Rural lifeline recognised
It was the 1984 Labour government that put dairy farmer Neil Bateup through his toughest time.
The New Zealand dollar was floated, Bateup’s interest rate went up 26 per cent, and the 2017 New Zealand Order of Merit recipient faced some serious financial hardship.
‘‘But we got through it,’’ he says, in that matter-of-fact manner familiar to most.
And it’s since become a mission of his: helping other farmers get through it. No matter what ‘‘it’’ is.
That’s why Bateup founded the Waikato-Hauraki-Coromandel Rural Support Trust in 2006, part of a volunteer career which today earned him the title of Officer of New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for 2017.
Born into dairy farming, Bateup is a ‘‘people person’’ that would not have been satisfied just living life on his own patch.
And what a patch it is. Sat near Te Hoe, three kilometres down the road from where he was raised, there are views over the breadth of Waikato and the hills which just obscure the Hauraki Plains. Along with his wife Eileen, who grew up just three kilometres further down the road, they contract milk 650 dairy cows.
It’s less time on the farm for Bateup these days, but more time spent answering emails, making phone calls and attending meetings.
As long-serving chair of the Waikato-Hauraki-Coromandel Rural Support Trust, he leads a team of around 30 people who operate an 0800 number, provide training, counselling, or simply an interested ear to a farmers’ worries.
The service is confidential and independent of any other organisation, something Bateup says was lacking when it was conceived over a decade ago.
‘‘It’s around supporting people during those periods of stress, maybe it’s depression, relationship issues, financial ... It’s about walking alongside them, and helping them to find a way through.’’
Depending on demand and workload, Bateup can still find himself sitting at a farmer’s dining table sharing his own wealth of experience.
‘‘We’re not experts in anything, but we’re probably experts in listening, mentoring, helping and pointing people in the right direction.’’
Today’s changes aren’t yet as transformative as those in the mideighties, he says. But both the stressors and feeling of uncertainty are growing.
‘‘The changes are becoming more rapid. There’s the whole antifarmer movement, there’s changes around the environment, animal welfare, quality, even regulations around employing people.
‘‘In the good old days farmers used to get up and milk their cows and that was it. It was a simpler life.’’
Fortunately, farmers have somewhere to turn.