Post Your Support FAQ's
What has Farmlands been doing to help out farmers, growers and communities within the cyclone-devastated regions of Aotearoa?
We continue to put a huge effort into supporting farmers, growers and communities impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle. Our most significant effort to date is our Cyclone Gabrielle Response Fund – which has raised over $620k.
The other is probably potentially the largest community initiative we’ve ever created or led – it’s massively exciting – working with Federated Farmers and Stuff, we’re launching ‘Post Your Support’, which will accelerate the repairing and replacing of thousands of kilometres of fencing in Hawke’s Bay, the East Coast and Northland. Through Post Your Support, Kiwi businesses and individuals can buy $20 fenceposts in Farmlands stores or online, each of which represents about a metre of fencing material.
Why are you focussing on re-fencing?
The quicker fencing is sorted, the quicker these essential agriculture and horticulture businesses can get back up and running. At Farmlands, we have a unique ability to do something concrete and immediate with the money we raise – we can get the materials at the best possible price through our strong supplier relationships, then then use our regional resources to provision the workforce where and when the work needs to happen. Having the relationship we do with Federated Farmers means that we can use their connections with groups such as the Farmy Army to create the fastest and most cost-effective response.
What partners are involved in the Post Your Support Campaign?
The first partner we teamed up with was Federated Farmers, then Stuff came on board as a fully-fledged partner. We are also being supported by Ministry of Primary Industries, Silver Fern Farms, FMG, The Warehouse Group, Z, Spark, ASB, Rabobank and Ravensdown.
These are all organisations with a strong connection to our rural communities, and who are involved in contributing towards the lasting profitability and wellbeing of farmers and growers.
How will Post Your Support actually work, after money’s been raised?
We’re kicking things off with $200k from our response fund, which will ‘seed’ the fencing fund. Then the public, our customers, businesses and institutions as well as our partners will be providing additional funds. Farmers and growers from the impacted regions who need new or repaired fencing or ‘growing structures’ can apply to the fund for (initially) up to $5000 at a time to purchase fencing materials - so we’ll be providing the fencing products and Federated Farmers will be bringing in the people to build fences.
Initially they’ll be mobilising their Farmy Army into the impacted areas, then they’ll be moving to a fencing-contractor model to keep the momentum going over the longer term. This won’t be the work of a few months unfortunately; we’ve heard anecdotally that many farmers affected by the 2021 floods in Canterbury are still working to get all of their fencing up and working again.
When does this campaign start?
We’re holding a major media launch on Friday 17 March at Central Districts Field Days, and people will be able to start donating and applying for fencing from then.
How do people access the Post Your Support funding?
These grants are for farmers and growers have undertaken or about to undertake fencing work. Every potential recipient will need to fill out an application form which will be available online.
All orders will be placed through Farmlands and once accepted, grants will go directly to the customers’ Farmland account as a credit. Initially, each grant will be limited to $5000 but this could increase to 10, depending on the eventual size of the fund. Applicants who aren’t with Farmlands can have a cash account created for them.
This creates an audit trail with traceability on how funds have been used specifically on fencing materials.
The internal process is that the Farmlands Foundation Team will be informed and a list will be created. A response to the customer will be sent using a prepared accept/decline template – a positive answer template will include the information that they should expect to hear from their local TFO shortly. The Team will get in touch with the local TFO, who will reach out to the customer with the details of the materials that they will receive.
Is there other ways that Farmlands is helping cyclone-impacted rural communities?
Yes – through targeted fencing and water infrastructure pricing reductions.
Re-fencing to protect and manage stock, protect trees, vines and crops, and manage land is critical but there’s also an urgent need to get water systems working again.
We’re offering special pricing on fencing and water infrastructure, dropping prices for all customers in the impacted regions. We’ll be buying in bigger quantities than usual, negotiating great prices with supportive suppliers and reducing our margin as much as we can for the next three months.
Fencing pricing fluctuates regularly, and we’ll advertise the very best price we can offer across the impacted regions. For water infrastructure, we’ve committed to big percentage discounts – as much as 49% for some products and between 15 – 20% for other big brands like Iplex. Our customers can get these deals through our TFOs and in-store from Monday 13 March.
We’ll be sending out emails to all customers about the new campaign, and out to cyclone-affected customers, telling them about what we’re doing. We’ll also send out more information on what products are part of this offer.
If you have enquiries about our response to these weather events, please contact us on 0800 200 600 or email ask@farmlands.co.nz