Immigration issues are to the fore as their national association considers ways to get the skilled staff needed to keep meeting demand.
Rural Contractors New Zealand zone 4 councillor and agricultural contractor Brian Hughes, of Waimatua, said there remained a severe shortage of experienced agricultural contracting workers.
This was especially acute during busy seasons as the sector sought up to 5000 staff seasonally.
''Agricultural workers are not recognised on the Immigration New Zealand's [INZ] skills shortage list,'' Mr Hughes explained.
''However, they are keen to come here from overseas to work.''
His company, Hughes Contracting, had employed workers from overseas, including England, Ireland and Europe, for several years.
Many spent their working year travelling around the world, working for contractors.
They were experienced, knowledgeable and skilled and were adept at handling tractors and heavy equipment.
A worker from overseas coming to New Zealand for the first time could work under an INZ working holiday scheme, for an average of 12 months, but could do that only once, Mr Hughes said.
If the employer wanted to re-employ him for a subsequent year, gaining another visa was more difficult, as agricultural contracting was not recognised on the skills shortage list.
The worker would have to apply for a work visa under other programmes, which involved meeting additional requirements. For example, the employer had to advertise the position through Winz to ensure there were no suitable local unemployed people who could do the job.
There were also issues around heavy vehicle driver's licences for overseas workers.
Mr Hughes said he could only advertise the position through Winz three months before the position was available and then prove there were no suitable applicants, and that did not leave much time for overseas workers to get visas and book flights (often paying higher air fares than if they had booked earlier).
''They and we have to jump through hoops,'' Mr Hughes said.
Since recently being nominated to the association board, Mr Hughes, who has been in the business for 28 years and an RCNZ member for 15, has been elected to sit on a subcommittee dealing with immigration issues.
Mr Hughes wanted to be able to use the same workers for subsequent years, as they had the experience he required.
Having agricultural workers on the skills shortage list would mean ''we don't have to jump them through so many hoops to bring them back''.
Mr Hughes joins Farmers Dipping co-owner/operator David Kean, of Centre Bush, who has been a zone 4 councillor for the association for five years.
Mr Kean said the removal of the category from the skills shortage list made it extremely difficult to source seasonal workers for the three or four months they were required.
New Zealand unemployed people should be employed first, if they were suitable and sufficiently skilled at operating agricultural machinery. However, many were not suitable or wanted more than seasonal work, he said.
He said contractors often worked for hours alone in isolated areas and if the weather was right, it was ''all go''.
''It is all very well Winz saying to employ local people, but they need to go out into the country, so they need transport,'' he said.
''These machines cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and getting the wrong guy behind them could cost the owner a fortune.
''The guys travelling around the world doing seasonal work are fully trained and competent.
''It's a tough one,'' he said.
RCNZ intended to encourage the Government to understand there was a shortage and the problems it was causing for agriculture, he said.
- Yvonne O'Hara