Ep 2: Dan Smith - Understanding the rural contractor economy
Dan Smith wants to understand how the rural contractor economy works.
It seems simple, but little research has been done on the topic. Dan has worked throughout the agribusiness sector and knows how important contractors are to food, farming and rural economies.
His research has potential to help those contractors better understand the industry they work in. He also hopes it’ll boost appreciation for them and the vital work they do.
Dan’s efforts as a researcher and a lecturer are making a real impact on the industry. That’s why he was named last year’s Rural Professional of the Year by the NZ Institute of Primary Industry Management.
Read more about Dan's research
Listen now
Listen to the episode and find out how Dan is helping reshape the contractor economy in rural New Zealand
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[Host – Hiraina] Kia ora and welcome to From the Ground Up. I'm your host Hiraina Tangiora and I'm a lecturer and PhD student here at Lincoln University. This podcast is all about the fantastic research being undertaken by post-graduate students here at Lincoln and the real world impact this has. In each episode, we will sit down with brilliant minds to uncover fresh ideas, share inspiring research stories, and explore their student journey. Today, I'll be chatting with Dan Smith, a PhD student and senior lecturer in agro business and farm management here at Lincoln. Prior to joining us, Dan has worked across the fertilizer consultancy and banking industries. His PhD research looks at the rural contractor economy. More on that very soon. Outside of work, Dan's big on cycling and kayaking and has even done the coast to coast a whopping seven times. Welcome to the podcast, Dan.
[Guest – Dan] Thanks for having me. Can you please start by telling us a bit about yourself and what you're studying here at Lincoln? Um, yeah, it was mostly covered in the intro. So, uh, I'm from Canterbury originally. Um, my family have a rural trucking company. I had a rural trucking company. So, I just wanted to be a truck driver my whole life. stopped going to school because I thought I had enough education to be a truck driver. Um, and I worked for the family business for many years and loved it. It's probably some of the best memories of my life. Um, and then I went on OE in my early 20s and spent almost three years in the UK and ended up working for a company like Watties or Telly's like a vegetable supply chain company, corporate agriculture. Um, so I decided maybe I wanted to pursue that when I came back. So I came back in my mid20s. I think I was 26 and I came to Lincoln and I did the dip ag, the dip farm management, the BCOM ag and a master of applied science. Got that all in four years. Um, and then I went and worked at Ravenstown for four or five years and then I went and worked for a bank four or five years and then I've been back here at Lincoln six years I think.
[Host – Hiraina] Busy times. And what exactly are you studying now that you're back for round two?
[Guest – Dan] So I do I have quite a big teaching load and admin load but I do a PhD on the side. Uh I think I'm about two thirds / 3 quarters of the way through and I'm researching rural contractors, the rural contractor economy, rural contracting businesses, which I call small rural farm support agri businesses.
[Host – Hiraina] Awesome. And so Dan, what inspired you to pursue this area of research and was there a moment or experience in particular that led you to it?
[Guest – Dan] I think it's what I grew up with. Like I say, that's basically the business that my family had uh my whole life. We had a rural trucker company, a rural fertilizer business, and we dealt with bailing companies, and you know, we had the straw season and the silage season. My uncle had a tree topping business, my other uncle had a ditch digging business. I'm from a small rural town. Uh, and they are really the businesses that make the small rural town. So, sort of always been an interest of mine.
[Host – Hiraina] Awesome. And why Lincoln? Was it obvious choice?
[Guest – Dan] Was it It was an obvious choice. Um, a lot of when I stopped going to high school and my friends stayed on in high school and they all went off to university, they all went to Lincoln, you know, cuz we were all country boys and I had a few years sort of wishing that I'd gone to university and I think when I wish that it was Lincoln that I was picturing. So, um, I was sort of the only university I looked at when I was on OE and I didn't know what I was going to do when I got back to New Zealand. Um, it sort of didn't feel right until I start until I started looking at Lincoln University and was like, that's where I want to go when I get back.
[Host – Hiraina] How cool. And so you're from Canterbury. You're doing your research in Canterbury. What does a place like this mean to you to be doing that research the university?
[Guest – Dan] It means quite a lot to me because I came as an adult student. I think I appreciated being here more. Um there were some amazing staff here when I came through sort of 06 to 010. Um yeah, and it's just a nice place to be. It's a beautiful campus. It's sort of country. Um but still Canterbury and still home. Um it just sort of feels right. When I came out here to work, you know, I had a good job in the city and I came out here for an interview just out of curiosity and it just felt right. I remember going back to the office and saying to my assistant, "They're going to offer me that job and I'm going to take it because it just feels like a place for me."
[Host – Hiraina] I love that. I love that. And given you do have quite a high teaching workload and admin workload as well, how does your work influence your PhD research?
[Guest – Dan] Um, by taking the time away from it is probably the main thing. um it is quite demanding and I have a lot of students so there's a lot to deal with with the students. I have a lot of field trips and tours and lectures and lecture slides and assignment questions and um yeah with with some big capstone courses that I teach uh it is quite hard to spend quality time in my PhD. Yeah. And sometimes when you're getting into gutsy bits like I am now, you really you're really excited to get into the data but it's just hard to find a block of time to you know I sort of have to do an hour here and there. It would be nice to get like three weeks of just doing my PhD, but I don't think I've ever had three weeks of just doing my PhD.
[Host – Hiraina] Oh, maybe for the final push aye? And speaking of getting down into the data, what is the key problem or research questions that you're looking at?
[Guest – Dan] Right. Uh so it's quite a big industry. So when we think of farming, we have the farming industry and then we have the non-farming businesses. But in between, you know, I'm talking about those third-party businesses that farmers outsource to. Bailing companies, fencing companies, shearing contractors, fertilizer spreaders, sprayers, ditch diggers, hedge cutters, all of those sort of businesses. So those third party colloquially, we call them rural contractors. Um, and it's actually a big industry. Like there's 7,000 limited companies in that indust in that industry. So if we take soul traders, there's probably 10,000 businesses. Those limited companies are employing $23,000 people. It's a $1.5 billion contribution to the GDP which must be growing rapidly. Um I was at the field days last week looking at all that massive equipment out there and a lot of that is that third party rural contractor equipment. Um and if you start doing research on it on Google Scholar, particularly in New Zealand, it's really hard to find. No one's sort of ever gotten into that economy. Um, and it's really, you know, those businesses ex exist because they're more efficient at the than the farmer at doing all of this stuff and therefore they must free the farmer up to do things that they are more efficient at. So, um, I think it has big impacts on the efficiency of the entire food and agriculture industry. Um, and I just think it's really interesting. I'm just trying to find out who are the people that run these businesses. How do these business operate? What challenges do they face? What sort of strategies do they deal with? Um, you know, the $1.5 million pieces of equipment that work for 40 days a year, some of them. So, how do how do those businesses operate? And I just think it's a a really underappreciated, fascinating industry that is unique to New Zealand. They exist all over the world. Um, but the the ones that we have are unique to our industry.
[Host – Hiraina] So I guess based on what you're saying around there's a huge gap in the literature um you've got a really significant size sector in growing uh and the benefits that it has to the wider farming sector. So who are you hoping will most benefit from your PhD research
[Guest – Dan] that industry hopefully um hopefully I can um you know just help them understand more at a at a I guess heavy research level some technicalities that are going on there. There's a lot of amazing industry bodies and they've all shown an interest to you know just know more about who are our members, what makes our members tick, um what are they struggling with. Um so hopefully that industry and the industry bodies the most. Um hopefully I can motivate some masters and honors students to do more research in that area. Um even my colleagues to do small research projects in that area. Um we've developed a conceptual framework like a model of what we think happens in these businesses. It would be nice to see someone from another country apply my model to via rural contractor industry.
[Host – Hiraina] Yeah, that's great actually. And I guess speaking about the potential international implications for your research. Is that where you would be hoping to go in terms of partnering, collaborating, comparing?
[Guest – Dan] Yeah, there's some amazing um research that's been done. Like I say, other industries are very different. If you look at the UK, for example, there's a lot of labour contractors. Um yeah, and every everyone's different just because the farm systems are so different. We have a big efficient farming industry. Therefore, our rural contractors have to be big efficient businesses. Um but yeah, it would just be nice to see someone, you know, just see test my model for me in, you know, um in the Limpopo or somewhere for example where they have rural contractors.
[Host – Hiraina] Yeah. Awesome. And I guess in terms of the challenges facing the farming sector, um we're aware of these. What are some of the ways you think rural contractors can really help um internationally or nationally or regionally?
[Guest – Dan] Um for a start they operational excellence. They do jobs to the highest of quality. Um you know like a hedge cutting contractor will come in and cut a hedge on most occasions better than a farmer will do. Um the just amazing. I remember interviewing a cultivation expo expert. And he said no farmer would walk across a ploughed field looking at their ploughing like I do. You know they just want to be excellent in what they do. Um a fertilizer spreader. You know they spend so much time making sure their fertilizer spreader is perfect and so on. So, a lot of focus on operational excellence. They're also removing that capital requirement away from the farmer. If you have 180 hectares, it's pretty hard to get a $1.8 million hectare uh heater and spread that over your 180 hectares. Whereas, if you can get a contractor to come in uh for 2 days and do all of your harvest sort of transferred that capital requirement. Um and then likewise with a $1.8 million heater, if you've got 50 clients or whatever, you can spread that heater over say 10,000 hectares of harvest. Um, so it's just transferring that capital requirement to another business, a business that focuses on that one thing and does it excellently. Um, and then they also come to a point where they're actually a partner to the farmer and maybe providing um, advice like a fencing contractor might help a farmer design where the fence goes because they have been fencing their whole life and they build quality fences and they care about stock flow and so on. Um, so there's heaps of benefits to the farming industry.
[Host – Hiraina] Nice. So a real focus on specialization and proving to farmers why its beneficial for them to partner, as you say, to get some of these jobs done to an exceptionally high standard. Awesome, and so what has been the most surprising or rewarding part of your research journey so far?
[Guest – Dan] Um, the rewarding part has been meeting these businesses. They're all and they're all real nice people as well. Um, and my I mean my dad was a rural businessman his whole his whole life. And if ever I say to him that such and such rural businessman is a good bugger, dad always says, "Well, he has to be otherwise he wouldn't have this business." So, they're all nice, awesome people that are great to talk to, passionate about what they do. Um, you know, they'll call themselves the such and such whisperer. you know, I don't want to give his um identity away, but they they love what they do and they love their machinery and they they love their clients and they do think of their clients as partners in their business. Um so getting out and meeting the people um being surrounded by those people um is probably the most rewarding and then then some rural business, rural publications wanting to publish my research and wanting to interview me and have me on their podcast and that. So it shows that uh they appreciate it. That's probably been the most rewarding.
[Host – Hiraina] Awesome. So getting I guess internal satisfaction from yourself and your family and then also external satisfaction as well. Cool. And now you will finish your PhD. Okay. So what do you hope to do afterwards? What would be next for you?
[Guest – Dan] Um I think I could think of about 20 more projects in this area. I would like to have some masters students doing research in this area. Um there's a lot of research to be done around the farmer decision- making about outsourcing activities. Um there's all sorts of re uh uh research projects in that area. So um I would like to spend my career with this as sort of my specialist area. Yeah. And I think I could as far as research goes. It's the one thing that I I do a bit on wellbeing and student wellbeing but apart from that this is really the area that interests me. Maybe some finance stuff.
[Host – Hiraina] Cool. So in terms of contributing to your field in the future basically you want to keep doing it and hopefully bring in some more research students and form a bit of a team with you as supervisor. Yeah. Um to help carving out in this area. That's awesome. Now, if someone was thinking about doing postgraduate study here at Lincoln um in a land based field in particular, what advice would you be giving to them?
[Guest – Dan] Uh I would say do something you're interested in. Do something that you actually want to find out about. Um choose a right size project. Like you have to be pragmatic about it. I know some people come in, you know, sort of wanting to change the world with their PhD. You've got your whole career to change the world. you sort of need to do something that's a manageable project. Um, get the right supervisors. Uh, understand what your motivation is. Uh, and then just keep working on it. It's you've just got to keep chipping away at it. Um, and sometimes you might do three days work and then delete two days of it. That's just part of the process as well.
[Host – Hiraina] Some good advice for you and I as much as everyone else listening. Awesome. Now I guess if you had to elevator pitch your PhD in one sentence or two, what is the key thing that you would want people listeners to take away?
[Guest – Dan] Um that it's going to be a really interesting industry to know more about and it's a really important industry and um an industry that we should be really proud of when we see these you know when you're sitting behind a tractor and Baylor on the main road. Um they're actually a really important part of our economy and our society and our community.
[Host – Hiraina] Awesome. And say others are listening and they're really interested in the work you're doing. How could they get involved?
[Guest – Dan] I don't know. They'd have to get in touch with me. Um, get involved with the Rural Contractor Magazine. There's Rural Contractors of New Zealand. Um, get in touch with these businesses. Anyway.
[Host – Hiraina] Awesome, Dan. So, you've got a fair bit going on, but I know you're also quite passionate about work in the mental health space. What got you into that? What got you interested?
[Guest – Dan] Um, so a bit of my personal experience. So, I like I say, I came through Lincoln. Um, did four years here at Lincoln, but I did four qualifications. Um, and I think I mentioned in the intro I had some amazing lecturers. Um, and I remember one of them put up put up a slide one day. Uh, and on that slide they were promoting a new course and the slide said uh, and I've still got the slide. The slide said, "We will expose you to everything you're likely to encounter in agriculture." And I did the course because of that slide they put up the year before. And anyway, I almost remembered that slide for some reason. Um, and then I went out and worked as I said as a rep out in the country. Um, and that I was I was working in a sort of low population area uh at a time when the milk price and the red meat price were quite low. Um, I had a lot of sort of bachelor farmers that were my clients. I lived on my own in Christchurch. Um, and I sort of noticed a lot of sort of loneliness and depression. Um, I remember a few times sitting at a farmer's table thinking to myself, the farmer doesn't want me to leave, you know, because maybe I was the only person they had seen all week. Um so it sort of can get a bit lonely out there and I think I started getting a bit lonely uh working in that area. Um and then I got sort of approached by a bank to see if I wanted to switch to banking in the rural area and because of that sort of bit of depression that I felt I actually wanted out of rural and that's how I ended up being a banker in the city and anyway I just carried on with my life as a banker. When I came out here and took over uh the old courses that I did, I was going through the slides that I was going to teach and I very quickly came across that slide that said, "We will expose you to everything you're likely to encounter." And I thought when I think back to the agriculture industry, there was one thing that I encountered on a weekly if not daily basis, which was people struggling. you know, whether it's the weather or the climate or their personal situation, um, or finance, financial pressure, I came across people struggling a lot when I was out there, and I was thinking, you never exposed me to that. I I had no I thought there was something wrong with me that I was noticing that. Um, so yeah, I just set about trying to work on that. I got in contact with Farmstrong probably within a week of starting here, telling them this journey that I wanted to go on and they flew down here. People from there flew up here as well. Um and we just started developing content. People from the university, from student services, from LUSA quickly got on board. Um and we've developed quite a program here at Lincoln University. Um our BCOM Ag students have about six different well-being related events. Um they leave with a toolbox of tools. Um knowing where to go for help, knowing the signs of mental health, mental health struggles, um knowing how to notice mental health struggles in other people, being okay to talk about it and discuss it. Um, so we've done a lot of work in that. We've developed programs here at Lincoln that have been rolled out across other rural universities right across Australasia now we can say as of this year. Um, and I also have some amazing colleagues uh that do some amazing research in this space and I can only say there's more to come in this area. We want to keep leading the way. We want to be known as the best rural university in the world when it comes to caring about our students well-being. um and also caring about their well-being after they leave here because uh as per my experience, I think that's when they're going to need the tools the most. So, while we want to teach them well-being, um skills, management skills while they're here, what I care more about is having tools to take with you because one of you hundred students in this room is likely to need to rely on this. Um and so, it's not a hard thing. It's not exactly work. It's um really enjoyable to uh know that you're giving them you're creating a more well-rounded individual and addressing those kind of topics.
[Host – Hiraina] Awesome. And that is such an important topic. Um and the students and Lincoln University are all the better for it. So, thank you for your work in that space.
[Guest – Dan] You're welcome.
[Host – Hiraina] So, I see Dan that you recently won New Zealand Rural Professional of the Year. What was that like and what are some of the key things that got you to there?
[Guest – Dan] All right. It was really awesome to win that award. um you know I entered that um competition and there's so many amazing rural professionals uh and the organization that gives that award um you know it's really an organization of excellence and like I'm talking about all of these excellent agri businesses we have we also have excellent rural professionals that are littered all through that industry um and to be recognized as a rural professional of the year you know especially as a lecturer and some people might say you're not even a rural professional you're a teacher um to win that was really amazing um yeah really meant a lot to me. I know I got on a lot of podcasts and a lot of interviews and so on, but it just means a lot to me personally. Um, and it meant a lot to my students as well. A lot of my students were quite proud of me. Um, so that was really good. Um, part of it was recognition of the teaching I do here and a part of it is related to my research because it sort of got me a bit of name awareness. Um, but I think the main reason I got it was all the mental health work. Um, and I wouldn't say I do, I would say that we do here at Lincoln. uh when I came here to teach I was aware from my experiences as a student and then as a rural professional that uh we need to do better in the mental health teaching space for our students. Um so it was really my one of my focuses when I came back. It was it was probably the one thing that I was determined to change was that we teach them about all this stuff that they may never come across in their careers. Um, and when there were financial tools that we did multiple assignments on, um, that I never came across as a banker or a rural professional, but I came across mental health struggles weekly. Um, so I wanted to make sure we teach our students that. Um, some amazing organizations dropped the hat to support us like FarmStrong, for example. Um, and then there's amazing other people on campus that got involved. Um, and now I think we are probably the leading rural university in teaching mental health and we've developed some amazing mental health awareness programs here at Lincoln that are being taught by other universities across Australasia now. Um so yeah, I'm really proud of the work we do as a team uh for mental well-being of our students. Um and it's really about equipping them with the tools to take with them um so that if they come across tough times in the second half of their 20s while they're out there working, they will have a toolbox or a place to go. Um so yeah, it's been really rewarding. Um, yeah, it's just that's a one nice part of the the job is that you can add your passion into um what you're teaching.
[Host – Hiraina] Awesome. And I think that's such an important area. So, thanks for your work in that space and yeah, really big congratulations on winning what is a pretty cool accolade.
[Guest – Dan] Thanks very much.
[Host – Hiraina] And to wrap us up, Dan, we've just got two questions for you. So, first question, quick fire, is if you had a million dollars of research funding, how would you spend it?
[Guest – Dan] Um, I'd probably take a couple of years off lecturing and travel around New Zealand talking to rural contractors. Probably buy Hilux to get around in. Um, so I could fit in and maybe do a day's work for each of them. Um, go and operate some machinery and, uh, talk to rural contractors, give them all day's free labour. Um, and then interview them. Uh, would be pretty cool.
[Host – Hiraina] Sounds good. And given we're at Lincoln University, what is your favourite food or fibre product?
[Guest – Dan] Uh, meat. I'd have to say red meat is probably um the winner.
[Host – Hiraina] Awesome. Well, thanks Dan. And I think that's been a really great discussion. I really appreciate you coming on the podcast. A big thank you to Dan Smith for joining me today and sharing his research journey. Such an insightful corridor. This has been from the ground up. I'm your host Harina Tangora and thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode and you want to hear more about our postgraduate research and the people behind it, don't forget to rate, subscribe, and share this podcast with your friends. See you next time.
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