Beef + Lamb NZ (B+LNZ) events are often bringing in farmer panels to show how they are coping with higher costs and lower returns.
Northern South Island extension manager Kristin Kirkpatrick said farmers had told them there had been some financial pinch points and requested support during extension activities.
"Most of them have an element of talking through the finances and things that people could do or have done in the past and that might be going forward for their financial pruning."
She said the Rural Support Trust was invited to events so people had access to support.
"We can hold these workshops, but for some people it’s a difficult space to be communicating in and opening up in front of other people so that’s why we’re providing the six-part webinar series. That covers a range of topics and the other week we had a farmer panel who spoke around where they are seeing pressures and where they are looking at their budgets and re-forecasting."
The Sow, Grow, Thrive webinars are held on Monday evenings with "farming through the seasons: mastering cycles with financial insights" on October 2, followed by "navigating tough times: banker insights for effective financial communication" on October 9.
A final webinar, "sharpening the tools: methods to embrace change", will take place on October 16.
Mrs Kirkpatrick said farmers, bankers and accountants were helping people make financial decisions.
"For some people it’s just hearing they’re not alone and other people are finding the same stress points. We want people at glass half-full as we’ve been here before and had similar periods in our history where things have been financially tough and we can look at what people did to get through those times and carry on looking ahead and turning it around."
Connecting with other farmers and getting off farms to have a break was important. Having a Plan A, B, C and D plan for finances and weather events to give them trigger points for making the next decision was also critical to minimise risk, she said.
North Canterbury farmers experiencing a previous good summer of grass growth had seen an increase in parasites and management against worm burdens.
Advice had been provided during workshops by local vet and B+LNZ Wormwise facilitator Sarah Williams to navigate parasite management and triple drench resistance.
Mrs Kirkpatrick said farmers had told her that pockets previously wet underfoot appeared to be dry now and were having a good lambing and calving.
A good start boded well for lamb survivability which was needed under the economic climate, she said.
"Some of the information coming through from the Australian meat schedules has people wondering what might happen in that space in New Zealand, but I think people are trying to look ahead positively around what that might look like."
Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury president David Acland said the workshops were a fundamental role of B+LNZ.
He said field days for an unrelated subject such as bull selection were good opportunities for farmers to mix off the farm.
"It’s the other conversations in those gatherings too that are probably more critical mental health wise.
"It’s just about getting out of that farm gate and then you find out that everyone else is facing similar challenges and have different ways through it and it helps galvanise your own thought processes."
