INFORME DE AUDITORÍA INTEGRAL A LA UNIDAD EDUCATIVA

Another form of on-farm resource is endogenous support. Endogenous support is all internal human factors. This encompasses personnel employed on-farm and

management systems with a majority of endogenous components. Farm personnel may be contract, seasonal worker or full-time employees. A farm’s ability to employ on-farm personnel can be impacted by the earthquake. Farm personnel are an essential part of farm recovery and a return to normality. The alternative to an exogenous management system (Section 4.5.3.4 ), is an endogenous management system.

4.5.2.1 Full-time Employees

Full-time employees work year-round and are frequently housed on farm. Their

employment and housing is dependent on farm status. They are at risk of job loss if their housing is severely damaged or the farm losses its financial ability to keep them

employed. The ability of farms to maintain full-time employs may fluctuate during the recovery process. At the time of the earthquake, only Farm C had full-time employees. Most of Farm C’s staff are full-time employees. At the time of the earthquake, there were about ten staff members. Most of the staff was housed on-farm with their families. Despite not having an on-farm emergency plan, the farmers and staff still met by the dairy shed soon after the shaking stopped. The farmers’ first priority was to look after their people. The yard around the dairy shed became the gathering and cooking site during the initial recovery stages. While the dairy cows were off farm and the dairy shed was not operational, the farm could not afford to continue to employ most of the

employees. All but one staff member, who was the second-in-command for the runoff, was let go. A employee wage subsidy fund from MBIE helped the farmers pay the staff their remaining salary until most of them left in mid-December. Their previous manager had left the month before the earthquake and their new manager had yet to start. The new manager’s start date was pushed form December to May. By June the farm had re- staffed the dairy shed. In January 2018, one of the farmers was still managing the runoff by themselves. The damage to their staff housing had the knock-on effect of keeping the farm understaffed. The farmers also said that non-priority jobs had to be postponed because they were understaffed.

100

The Farm C farmers saw an opportunity to rethink their business model following the earthquake. Something they would not have had the opportunity to do if they had not had to let go most of their staff.

Farm B acquired a few new houses during recovery. A farmer mentioned they were considering using one to hire a full-time employee. Prior to the earthquake, they did not have the housing capacity to do so.

4.5.2.2 Seasonal Employees

Seasonal (or contract) employees are workers hired to complete specific jobs or for a season. They typically supply their own housing and transportation. The workers themselves are less directly impacted by damage to the farm because their employment is not dependent on one farm or maintaining function. A farm’s inability to hire contract employees will significantly slow their recovery. The most common impact on the employment of contract workers was shifting the timing rather than eliminating their use entirely.

Seasonal workers are employed on Farms A and B for three main tasks: drilling, weed removal and shearing. Drilling timing is entirely weather dependent and takes several days in good conditions. In wet conditions, these tasks may stretch over a couple of weeks. Weeding for some plants, such as Nassella tussock (Nassella trichotoma and

Nassella tenuissima), is legally required. This takes place over several days in spring to

best avoid disrupting the young lambs. Contractors weeding must walk the whole property on foot. Shearing takes place throughout the year to reduce animal health problems. Crutching in November to December, belly crutching from April to May and shearing from mid-July to mid-August. Most of the seasonal work is done by contracted employees (e.g., shearing, road maintenance, harvesting).

There are also part-time workers employed for general maintenance work on Farms A and B. On Farm A, they are employed for 3 days of the week. On Farm B, they are employed for the whole winter season.

The employment of contract workers is essential to completing vital farm tasks. The workload on these farms is too large for the farmer and their family to complete alone.

101 4.5.2.3 Endogenous Management System

An endogenous management system consists of the farmer, their family and on-farm staff. They do not employ off-farm managers like exogenous managements systems (Section 4.5.3.4 ). The farmers on Farms A and B both use this management system type. This style of management is more flexible on a day-to-day basis. It lacks the far-reaching network of the exogenous management system. It consists of an on-farm manager, but it can also just be the farmer’s family. A Farm A farmer described this system:

“I enjoy operating on a very short chain of command. I don’t have shareholders or a board of directors to tell

me what to do. I’m in total, obviously with Farmer 2 and a little bit with my in-laws, but I make all decisions.

And I can make them in a heartbeat. It takes the pressure off because you’re not being delayed to make

decisions. I think that was helpful, to me. Because I know other people in the district when they’ve got owners and shareholders, it hasn’t been as straight forward to prioritise what gets fixed and stuff like that.”

4.5.2.4 Endogenous Support Summary

Endogenous support is a key on-farm resource for reducing workload stress on farmers and maintaining farm functionality. It contributes to how a farm can be flexible at short notice. A farm’s immediate resilience in isolated situations is heavily based on its endogenous support. Less isolated farms may rely on exogenous networks.