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18 <strong>Ashburton</strong><br />
RURAL LIFE<br />
<strong>Courier</strong>, <strong>July</strong> <strong>11</strong>, <strong>2024</strong><br />
www.ashburtoncourier.co.nz<br />
Combat veteran’s rural advice<br />
BY TIM CRONSHAW<br />
Acombat veteran sent to four tours offrontlinebattle<br />
in Afghanistan has told dairy<br />
farmerstoshrug off their tough guy image<br />
and take up meditation.<br />
Australian author Dr Dan Pronk served<br />
on more than 100 combat missions as an<br />
army special operations doctor after<br />
passing SAS selection and hit the wall when<br />
he retired from service.<br />
He talked to 400 farmers about stress and<br />
ways to build resilience including<br />
meditation and ‘‘combat breathing’’ asa<br />
top speaker at the recent South Island Dairy<br />
Event conference at Lincoln University.<br />
‘‘The eyes that are on this industry and<br />
the pictures they create are abnormal. You<br />
don’t get the average accountant going to<br />
work to have some muppet in acow suit<br />
yelling at them. This all adds to the stress<br />
because there is asocial lens your industry<br />
gets viewed through and you’re out there<br />
just trying to do your best to maintain<br />
profitability and feed yourfamily.’’<br />
As afrontline doctor, some of the<br />
casualties he treated included fellow SAS<br />
soldiers, commandos, local civilians, and<br />
the enemy.<br />
Pronk ended up with posttraumatic<br />
stress disorder (PTSD) after leaving the<br />
armed forces in 2014 when losing close<br />
mates and being exposed to violence and<br />
the realities of frontline battle came to rest.<br />
Being unable to save his friendsintheir<br />
final moments haunted him.<br />
Reintegrating into civilian life was its<br />
own battle as he took to the bottle and<br />
leaned on sleeping pills.<br />
His anger was at a‘‘hair trigger’’, he was<br />
in astate of high anxiety and strugglingto<br />
cope with bad dreams, flashbacks and just<br />
be able to feel again.<br />
He was feeling worse than ever even<br />
though on paper he was safer and earning<br />
more money than before he clocked out.<br />
Pronk said he had to work out the<br />
resilient factors he lost after discharging<br />
from the army and rebalance the scales for<br />
his mental health to keep functioning.<br />
Hesaid dairy farmers also had to develop<br />
resilience as they were in a‘‘uniquely’’ high<br />
stress environment.<br />
‘‘It was completely normal as adoctor<br />
with those units to be responding to friends<br />
of mine who had been shot or blown up on<br />
the battlefield.<br />
‘‘What this talks to is the human ability to<br />
adapt to high stress environments. You<br />
❛The eyes that are on this<br />
industry and the pictures they<br />
create are abnormal.❜<br />
—DrDan Pronk<br />
spend long periods of time in highstress<br />
environments and your body adjusts and<br />
adapts to that. It normalises and becomes<br />
your new normal and when we look at<br />
everyone in this room the dairy farming<br />
industry is asuper highstress environment.<br />
If you spend long periods of time immersed<br />
in that environment you normalise that<br />
stress and it was no different for us in the<br />
military.<br />
‘‘But this comes at acost.’’<br />
The cost was the body had to upregulate<br />
its chronic response stress system and<br />
higher levels of hormones such as cortisol<br />
ramped people up, but activated too long<br />
and it burned them out, he said.<br />
Pronk said there were key ways to down<br />
regulate the body’sstress response system<br />
and build resistance.<br />
He developed mechanisms such as<br />
practising meditation and mindfulness to<br />
control his thought patterns and others to<br />
wind down his body's stress response.<br />
PTSD BATTLE: Australian army special<br />
operations doctor Dan Pronk advises Kiwi<br />
farmers to do something about their<br />
mental health.<br />
PHOTO TIM CRONSHAW<br />
‘‘I get the impression from my interaction<br />
with the farming industry is that it’s similar<br />
culturally to the military in its response a<br />
very stoic mindset, keep your chin up and<br />
oftenthese cultures are very dismissive, but<br />
this is highly relevant.<br />
‘‘And if there is one thing you should take<br />
away from today’s presentation is that all of<br />
you should be practising some sort of<br />
mindfulness and meditation to be able to<br />
wind down your chronic stress response.’’<br />
As little as 10 to 12 minutes started to have<br />
positive effect from two weeks. Apps<br />
guiding boxbreathing techniques in four<br />
second intervals called combat breathing<br />
in the miliary helped people to wind down<br />
stress.<br />
Pronk said alcohol was often wrongly<br />
used as acoping strategy but only helped<br />
people sleep for three to five hours and was<br />
no substitute forgood sleep, diet and<br />
exercise.<br />
The simple act of being grateful and<br />
focusing on positives had benefits.<br />
Socialinteraction to build resilience is<br />
also important.<br />
~ Central Rural Life<br />
Winterfeed option acomfortable fit<br />
BYMARY RALSTON<br />
It’s midwinter and farmers are well into<br />
the daily routine of shifting breaks.<br />
Kale and fodder beet havebecome the<br />
staples of winter feeding of dairycows –<br />
but some farmers are looking at other<br />
options.<br />
Bale grazing –winteringdairy stock on<br />
permanent pasture with plenty of hay –is<br />
catching on. Bales are placed in agrid<br />
pattern in the paddock; cows are given<br />
three days’ worth of rations in one break.<br />
Paddocks are taken out of the grazing<br />
rotation in March and the ones grazed first<br />
can be back to full pasturecover by<br />
September. This is abig advantage of the<br />
bale grazing system: paddocks are<br />
available for grazing for alot moreofthe<br />
year than is the case with annual crops.<br />
Grass and hay are amorenatural diet<br />
for cows, and even though the feed is lower<br />
in protein,weight gains are similar to<br />
those of cattle grazed on kale. Bale grazed<br />
cowsspend more time lying down and<br />
ruminating,and they stay warmer and<br />
drier. Most of the cows calve on the hay<br />
litter.<br />
There’s less soil damage and pugging<br />
than with annual crops. And there’s lower<br />
rates of nitrogen leaching because there’s<br />
less nitrogen excreted in urine (duetothe<br />
lower nitrogen content of the diet), and<br />
partly because of the grass cover.<br />
Hororata dairy farmersDeane Parker<br />
CONTENTED: Cows on Deane Parker and Melissa Scarlett’s Hororata dairy farm. Bale<br />
grazing is aseen as agood alternative to winter grazing of annual crops. PHOTO MARY RALSTON<br />
and Melissa Scarletthosted abale grazing<br />
field day recently for the farmer network,<br />
QuorumSense, attendedbyover 70<br />
farmersand industry reps.<br />
Parker and Scarlettare using bale<br />
grazing for all their herd this winter.<br />
Parker said it’s agame changer.<br />
“It’s chalk and cheese –winter used to<br />
be the moststressful time of the year, now<br />
it’s the complete opposite,’’ Parker said.<br />
“The cows are content and comfortable,<br />
they haven’thad to use abunch of energy<br />
keeping warm. This has aflowon effect<br />
for animal health.<br />
“You can stay off the paddocks when it’s<br />
wet. Staff are not constantly under the<br />
pump.<br />
“Imagine awintering system that<br />
regeneratesthe soil, animals and people –<br />
that’s what bale grazing can do,” he said.<br />
IN BRIEF<br />
GENETIC GAIN<br />
DairyNZ, LIC and CRV are<br />
welcoming an Independent Working<br />
Group’s (IWG) final report<br />
supportingimprovements in New<br />
Zealand’s genetic gain system for<br />
the national dairy herd. The IWG<br />
was charged with evaluating the<br />
dairy sector’s genetic improvement<br />
progress. DairyNZ chair Jim van der<br />
Poel said the report was groundbreakingasitcaptured<br />
in one place<br />
the reasons New Zealand has fallen<br />
behind international competitors,<br />
while clearly outlining away forward<br />
that can involve all sector players.<br />
Recommendations included<br />
strengtheningthe role and impact of<br />
the National Breeding Objective<br />
(NBO).<br />
BOARD MEMBER<br />
Heather McKayhas joined the<br />
board of Rural WomenNew<br />
Zealand as an associate member.<br />
She was astandout candidate for<br />
the new role designed to develop<br />
the next generation of members and<br />
leaders, national president Gill<br />
Naylor said. “She brings aunique<br />
combination of professional, not-forprofit<br />
and practical farm business<br />
capability to her work and<br />
leadership.‘‘<br />
The one-year role is appointed,<br />
not elected by RWNZ members,<br />
and does not hold voting rights.<br />
However, McKay will play afull role<br />
in Board and Committeemeetings,<br />
helpingtoshape strategic planning<br />
and decision-makingfor the<br />
organisation.<br />
PORK REP<br />
Jason Palmer and Nigel Young<br />
have been elected to the NZPork<br />
board of directors. Palmer, acurrent<br />
director on the NZPork board,isa<br />
mid-Canterbury pig farmer with<br />
interests in dairy and forestry.<br />
Young has 40 years’ experience in<br />
the sectorinNew Zealand, the<br />
United Kingdom and Australia. He is<br />
general manager for PIC/Sunpork<br />
New Zealand. Palmerand Young<br />
were elected by farmers in the<br />
Region 3area,which covers the<br />
South Island.<br />
$1.7M INVESTMENT<br />
The New Zealand Meat Board<br />
(NZMB) announced a$1.7m<br />
fundingboost for two major red<br />
meat sector projects. Up to<br />
$700,000 is to go to the Informing<br />
New Zealand Beef genetics project<br />
(INZB) and up to $1 million for the<br />
Eliminating FacialEczema Impacts<br />
(EFEI) programme.Itfollows<br />
consultationwith sheep and beef<br />
farmers on the distribution of<br />
interest and dividends generated<br />
from the NZMB’s $79 million<br />
reserves fund towards industry<br />
good projects. NZMB chair Kate<br />
Aclandsaid the two projects will<br />
deliversignificant benefits to red<br />
meat producers.<br />
“This investment comes at a<br />
criticaltime for the sector, which is<br />
facing significant financial<br />
pressures.’’<br />
SELFSERVICE APP<br />
Farmlands has launched online<br />
app, FarmlandsPRO, allowing<br />
customers to place, track and<br />
manage rural suppliesorders. Chief<br />
executive officer Tanya Houghton<br />
said farming doesn’t line up with<br />
normalbusiness hours and<br />
customers needed to be able to<br />
order rural supplies at atime that<br />
met their business needs. The app<br />
included everything from full order<br />
histories, through to existing<br />
contracts and farmer-specific<br />
discountedrural supplies prices,<br />
and reflected how farmers and<br />
growers were adapting the ways<br />
they did business.