“I have been a passionate farmer all my life, and having been through many ups and downs, I recognise that it is important to have someone to look to for support in tough times. This is what led us to start the Waikato Rural Support Trust, and it’s the ethos of providing support in tough times that drives what we do,” Neil says.
Neil was recognised in the recent Primary Industries New Zealand Awards for his services in supporting rural families through hard times. The awards took place at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre on June 24 and 25.
Farming was always Neil’s career goal, even as a primary schooler. Growing up near Huntly, Waikato, Neil started work on the family farm straight after high school, eschewing university for “an education of an inquiring mind” on the farm. He would attend Ruakura field days to upskill and set up the first discussion group in the area with the Dairy Board Consulting Officer when he was just 19 years old.
“I find farming really interesting because there’s no one recipe. There are lots of different ways of doing things, and every farm is different, every herd is different, and people are different. It’s certainly not boring,” he says.
Neil now owns and operates a 240ha, 670-cow dairy farm in Te Hoe, east of Huntly, and has been involved in the Rural Support Trust for more than 20 years.
“Farmers tend to work largely on their own without big support networks. It’s not like working for a company where you have dedicated people take care of HR, payroll, and procurement. It’s all on you as a farmer. You are in charge of staff, financial reporting, climate change mitigation and regulation, animal health, soil, grass, planning – everything. Back in the day, if things started to go a bit pear- shaped, we didn’t have a support system,” Neil says.
This dearth of support led Neil and some fellow farmers to set up the Waikato Hauraki Coromandel Rural Support Trust in 2004. Other trusts were also established around the country. Awareness of the RST was initially limited to word of mouth and fridge magnets dropped in local letterboxes, until 2008 when the Trust was promoted by the media and the government in the wake of a severe drought.
“Our profile started to lift, and we grew from there. We met with Jim Anderton, Minister of Agriculture at that stage and suggested that we needed funding to provide the support needed – simple things like admin and having someone to answer the phone if someone called in. We managed to get base funding for each of the regional trusts,” Neil says.
By 2016, demand for RST’s support had grown dramatically, and so a national council was established.
“Having a national voice is much easier when it comes to sponsorship, contracts, dealing with agencies, and supporting the individual regional trusts. I’ve been impressed at how well all the individual trusts work together supporting each other, sharing ideas and resources.
This cohesion was apparent during Cyclone Gabrielle, when we had Trust Coordinators across the country triaging calls for support. The South Island supporting the East Coast, and Coordinators in Taranaki supporting the Northland region. It became a nationwide coordinated response,” Neil says.
“There are so many challenges on-farm. When things go wrong, Rural Support helps people work through it and come out the other side, and be stronger after it. I’m really proud of the work that we do, and it’s growing phenomenally. We have a great team of enthusiastic, empathetic and dedicated people across the country, and it has been and will continue to be a pleasure to work with them,” says Neil Bateup.
The Co-op has always been a strong supporter of RST and recently extended its partnership with the organisation for another three years.
The partnership is made possible through the Co-operative’s Doing Good Together programme, which focuses on three pillars: putting good quality nutrition in the hands of those who need it most, providing care and support to keep rural communities strong, and empowering communities to protect and restore nature for future generations.
