Here are just a few of the media pieces covering the impact of Rural Leaders’ Programme Alumni in industries and communities across the sector.
Clare Bradley
Clare Bradley (Nuffield 2026).
AgriSea chief executive Clare Bradley is halfway through her scholarship and her question has moved. She started on whether modular and mobile processing helps new sectors scale, and is now looking at how countries talk about agriculture. For example, in Japan, agriculture is framed as nature. In New Zealand it’s framed as money, the backbone of the economy. Clare’s argument is that our economic frame is too narrow and fails to recognise the hospitality, the communities and the landscapes the sector supports. Her next six weeks of travel take her through Europe, the US and Australia, looking at where new industries scaled and where they failed.
Have a listen to the Rex podcast episode: Beyond the ‘engine room’; why NZ farming needs a new story.
Simon Cook
Simon Cook (Nuffield 2018).
Simon featured in Farmers Weekly on how his scholarship reshaped his view of leadership and biosecurity. The Te Puke kiwifruit and avocado grower lived a kilometre from where Psa disease was first detected and worked the frontline of the response, which settled his research topic.
During his scholarship, he visited fish farms in Dubai and dairy farms in France, but Florida left the strongest impression, with orchards cut to stumps by citrus greening. It made him appreciate how well the kiwifruit industry recovered here. Now on the HortNZ board, Simon calls Nuffield “a fantastic way of taking the blinkers off.”
Take a read of the Farmers Weekly article: Taking in the big picture changes grower’s view.
Matt Iremonger
Matt Iremonger (Nuffield 2023).
Matt is the cover story in the latest Irrigation Leader. He is general manager of Willesden Farms and Kaimoo Farms in Canterbury, 6,500 hectares of sheep, beef and dairy across irrigated and dryland country.
The interview covers Matt’s circumspect approach to new technology. Variable-rate irrigation took two to three years of consideration before rollout. Composting barns took nearly three years and farm visits across three countries. But where the return is proven, he moves fast. Matt also argues waste and inefficiency cost money as well as damaging the receiving environment.
Take a read of the Irrigation Leader article: Diversification and Technology Adoption.
Lisa Portas
Lisa Portas (Nuffield 2025, Kellogg 2019).
Lisa featured on RNZ’s Country Life on why strong wool has struggled to capture value despite being a sustainable fibre. Her Nuffield travels took her through the US, UK and Europe on around 50 flights last year. She calls the scholarship “a heck of an experience.”
Lisa found businesses taking their own clip right through to a finished product, but says that this path is closed to most farmers. What she went looking for instead were things a farmer could act on from the smoko table: wool sold alongside carbon credits, and procurement offices asking for soil testing and biodiversity metrics that New Zealand farmers already capture. Her message is to align what you already do with what the market values.
Have a listen to the Country Life podcast episode: Wonderful Wool: Nuffield scholar sees bright future for natural fibre.
Tracy Brown
Tracy Brown (Nuffield 2020).
On DairyNZ’s Talking Dairy, board chair Tracy Brown ran through the six priorities DairyNZ has set for the incoming government: resource management and freshwater, biosecurity funding, workforce, science and technology uptake, low-emissions technology and rural infrastructure, and animal welfare.
Her view is that election year gives the sector a rare window to shape the agenda, and that what farmers want is long-term certainty rather than short-term wins. Tracy also makes the case that environmental protection and productive farming aren’t competing goals: “a profitable farm provides a really good platform for excellent environmental progress.”
Have a listen to the Talking Dairy podcast episode #131: What farmers need from the next Government.
Julia Hardwick-Smith
Julia Hardwick-Smith (Kellogg 2026).
Julia featured on Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Scene + Heard podcast recently, discussing the Kellogg programme she completed as a 2026 Rural Advancement Scholarship recipient. Farming sheep and beef in Central Taranaki, she chose triplet lamb survivability as her research topic after her first year back on the family farm, where scanning hit 202% this season.
Her findings point to artificial rearing and indoor lambing as genuinely effective, with more farmer interest in both than she expected. She also found lower survivability weighing on farmers’ mental health, and recommends a national benchmark so farmers know what good actually looks like.
Jen Corkran
Jen Corkran (Kellogg 2023).
Rabobank’s senior animal protein analyst has been across rural media this month. On The Country with Jamie Mackay she covered beef mince at around $24/kg and households shifting to chicken and pork.
Have a listen to The Country: Rabobank’s Jen Corkran on the price of beef mince.
In Farmers Weekly’s coverage of the bank’s monthly analysis, she points to China’s management of its beef quota as the key variable for the rest of the year. Restrictions cut Australian exports to China from 28,000 tonnes in May to 9,000 in June. Chinese demand is still subdued, but New Zealand prices strengthened through July and June exports reached 51,344 tonnes. “NZ remains well positioned in a world where beef is increasingly scarce.”
Take a read of the Farmers Weekly article: Dairy Milk flowing strongly again from US dairy.
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins (Kellogg 2023).
Two appearances this month. On RNZ’s Nine to Noon, the Marlborough farmer and Federated Farmers meat and wool chair discussed farm succession: Rabobank puts 17,000 farm and orchard owners at pensionable age within the decade, and a $150 billion intergenerational transfer. Young farmers are showing renewed interest and banks are more willing to lend.
Have a listen to Richard: Nine to Noon (the 9:05am item).
Wearing his pest animal and weed spokesperson hat, Richard is also calling for a rethink on wilding conifers. A further $3 million of International Visitor Levy revenue for the control programme is welcome but won’t touch the problem, he says, describing the spread as “a ticking time bomb that’s about to blow.” Marlborough’s Branch and Leatham catchments, from a single seed source, are expected to cost more than $150 million to control. His fix is grazing concessions that put farmers back on the land.
James Parsons
James Parsons (Nuffield 2008).
James talked to Jo Grigg on Rex about SmartGraze, the virtual fencing consultancy he founded after leasing out his Kaipara farm and dispersing the Matauri Angus stud.
He rates virtual fencing the biggest change for hill country since topdressing and the electric fence, and still tells farmers to slow down. Water infrastructure has to be in the right places and stocking rate high enough to use the extra grass. James also talks about strong pasture gains, having grown an extra 1.45 tonnes of dry matter on a steep hill country paddock over eight months.
Have a listen to James on the Rex podcast episode: Should you get wearables for your beef cattle?
Di Roadley
Di Roadley (Kellogg 2026).
Di wrote for Farmers Weekly on her Kellogg research into catchment groups. The Wairoa sheep and beef farmer and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council member argues the greatest risk facing these groups is that governance expectations have outgrown the systems supporting them, with volunteer governors carrying professional-level responsibilities without professional-level support.
Take a read of the Farmers Weekly article: Catchment groups: goodwill isn’t enough anymore.
Luke Doyle
Luke Doyle (Kellogg 2026).
Luke Doyle was interviewed by Farmers Weekly about his Kellogg report on dairy progression pathways, in which he argues that too many farmers move into contract milking and sharemilking without the financial literacy or mentoring to succeed, and calls for an industry-recognised roadmap setting out the steps in advance.
Mat & Jana Hocken
Mat Hocken (Nuffield 2017).
Grassmere Dairy, the Manawatū operation Mat runs with Jana, featured in NZ Dairy’s Winter 2026 edition on returning sector confidence. The business now spans three dairy farms and a young stock unit after another property was added last year.
Production targets were exceeded across the farms. The new farm lifted production 61% and cut both SCC and lameness by 70%, enough to pay down debt and still reinvest in infrastructure and automation. Jana says the focus is a model that works in good years and bad, with a 2030/2090 strategy covering solar, riparian planting and soil health monitoring.
Take a read of the NZ Dairy article: Grassmere Dairy continue to expand their operation.
Jenna Smith
Jenna Smith (Nuffield 2024, Kellogg 2021).
Jenna featured in NZ Dairy Winter 2026, on the peatland research that took her through Europe, Asia and the Americas. A self-described “peat geek,” she is chief executive of Pouarua Farms on the Hauraki Plains, where drained peat is subsiding around 2cm a year.
Jenna’s finding is that while there’s no cookie-cutter solution to borrow from overseas, New Zealand’s peatlands were drained recently enough that rehabilitation may be more achievable here.
Sophie Henderson
Sophie Henderson (Kellogg 2017).
Sophie wrote an opinion piece for Rural News on the primary sector’s need for a director pipeline. People build local governance experience on school boards and community trusts, she writes, then find nothing at the next level. In 2024 she won a two-year associate directorship with Ovis Management Ltd, which promotes the control of sheep measles – exactly the sort of step she argues is missing.
Take a read of the Rural News article: Primary Sector Needs A Pipeline of Directors.
2026 Kellogg Graduates
Jacqui Hawtin, Leo Pekar, Kaylene Bennett, Robbie O’Brien.
Several of our Kellogg Programme 55 graduates have appeared on the CountryWide Connect show, discussing their areas of specialisation with Andy Thompson.
- Jacqui Hawtin – One Stop Profitability Shop and the tools farmers can use to better understand their farm’s performance. Watch video.
- Leo Pekar – Wearable technology on-farm and the strategy behind using cow bites as a management tool. Watch video.
- Kaylene Bennett – Invisible mental load a significant issue for rural women. Watch video.
- Robbie O’Brien – Varroa management planning among New Zealand beekeepers. Watch video.
