A Marlborough farmer who has built an advisory business around his own experience battling depression and severe droughts, is gearing up to help others.
Sheep and beef farmer Doug Avery is a well-known speaker in the agriculture community in New Zealand and Australia.
He once transformed his drought-stricken farm back into a profitable business and is always ready to share his experience.
His company Resilient Farmer is partnering with BNZ and Beef and Lamb New Zealand, along with other companies, to help farmers introduce new skills and tools into their businesses.
Mr Avery said the partnership was created because he wanted to do more than tell his story.
"The journeys that I did last year, what that told me, was that my message was very well-received by a heck of a lot of people and you know I hadn't really understood that that was the case. The Resilient Farmer was really the next step of that.
"There's really no point just going round and fizzing people up and then not really giving them help. I had a supported journey of change, the change on our farm was transformational and so I just want to see if I can create that commercial model," he said.
The first event will be held in Southland on 16 February, and the Resilient Farmer website is now up and running.
