Farmlands and FarmIQ launch tech tool to help farmers stay safe

SafeFarm, an app designed to help New Zealand’s primary sector improve its health and safety record, is free for Farmlands shareholders.

Developed by Farmlands and FarmIQ, SafeFarm creates a single site for farmers to record core data such as hazards and their risk mitigations, incidents and the learnings from them and emergency equipment locations, with the objective of making farms safer.

Peter Reidie, Farmlands chief chief executive, says the rural co-operative is taking a leadership role to help the New Zealand agricultural sector improve its health and safety performance.

“We have seen the statistics and the headlines regarding serious injuries and fatalities in rural New Zealand. Farmlands wants to assist with the protection of our shareholders and effective Health and Safety management is a cornerstone of this – as is their personal attitude to safety,” says Reidie.

Peter Reidie, Farmlands chief chief executive

“SafeFarm was created to offer our shareholders the opportunity to work safe and get home safe, every day. We consider this free offer the start of the digital farming journey for some of our shareholders.”

Farmlands is one of New Zealand’s top 20 businesses by turnover, with revenues in excess of $2 billion. It is owned by more than 68,000 shareholders, with 82 Farmlands stores across the country. FarmIQ is a comprehensive farm management software platform, servicing more than 2,000 farms across New Zealand.

SafeFarm includes a farm diary, inventory control and the ability to allocate tasks on-farm, while a later release will focus on safe visit tools, so farmers know who is on their farm and can ensure they are aware of the hazards and the methods of mitigation.

The SafeFarm tool has been trialled with Farmlands shareholders on their properties, to ensure the end users have a practical, simple way to develop their health and safety programmes.

Darryn Pegram, FarmIQ chief executive, says it is not easy for farmers to stay on top of their responsibilities and many are looking to their smartphones for apps that can help.

“Our customers were telling us they wanted all their farm information in one place and that Health and Safety was a critical part of their farm management system,” says Pegram.

“Our partnership with Farmlands helps many more farmers access best in class health and safety software. It’s now easy for Farmlands shareholders to join up all their farm information and keep their farm team safe.”