounts on many products, from rental cars to Vodafone services.

Late last week new research was released on farm-related suicides, and there are high hopes that we can use the information gleaned from study leader Dr Annette Beautrais to reduce the incidence of these distressing tragedies.

Katie Milne, a Federated Farmers executive member, who is also on the council of the Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa, said the findings highlighted that better funding for rural health services was critical, as well as anything we can do to boost neighbourly spirit and sharing activities outside work.

General farm workers and males are the most vulnerable and more likely to take their own lives, the study found. Isolation can be a factor, and so is the modern trend of less social engagement.

"We now need to develop ideas that will help," Katie Milne said. "Some may be as simple as getting people to start looking for new, or old, socialising opportunities. Start a gym in someone's garage, organise a card night over winter, mixed netball, cricket, touch rugby or whatever at a non-serious level."

A new focus is likely to go on accessibility of firearms, one suggestion raised by Dr Beautrais being the introduction of "on-farm armouries" - only letting guns out for certain things and at certain times, after which they are returned.

The incidence of farm occupational suicides has declined since the coroner first began disclosing reports in 2007, but we need to be on the alert for friends and workers who are under stress, and reach out to them. Provisional data for 2015/16 reveals there were 17 farm occupational-related self-inflicted deaths, some 40 per cent of them involving firearms.