Dairy Holdings is New Zealand’s largest dairy farming company with over 15,000 hectares of land across Canterbury, and (I hope you’re sitting down) over 50,000 cows. The company operates as a self-contained herd, fed from within its own boundaries, meaning they farm from their own land, not relying on external grazing, reducing biosecurity risks. Dairy Holding’s vision is to be a growing dairy business that provides our customers with the highest quality food from 100% pasture. The company’s focus is on its pasture, people, and processes, with key values of integrity, leadership, and family. Investing in its people’s success enables the company’s own success, with a focus on progression, retention, engagement, safety, and wellbeing. Jane Fowles is the People and Culture Officer at Dairy Holdings, and has been with the company for 2 ½ years, after previously running her own Health & Safety and HR consultancy business. While Jane wears multiple hats at Dairy Holdings, she is truly passionate about Health & Safety and keeping their people safe, being well aware that the highest rate of work-related injuries in New Zealand is within the agricultural industry. Dairy Holdings has implemented several safety measures, with a bespoke web-based health and safety system that records hazards, vehicle checks, end of month reports, and more. They also utilise Fleetpin, and have installed over 100 GPS devices across their assets along with Safetrax; Fleetpin’s very own roll-over safety and prevention system. Jane believes that “you shouldn’t be able to buy a quad in NZ that doesn’t have Safetrax, a speed limiter, and a lifeguard”. Safetrax prevents roll incidents from occurring by monitoring rider behaviour and alerting the operator before incidents happen, along with providing an SOS alerting system in the event of a rollover. Having Safetrax in their assets is particularly critical for their farms located in the deep South, where the uneven terrain poses a higher risk of rolling. Being that many of Dairy Holding’s assets are based in rural and completely remote areas, cellular networks are often patchy or non-existent, which is why they utilise the satellite variant of Safetrax. “The satellite devices are amazing, [our employees] can still call for help,” says Jane, who appreciates the manual SOS button which can be pushed in the event of an emergency. Dairy Holdings has integrated its GIS mapping into Fleetpin to be able to receive alerts when employees or contractors enter steep, restricted areas. Fleetpin is also developing additional features that will enhance Dairy Holdings’ operations, such as proof of placement reporting through secondary input such as PTO or switch, irrigation stop alerts, remote switching capabilities, and more. Fleetpin has been working closely with Dairy Holdings to understand the agricultural industry and work towards creating features that benefit the sector. We are proud of the relationship we have achieved with Jane and Dairy Holdings, “the system we use wouldn’t be the system we have without everyone at Fleetpin working behind the scenes”, says Jane. Get in touch to learn how Fleetpin can provide benefits to the Agricultural Industry.
