Tangaroa Walker on how lockdown can be tough for farmers

Tangaroa Walker. Photo / Supplied

Farmers can feel trapped in lockdown too, even though they may be used to the isolation, Farm4Life founder Tangaroa Walker says.

"As farmers, everyone just assumes that we just carry on [and it's] business as usual but I wouldn't say it's like that," he told The Country's Jamie Mackay.

Many farmers were social people, but working on-farm and their passion for the industry could force them into isolation, Walker said.

Add lockdown to the mix, and the situation could be frustrating for some farmers.

"We rely heavily on the one-hour grocery shop just to see other faces and all of a sudden we're tied down on-farm and can't get out to our local rugby club, or our gym, or go and see anything out in the community."

Walker reckoned lockdown could also make Kiwi farmers feel out of step with the urban population.

"People in the urban areas – they get sick of their workmates and they want to spend time at home and do stuff around the house and spend time with family.

"We're sick of doing stuff around the house [and] we're sick of spending time with family and we actually want to get away and get off-farm."

Walker is passionate about rural wellbeing and is a Farmstrong ambassador.

Before lockdown, he had been promoting Farmstrong and speaking at events with New Zealand Young Farmers.

"It's been awesome so far, but lockdown's kept us at home, so we've missed about two events over the last couple of weeks"

Walker had a down-to-earth approach when it came to getting farmers talking about their challenges.

"It's easier to tell someone about your shitty day when they've told you about theirs."

Meanwhile, lockdown had also changed on-farm learning - but Walker had a solution for that too.

The Southland dairy farmer and founder of the Farm4Life website, was also the man behind online education platform "The Hub".

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Walker set up The Hub after realising "the old way of teaching," wasn't encouraging young people to stick with the dairy sector.

"They were entering the industry and then being hit in the face with the reality of farming.

"What I wanted to do was try and enable everyone entering the industry to get the experience before they need it – empower the young people coming through – and also help out current employers."

The Hub gave new learners access to industry experts from New Zealand and around the world, and covered all sorts of topics, Walker said.

"Whether it be about mating, or lameness, or mastitis, or cowshed hygiene – we interview the top people using the hands-on approach, video it all, assign quizzes straight after the video and that content is all saved to [the learners'] profile."

An app was also in the works, and Walker said couldn't wait to roll it out.

Find out more about The Hub at the Farm4Life website.