For our last column of 2022, we’d like to pass on a few Christmas thank you messages:
1. To all the farmers and supporters who turned out to our meeting in the ILT Stadium Invercargill in October and to those who made contact afterwards. It can feel like a heavy weight to carry in the Feds roles at times, so your support and encouragement is appreciated more than you can possibly know.
2. To our national board who carry the heaviest weight of all the Feds team. They are the ones willing to put their hands up and carry a load that many of us can’t or won’t. They may not get it right in our eyes every time, but we all need to remember that the view is different depending on where you sit and they do the best they can with everything that they have in front of them. Just like us, the board members are all active farmers who feel the impact of everything coming at us, while also advocating on our behalf.
3. To Rural Support Trusts, Whatever With Wiggy Charitable Trust, and other rural mental health support organisations. Most of the time the work these teams do is in the background and goes unnoticed, but it is going on all the time and is vitally important. More people have been supported by these organisations than most of us will ever realise and there are undoubtedly people celebrating Christmas with their families this year that otherwise might not have been.
4. To all who work in the primary industries. Every single one of you is so appreciated and important, now more than ever — meat processors, shearers, milk harvesters, truck drivers just to name a few, the list goes on and on. If we took willing workers for granted in the past, we don’t anymore and we thank you all for the part you play in making New Zealand’s primary sector the success story that it is.
5. To everyone who stands up and speaks for the primary sector. As the challenges have compounded, more people have emerged from their farms to speak up or "fight the battles" in their own way — some aren’t even farmers! There may be differences of opinion as to the best approach, but the importance of being heard and telling our story has never been greater.
Finally, the whole Southland Federated Farmers Executive would like to thank you for your support this year and wish you and your family a safe and happy holiday season. If getting away on holiday is not an option, at least enjoy some dedicated down time to be grateful for the amazing opportunity we have to farm the way we do in New Zealand.
We’ve put in an order to Santa for policy that supports us to get out of the farm office, so we can be even better at being the best farming sector in the world. And we’ll continue to work hard in 2023 to facilitate that.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
