This week B+LNZ celebrated Employee Appreciation Day through sharing resources from its Employment Hub, a story from a farmer training their employees through Primary ITO and more from B+LNZ’s People and Training team.
We know that the future success of our sheep and beef sector relies on attracting, training and retaining talented and motivated people to work within it.
That’s why we’re using Employee Appreciation Day to share some handy resources to help you as an employer/employee, and we’re highlighting the importance of developing your staff and yourself and how you can do this.
Supporting you through B+LNZ’s Employment Hub
Last year, B+LNZ launched an online ‘Employment Hub’, a one-stop shop for farm owners and managers to assist them as employers.
The Employment Hub pulls together all the information and resources into eight stages of employment to help assist both employers and employees with recruitment, defining on-farm roles, the application process, employee development, and more.
Apprentices bring innovation to Lochiel Station
Having staff train through the Primary ITO Apprenticeship Programme is bringing innovation and adding value to the performance of large sheep and beef operation, Lochiel Station, in Canterbury.
Hamish and Mary McRae farm Lochiel Station at Hanmer Springs in the Waiau Valley and their finishing operation Avonvale a short drive away, running 8,000 ewes and 800 cows.
All of their four staff across the two properties have gained new skills on the Primary ITO Apprenticeship Programme in recent years.
Hamish says the team are bringing new skills and innovation to the farm which are being put into practice.
The team have introduced technical methods to measure pasture growth and crops, replacing the previous practice where pasture was assessed by the eye to predict feed supply and budgets.
“Now we know how much feed we currently have and what we have got ahead of us.”
“It’s a great benefit, especially on the finishing farm because they can go around and measure the pasture and see how many lambs we are capable of finishing.”
Read the full story on Primary ITO’s website here.
Hear from Ngamatea Station (Taihape/Napier) about how they are training their staff in this Primary ITO story.
Develop yourself and your team
B+LNZ works in collaboration with other sector organisations to attract, train and retain the talent we need to drive our sector forward. Here’s some programmes and organisations that offer development opportunities:
- B+LNZ’s Generation Next Programme
- Agri-Women’s Development Trust
- Rural Leaders (Kelloggs and Nuffield)
- Primary ITO
- See a full list of organisations (under the ‘Working in collaboration for more impact’ tab).
Pathways into the industry
As well as training and retaining people in our sector, we know it’s also important to attract the right people. We work with other sector organisations to showcase the many exciting careers available within sheep and beef farming and the wider red meat sector. The flyer below has information about the pathways to careers in sheep and beef.
- Learn about careers in our sheep and beef information flyer (PDF, 138KB).
- View a list of Cadet farms B+LNZ works with (under the ‘Working in collaboration for more impact’ tab).
Celebrating the development of our people
Through the Rabobank People Development Award as part of the B+LNZ Awards, we are recognising individuals, team or business who have made an outstanding contribution to developing people & people capability building in our sector.
The finalists for the Rabobank People Development Award are:
- Agri-Women’s Development Trust
- Coadette Low
- NZ Rural Leadership Trust.
Read more about each finalist here. We will be announcing the winners at the B+LNZ Awards Dinner on 29 September in Napier, learn more here.