Geoff Blackmore’s day started like many others.
He was off on his quadbike to shift some sheep, two heading dogs in tow, his cellphone in his shirt pocket and personal locator beacon (PLB) in a holster on his belt.
On the way, he discovered separate mobs of ewes and lambs had mixed on his rolling farm west of Lawrence, so he decided to move the flock to yards near his home to draft.
The dogs were left to hold the mob while he headed off to change the access to gateways to accommodate his new plan.
Travelling about 30kmh, he looked back to check on the sheep and his dogs and, on cresting a small hill, he turned forward and saw a concrete water trough.
"It has been there for more than 40 years, and I often remind myself to watch for it — just not that day," he recalled.
Despite braking heavily, the quadbike hit the trough at an angle, the impact hurling him over the handlebars, away from the trough.
The quadbike was operational, so he rode about 2km home with his dogs, knowing there were no gates in need of opening.
He put his two dogs in their kennels so they were safe when emergency services arrived.
After getting back on the quad, he went to call 111 on his cellphone, but his shirt pocket was empty.
The cellphone was found in the bottom of the trough three days later.
Back on the quadbike, he grabbed a shovel to use it as a crutch to walk about 10m from the bike to the landline in his home and call 111.
His reasons for not activating the beacon was he felt in control of the situation and wanted to talk to Hato Hone St John staff before emergency services were deployed.
"At any time before that call, I knew that if I needed to, I could activate my PLB and a rescue team would find me," he said.
He was flown to Dunedin Hospital by the Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter service.
He wanted to share his story so farmers might think "what if?" and consider how they would alert emergency services if something went wrong when they were working alone in a remote location.
Other considerations include cellphone coverage on dead spots on-farm, how emergency services could be reached if a cellphone was lost and if buying a PLB was worth the investment.
His PLB cost $579, including the holster, and gave him and his wife, Clare, peace of mind.
The PLB had become part of his work gear since buying it in July last year.
"I’m a recent convert and I’m not trying to preach to anyone, I’m just trying to make people aware, s... does happen and even your best laid plans of carrying a phone doesn’t always work."
The decision to carry a PLB was the choice of an individual, he said.
"I didn’t end up using mine that day — but I always knew I could. And knowing that meant if the pain had become unbearable or I’d become light-headed, help was only the push of a button away."
