This year Smith, with the help of Paula Skou, has gone one step further and organised two District Hall Get-Togethers for 80 people. Locals are keen for a third before Christmas.
Smith and Shand say the popularity of both events demonstrates the keenness of farmers to get away from work for a few hours and have a different conversation.
The bike rides offer three experiences – a 15km ride for beginners, a more challenging 40km ride and an 80km ride for serious riders.
“Rangitikei is such a gorgeous area to ride in and we don’t need to close the roads to run the event,” Shand said.
“For most people it’s about fitness, health and a fun day out.
“We also offer a huge range of spot prizes donated by businesses in town. We started off with 100 riders and last year we had 170 riders. A lot of our riders are off farms or rural people. They bring along families too.”
It happens at the end of March in conjunction with the Marton Harvest Festival.
Shand says they set up Pedal for Pleasure as a fundraiser for Rotary after getting into biking and finding it a great way to destress from the pressures of farming.
“We have a bike group that meets a couple of days a week. It’s a great way to find out what’s going on in the district and keep in contact with neighbours.”
Smith says “We meet in the early morning in the dark and get the ride done before work.
“Half of us are farmers, half aren’t and that’s important. We can’t just go moaning about the weather or the meat companies, which farmers are good at, because it doesn’t mean anything to people apart from farmers. It broadens everyone’s horizons and changes the conversations you have.”
There are health benefits too.
“I’m a flatland farmer,” Shand said.
“I can move all my electric fences from a quad bike so I don’t get much exercise. I also do a lot of tractor driving. So there are times when you can feel really down and stodgy and exercise like bike riding really lifts you up and makes you feel a whole lot better about life. It benefits your business as well. It gives you off-farm thinking time.”
Smith agrees getting farm fit is worth the effort.
“Farming’s a pretty physical occupation. I think if you’re healthier it’s much easier. You don’t want to be a slob and try and tackle a wild cow. You’ve got to be in shape. I also think getting out and talking to people apart from farmers helps you maintain perspective and keep a positive frame of mind.”
Which is why he kicked on and organised the Get-Togethers.
“They’ve really taken off. We are getting 80 people along, which is as many as we can manage. We supply the meat and people bring their own drinks. It’s hard to get them home at night because people just love an excuse like this to get out and socialise.”
He says society has changed and rural people need to make more effort to connect.
“People don’t run across each other like they used to. When we were kids we walked everywhere and all the kids used to go to Marton school. You met your neighbours and knew them well. Now everyone has cars and the kids go to schools further afield. It’s quite possible you may not know your neighbours well or meet them off-farm regularly.”
They say organising the events has been a great off-farm activity in itself.
“Someone has to give their time to get these things going. The enthusiasm you get from people for these events keeps us going. You don’t get 80 people if you’re not doing something right. Someone just has to get off their bum and organise these things,” Shand said.
These two lifelong farmers say there’s a serious side behind all the pedaling and socialising.
“As sheep and beef farmers we often work as individuals and get trapped in our own little world,” Shand said.
“I used to be terrible at getting off the farm. We’d go down to a beach house for a few days and I’d come back half way through to open the gate and move the sheep then drive back down again because no one else could open a gate like I could. Anything that gets you out of that mindset is a positive.”
Smith said “Biking has been a huge change for me.
“In farming it’s possible to be your own worst boss because you live where you work. You might have a weekend off but you look out the window and see something that needs fixing. There’s always another task in farming. It’s so hard to just drive down the road and put it behind you.
“No-one ever used to talk about wellbeing in farming. We’ve always talked endlessly about stock, pastures and fertilisers but staying well is an important part of farming too.
“The health stats in our industry aren’t flash.
“There are more financial pressures in farming now too. It’s a bigger game so we need to adopt a different mentality and do whatever it takes to make sure farmers get regular breaks. It just brightens you up and makes you feel better. Both of the events we organised were very simple to do. The hardest thing was getting started.
“The challenges in farming are never going away so we’ve got to look after ourselves because who else is going to do it? Getting people together. It all starts there. Even if you’re part of a good community you’ve got to push yourself to do things,” Smith said.
