about us
Rural Assist is run by farmers, providing solutions for farmers, and understand the psyche of farmers. We know that you have a lot of demands on your time, your budget, and your assets, and we want to ensure that you’re getting the maximum benefits possible from all of them.
About Rod Smillie
I’ve been involved in farming for over 50 years.
I have extensive experience of farming sheep, beef, deer, dairy, fencing, shearing, delivering pest-control projects, contracting, and consulting. This experience provides an excellent first-hand understanding of the challenges farmers face throughout the year.
I spent close to 5 years as a Biosecurity Manager for a Regional Council overseeing the delivery of an extensive on farm pest control programme to provide bio-security protection for farmers and the region. Prior to this I completed 14 years delivering large and small pest control projects that involved small and large animal pests for the Department of Conservation.
I am an authorised certifier for Certified Handlers Certificate (CHC) for VTAs (Vertebrate Toxic Agents) which is a requirement to have to apply to Worksafe for a Controlled Substance Licence (CSL) I can provide the required training and compliance advice support to get to the stage of submitting for your CHC. Through a collaboration with another certifier, I can provide a full supportive service for acquiring your CHC. For more information see our CHC page.
In 2016 I moved into health and safety, and spent a year studying this field. This really opened my eyes to the expectations and obligations farmers now face under the Health and Safety at Work ACt. I saw from this that while most farmers have the best of intentions with their health and safety measures, there are opportunities to reduce compliance costs and improve health and safety outcomes and performance.
I started Rural Assist to help farmers face the health and Safety, and the bio-security challenges they are presented with, and to show that being health and safety compliant does not have to be intimidating or time-consuming.
Rural Assist makes it easy.
To find out what we can do for you, please contact us.
what do you need?
We work with you to ensure you get exactly what you need; nothing more, nothing less.