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A Kellogg Scholar’s insight into arable’s future in Canterbury

In this episode of Ideas That Grow, Bryan Gibson, Farmers Weekly Managing Editor, talks to Thomas Holmes, arable farmer and a 2024 Kellogg Scholar.

Thomas discusses his family farm’s evolution, overseas experience, his Kellogg research report and his Kellogg experience.

Thomas unpacks his report’s ‘what next’ view of arable farming in Canterbury.

He discusses profitability challenges, diversification, and integration with other sectors. Thomas advocates collaboration, mindset change, and leadership from younger farmers to adapt to climate, market, and technological shifts.

Listen to this episode of Ideas that Grow, or click on one of the platform icons below to listen on your favourite player:

Episode Transcript

You’ve joined the Ideas That Grow podcast, brought to you by Rural Leaders. In this series, we’ll be drawing on insights from innovative rural leaders to help plant ideas that grow so our regions can flourish. Ideas That Grow is presented in Association with Farmers Weekly.

Bryan Gibson, Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly:
You’re with Ideas That Grow, the Rural Leaders podcast. I’m Bryan Gibson, the Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly, your host, as always. With me on the show this week, we’ve got a very recent Kellogg scholar, Thomas Holmes, arable farmer from Canterbury. G’day, Thomas. How’s it going?

Thomas Holmes, Arable Farmer, 2024 Kellogg Scholar:
Good, thank you. How are you doing?

BG: Pretty good. You did the Kellogg programme just last year?

TH: Yes, I was in cohort one in 2024, #52 was our cohort. It’s still fairly fresh in the mind.

BG: Have you recovered?

TH: I think the brain has. It’s a lot. It’s a full-on programme. You can’t really mentally prepare for it. It’s one thing going in there with all these perceived ideas, but it’s another just sitting there and listening. It’s very eye-opening. It takes a lot of time.

Family Farm Background and Evolution

BG: You’re obviously an arable farmer. Tell me a little bit about your journey there. Did you grow up on a farm?

TH: Yes. I’m a fifth-generation mixed-growing farmer in Methven. My family has been there for coming up 150 years, one of the founding families of the local township. The farm has decreased over the generations. It started off at around 6000 acres. We’re now down to about 550. It’s the journey of succession and having a farm for a long time. It gets smaller and has changed a lot.

I guess when I was on the farm full-time, we were doing mixed arable, so just doing many crops, about 300 hectares of crops, 650 bull beef. So, finishing to 600kg plus and 2000 lambs. But recently, in the last year, we’ve downscaled. Just the family farm’s left, so it’s about 220 hectares. It’s a never-ending change, really. What’s next? There’s a lot going on in the industry, and it’s working out what, individually, you can do.

Career Path and International Experience

BG: Did you always know or want to carry on the family farm?

TH: I did the typical Lincoln Uni, Ag-Sci. I went farming straight out of uni. I did various jobs overseas and here, everything from large-scale arable farming in the UK, in Canada, and a big beef finishing farm in Scotland. I’ve dabbled in robotic milking, did a little bit of organic cropping, and then worked on a large-scale farm in Dore, which gets all the processed vegetables, and then the family farm.

I’ve always wanted to be a farmer, and I think it’s a fantastic career. Obviously, at the moment, the arable industry is at a lull. I think it’s still a fantastic industry. Growing crops, growing animals, I think it’s probably the best job in the world, but it just doesn’t pay that well at the moment, so you have to do everything that you can to make it work.

Kellogg Research Focus: The Future of Arable Farming

BG: Touching on your Kellogg report, you look to see some ways for the success of arable farming in Canterbury in the future. Obviously, as you mentioned, times are pretty tough for arable farmers right now. But what brought you to that topic?

TH: I wanted to really dive into the sector. It wasn’t necessarily the dynamics. It was more about ‘what next for the sector’ because the profitability side of things has not improved for a long time. It’s been hidden with growers increasing yield to basically beat inflation, and inflation has caught up. We’re in a situation where we can’t really out-compete inflation. There needs to be more options available to growers, whether it’s different crops or different opportunities that aren’t necessarily arable.

I guess it got me thinking, ‘where do growers see themselves in the next 25-50 years?’ I was looking at my career, lifetime and beyond. It’s really easy to look a year ahead or two years ahead. But I thought, well, why don’t we just push it to 25-50, because people don’t think like that, necessarily. And this industry is very much on the point where they are at a crossroads. They need to make some real dramatic changes to actually improve the profitability for the growers to enable them to still do what they love to do, and that’s grow crops. They’re mixed, so they have animals, but predominantly, their passions are machinery and growing crops for the end users.

I think that’s what really drove me to look at ‘what next for the industry’, where are we going and where are the opportunities as a sector as growers. To work together was my thing, being involved in a few discussion groups. With FAR Growers Leading Change groups, it’s really important to have those connections and talk to growers of similar ages and stages, and some of them are of similar sizes and bigger, but they’re all in that same boat of ‘what does the arable sector look like’, because you can’t just keep on doing what we’re doing.

Farmer Perspectives: Looking 25-50 Years Ahead

BG: You mentioned that we’re not very good at thinking further out, and you were looking 25 to 50 years. What was the range of views you got when you talked to arable farmers?

TH: For a lot of them, they were taken back by that view, because at that current time, last year, we had one of the wettest harvests in history, and people were pretty, dare I say, depressed and a little bit in a slump. It wasn’t the best timing to do a Kellogg, but I knew it was going to be a challenge to talk to them. Because from my opinion, when you’re in the lowest point, you usually make some very strategic decisions because you need to. You can’t carry on doing what you’re doing, so you’ve got to get out of the hole and change. A lot of them were like, ‘we’re looking at diversification. We’re looking at off-farm income in some way, shape, or form’.

And then there was guys that were looking at doing berry fruits or apples. They looked at the analysis. At the moment, it doesn’t work for them, but they’re looking beyond arable, a lot of them. And some of the guys that I interviewed are already at that stage, they’re doing processed vegetables, they’re doing onions, potatoes, carrots, and their specialty seeds as well. But they’re looking beyond arable because the margins just don’t stack up. But they’re important to be part of any rotation. You need your cereals, you need your grass, you need clover in your crop rotation to keep the system going, but it wasn’t necessarily their money maker. It’s a harsh reality of things and I think growers understand that. There’s a lot that do deer grazing or beef animals, a lot do lamb finishing when it stacks up financially.

So they’re always doing something different to enable them to do what they love. And I think that’s the key point. And maybe that takes away the value of ‘I’m an arable farmer’, but the reality is, you’re still an arable farmer, you’re just going to be a very diverse arable farmer – more integrated with multi-different revenues coming off farm. And Arable might not bring a lot to the table. But at the core, I think that’s where people get a bit frustrated, because it’s what they love, and it’s a hard thing to watch. But you’ve got to make the right choices.

Key Recommendations: Integration and Collaboration

BG: Obviously, there was diversity of opinion amongst the people you talked to. You wrapped it all up in your report and came up with a set of recommendations?

Integration with Other Agricultural Sectors

TH: My recommendations for the industry was looking at when you become more integrated as a sector, and we’re already well-integrated into dairy with providing your specialty seeds, so your grass, your clovers, your straw. A lot do grazing. So you’re already there. There’s opportunities to be more integrated into your chicken and pig operations. I think there’s a real opportunity for the likes of your trading of straw for nutrients. The one thing that crop farmers need is nutrients to grow crops, and it might not be the usual thing, but it’s a common practise overseas to spread cattle muck and pig muck and chicken muck. And it’s not really a common practise here in the arable sense. I think it’s that trading of nutrients. It’s looking at how we can integrate into their supply chains and be part of that because, individually, Arables is not going to do it, and we need to be smart about that.

Breaking Down Competitive Barriers

TH: Another one was probably looking at collaboration. I think the big thing with the industry being so small, we’re very competitive, we’re very individualistic. We compete for contracts. It gets pretty cutthroat at points, especially when there’s not a lot of contracts around. Some clover markets, especially, are very tightly held, very contestable, and at the moment, still in a slump overseas with oversupply from Europe and America. We’re looking at another year or so of actual tough times.

I think that’s where, in the industry, groups need to actually form to collaborate, whether that’s through sharing machinery, going together to buy input costs, to go bulk, to get a little bit cheaper deals, share chemistry. That mindset, I think, really needs to change because we’re so focused on doing our own stuff, growing our own crops. When the reality is, I’m in a group of ten people, different farms within ten kilometres of Methven, and we’re all pretty similar sizes, similar operations. There’s a little bit of difference, obviously, but there’s no reason why we can’t actually work together.

You could buy a bigger machine, cultivator, and go cultivate all these guys’ crops. We’ll do the ground prep and all that stuff. You could just do that. Builders don’t just do our own thing. It’s just very set. It comes down to control, but also it’s your farm, you do what you want to do. But that’s the mindset that I think needs to change of where we can actually work in together, help each other out, actually spread the costs over a large area. And contractors do that. That’s why they’re so successful in terms of their scale, because they’ve got so much land they’re actually covering, doing various jobs with people that don’t have time.

Overcoming Traditional Barriers

TH: Farmers just don’t do that. They don’t seem to do it. I think it becomes too hard because if you own a piece of machinery with somebody and someone breaks it, then it gets into a bit of a fight on who’s paying for what. Maybe there needs to be systems in place that you can just split the costs. That’s why a number of growers are involved in it. It’s just this simple mindset change that I just don’t think is there, but it needs to be.

The Challenge of Farm Independence Culture

BG: It comes up a lot, and it’s often a hurdle that’s hard to clear in the food and fibre sector. It goes back to that traditional feeling of whatever’s inside the boundary of these fences is mine, and I am the sovereign of what happens here. People have trouble taking advice from people that maybe they don’t trust or having the government tell them how to do things. That’s a pretty hard barrier to break through.

TH: Yes, I think so. But if you go back 100 years or so, you had 50 men and women on your farm doing your work for you. Why is that any different? It’s just in a modern context. But I feel it’s just the community has changed. Over time, obviously, you’ve got different people coming in and out. Farm communities are very tight, but they’re not tight in the respect that they’re actually working together. There’s obviously aspects of it across the country, and there’s communities that are doing really well, and they do work together, but I don’t see it enough, especially in the arable sector.

I question a lot, and it’s more what can you do about it to make some of these things actually improve the bottom line? Because ultimately, it is about the bottom line for arable. I think that was the main challenge: profitability. A lot of these opportunities are about helping to solve profitability, not necessarily entirely solve the profitability issue. It’s not going to be one thing. It’s going to have to be a magnitude of things to actually make any real change.

Personal Leadership Development Through Kellogg

BG: Now, as well as the scholar report, obviously, the Kellogg programme is focused on leadership development. How has that changed you? How do you approach life and work now you’ve got these tools in the toolkit?

TH: For me, I just take any opportunity I can to do projects. For work, to use the knowledge that I’ve got, but also to just put my hand up for things. Locally, I’m involved with my local catchment group. It’s in the farm, it goes through the farm. We’ve got a bit of a potential flooding issue with the creek. It’s just actively getting involved in the community a bit more. Also just keeping involved in those Grower Leading Change groups is really important to keep a bit more stabilisation on what’s going on on the ground. For me, long term, it’s looking at opportunities in leadership. I think there needs to be more people, dare I say, my age on those boards because we are the future.

The reality is people my age and younger than me are the ones that are going to be farming in the next 35 to 40 years, 50 years. It’s actually getting their opinions across, and I think that’s probably something that I’m very passionate about, actually getting our seat at the table and getting our opinions heard because we haven’t got 30 or 40 years life experience or business experience. You’ve got to start somewhere and I think that’s really about putting your hand up and not being afraid to actually just try things. Well, this podcast. I think it’s good to be able to get your opinion across. It’s a different way of messaging, really.

The Need for Disruption and Adaptation

BG: Like you say, your studies discovered that there needed to be some change or some new thinking in the arable sector. It takes people to usher that in or help get that message across and get the wheels turning for that to happen.

Adapting to Climate and Market Changes

TH: I think so. You’ve got to disrupt the system. It’s not necessarily about criticising what the system is. It’s about actually looking at, well, ‘are we fit for purpose? Do we actually need to change?’ And the reality is we do. And I think that’s been pretty apparent in the last decade with the likes of trade, the likes of volatility we’ve had with the weather, the way harvests have been. We need to change how we do things because we’re not getting the same climatic conditions that we had in the early 1980s and 1990s. The Nor’westers aren’t as prominent. We’re not actually getting the great harvest of those days. It’s certainly not as hot where I am in summer as it used to be.

We need to change how we farm with all that technology and what’s coming for us. I think there’s plenty of other opportunities for arable to be part of that story, whether it’s plant proteins or these new food trends that are coming forward. We need to be part of that story instead of just the guys that grow grain and seed, because we are more from that. I think that’s where we need to actually put a hand up and try. I think that’s probably really taking us off the farm a bit more than we’re comfortable with, because the reality is we need to go beyond what we’re doing. It is changing your mindset and it’s not an easy thing to do.

The Value of Being Challenged

TH: For me, Kellogg has definitely changed my mindset because you become so siloed and rigid in your own thoughts because you just get so set in what you do and how you think, and you think you’re right, and you get challenged. I think it’s fantastic to get challenged because there’s so many people with different opinions from various backgrounds, it just really gives you an open mind. Because no one’s right. It’s just actually just listening to someone else’s opinion. Regardless whether you disagree with it or not, I think it’s actually just it gives you that understanding of where they’re coming from and why they think like that.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be challenged. I think that in the Ag sector in New Zealand, they need to be challenged because I don’t think they’re necessarily adapting to what is happening out there. I think it is pretty hard to change at the speed that things are going, especially with the tech and the way supply chains are working and the market’s always changing. It is hard, but we need to be a bit more nimble instead of reactive, I think.

Recommendation for the Kellogg Programme

BG: Having more colleagues with that mindset, AKA, going through the Kellogg programme, would be good, so, something you’d recommend to others?

TH: Yes, 100%. I think the Kellogg programme is a fantastic programme. It not only challenges you on your thoughts and your views, but it just gives you an eye into what the food and fibre sector is beyond your sector. You’re in it with like-minded people. It’s a really enjoyable process. I think the big part of it is actually just the networking, the talking to industry leaders in the Chatham House rules sense, where you can get some real open discussions, where you don’t get that in the real world. I think that’s one of the beauties of Kellogg. It opens a lot of doors. I got a lot of interviews just based on that I was doing Kellogg, obviously, being an average farmer helped.

But I think people just love the programme. They think it’s a really great programme. It’s a good thing to do if you want to push yourself to try something different and find a project. If you got a project that you really want to find something about, just do it. I think it’s a great thing to do. Don’t be afraid to change your mind on it either because I think you get challenged, you get on it, and it’s a good learning process.

BG: Thanks for listening to Ideas That Grow, a Rural Leaders podcast presented in Association with Farmers Weekly.

Find out more about Ideas That Grow.

Hamish Gow – Inside the Value Chain Innovation Programme

In this episode of The CountryWide Podcast, Sarah Perriam-Lampp talks with Lincoln University’s Professor Hamish Gow about the Value Chain Innovation Programme, delivered by Rural Leaders.

Hamish explains how the programme takes participants inside New Zealand’s dairy, kiwifruit, apple and red meat sectors to understand how value is created, captured and shared, and why the real learning happens on the bus as farmers, entrepreneurs and industry leaders connect and challenge their thinking.

Listen to the episode below, or click on one of the platform icons below to listen on your favourite player:

CountryWide Podcast Transcript

Sarah Perriam-Lampp, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, CountryWide:
Welcome to another episode of the CountryWide podcast, and catching up with one of my favourite people, Hamish Gow from Lincoln University. Today we’re going to talk about the Value Chain Innovation Programme, something that I absolutely loved doing a few years ago. I’m sure it’s evolved a little bit from the first one?

But I’m really keen to hear about what everyone gets up to on the programme because the deadline to submit your application for 2026 is coming up soon. So, Hamish, can you tell us a little bit about the programme and how it’s evolved?

Hamish Gow, Professor, Lincoln University:
Well, it hasn’t really evolved a lot, right? Because it’s designed to give the participants a model or framework to be able to understand and evaluate value chains and how we create value in those value chains. Then we walk through the four major value chains in New Zealand, two in the livestock sector and two in horticulture.

The Four Value Chains

HG: We walk through the dairy value chain and analyse and evaluate how Fonterra creates economic value for farmers and how that comes back to them. We then walk through the Zespri value chain and look at how that brings value back to both the orchard owners as well as into the other members of it, which are the packhouses, and understand that model. We then look at the apple industry and how that creates value for the growers.

Then finally, we look at the red meat sector and understand how value comes back to farmers and producers in the red meat sector. And around the edges of that, we look at government support, regulation, and legislation, and how that’s enabled some of them and caused constraints on them, and then technology, and how that’s supporting it as well.

It hasn’t changed a lot from when you went on, the only difference is, we’ve gone in reverse. We used to start in Hamilton with the dairy sector and work to the Hawke’s Bay and end with apples. Now we’re starting in the Hawke’s Bay with apples and working our way through to Hamilton and ending with the dairy sector.

Target Participants

SPL: For those who are unfamiliar with it, this is a programme run as part of the Rural Leaders organisation (they look after Kellogg and Nuffield). It is really for quite a wide range of people, getting farmers and growers to look beyond the farm gate, isn’t it? As well as those who work in the sector to fully understand the vertical integration of a value chain.

HG: Yes, it’s aimed at both people who are directors and senior leaders within the industry. So it could be farmers, it could be people inside the processing facilities, it could be marketers who are trying to understand it, it could be entrepreneurs, as well as the government players who are supporting as well as the input providers, bankers, insurance providers, fertilisers, etc.

Core Learning Framework

HG: It really gives you this end-to-end understanding all the way from the basic inputs all the way through to understanding the market and how we really create economic value for our customer in the market. It’s also, what’s the mechanisms that we use to be able to capture that value and then share that across everyone in the value chain? And that’s the key piece is really understanding not just that this is how it all operates, but then this is the mechanisms that are used to be able to create value, capture that value, and then share that value and how that gets shared back to everyone.

And what makes some channels work in one way versus other channels work in a different manner or form. We look at three basic models of value chains.

Intellectual Property Insights

SPL: It really does open your eyes, particularly if you are quite industry-centric in your day-to-day – If you’re really in the dairy industry or sheep and beef and don’t really understand as much about horticulture. I took away so much, and there’s lots of little gems, Hamish, but one of them was I’d never appreciated plant licencing and breeding and how that IP is controlled and how that flows through the value chain.

HG: Absolutely. In the horticulture industry, that’s the key way that they capture value, because it stops people trying to copy them. We’ve got two different models. We’ve got a model that operates within the kiwifruit industry, which is everyone combined within Zespri. And then Zespri owns the IP. Zespri doesn’t own a lot of things, but it owns all the IP around the plant variety rights for the gold kiwifruit, for the Sungold. And then it also operates in a slightly different model in the apple industry. And that’s the real two key pieces. It’s those plant variety rights which give them protection for an extended period of time and allow them to build a value chain that creates economic value, allows them to capture it and then return it back to the owners of their IP. But also they have a sharing mechanism which allows them to share it across the growers and the other players along that channel.

Rethinking Value Creation

SPL: The other major thing I realised, which is really interesting timing with the sale of Fonterra’s consumer brands, is how a lot of these supply chains are built to not actually have value, because it’s more around operational efficiency and that is the value.

HG: Yes, lots of people are only now coming to the grips with this. In New Zealand government, we’ve had this whole idea about value add, but we don’t actually understand it. Our naïve perspective of value add, is just put a brand on things and sell it to a customer. But there’s a whole lot of value to be created by being the provider of the highest quality ingredients. Therefore, that allows your customers, the processor/food manufacturer, to be able to run their systems a lot more efficiently and deliver a lot more consistent product to their customer.

It’s very expensive to go and work with a final consumer, but stepping back from that and delivering the best quality inputs to them, which are really, really consistent, allows them to operate way more efficiently. There’s huge value opportunities there, which is what Fonterra does. Fonterra is this amazing producer of high-quality specialty ingredients that the top food companies absolutely require from us. And that’s always one of the ‘a-ha moments’ that comes out of it. People realise we don’t actually need all of these brands. We actually spend a lot of money on them.

Global Market Reality

HG: It’s easy to do branding when you’re selling to your own domestic consumers. But New Zealand is the only developed country in the world for which their primary market is not a domestic consumer. Therefore, there’s 180 countries in the world that we sell to. And there’s thousands, well, actually tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of different markets across all those countries that we sell to. It’s very difficult from a branding standpoint to really understand who that customer is and what we need to do with them.

They’re in a different country, different culture, different language, different institutional structures. Often, it’s an ingredient space that actually creates us the greatest value. That’s where we’re creating most of our economic wealth in New Zealand, without us knowing that.

Preparation for International Engagement

SPL: For those who have been fortunate to go in market overseas, what I’ve taken away from it, is how you’ve structured it so that the Nuffielders do the Value Chain tour before they do go overseas, which means that you actually understand your own backyard. So, you’re informed on a value chain before you go in market overseas. Many of us don’t actually understand that piece, do we?

HG: Yes, we often know our little wee piece of the value chain, but we don’t actually understand how a whole value chain operates or works. We know how to make money in our piece, but we don’t actually understand how all the pieces of the puzzle all connect together and collectively how they create value. Then, because we don’t understand that, we don’t actually understand our adjacent value chains, how they operate and how they make money.

Mental Models for Analysis

HG: And so we make assertions about them, which are really assumptions, and they’re actually incorrect. And so it’s only when you walk and understand those different models that they have, that you’ve got this ability to be able to engage and learn and understand how you make money in your value chain. But then you can start looking at other value chains that are operating out there in the world, both in New Zealand, but also overseas. Because effectively, we simplify it down to basically three different models that run.

And that’s the key thing. Once you get it down to that level, you can look at almost any value chain and go, ‘that’s this type of value chain. How’s that different from the ones we’ve looked at? It’s different in this way.’ Suddenly, you’ve got this mental model that you can use and make sense of.

Programme Success Stories

SPL: What have been some of the highlights for you on the programme? It’s been three times you’ve run it? If you think about the people that have been through the programme, that you’ve seen real ‘a-ha moments’ or anything that’s come from it that’s been impressive?

HG: We’ve had a couple of key players who came through, were both chairmen of the boards of a startup on this last programme with a range of farmer suppliers coming into it. They had a massive answer to a-has, and you watched them as their mind changed with the way that they could articulate what they were doing and how they could share that to all of their constituent farmer suppliers.

But also how they could communicate what they were doing to their key industry partners who were processing for them to help them understand how they were doing stuff and the way they were running their business model and value chain and how that differentiated from their market partners, so they weren’t actually in competition with each other.

Organisational Alignment

HG: So that was a really important a-ha, and they suddenly had the power to be able to have a conversation with all those different stakeholders and help them understand how they were different and what that meant for them strategically. And what that meant for them as far as investment goes, how they could communicate with everyone. I’ve watched that happen since the last programme.

They came through… it was this a-ha moment. Now you just watch how their communication and the alignment and getting everyone to… it’s like a rowing eight. They’ve got everyone rowing together in the same direction at the same stroke rate, and they’re just pulling ahead as a result of that. It’s fantastic. It’s got everyone throughout the organisation, all the way from the board through management, to all of their strategic partners, all the way back to the farmers.

They are now all lifting together as they row that eight forward all in the same direction. Before, they were actually going against each other and they were crabbing at times. Now, it’s a smooth drive forward.

Learning Environment

SPL: Lovely analogy. The power is in the visits, but the magic happens on the bus, isn’t it?

HG: Yes, the experience where you look at things is on the visits, but the power and the real engagement and magic is on the bus and the group of people on the bus. The bus becomes our learning environment, it’s our safe haven. What I act as is the ‘honest broker’ to be able to facilitate the discussion and the debate as we go on the bus and we unpack what we’ve seen. But we also help set up what we’re expecting to see. Then people go in there and they look at it and they go, ‘actually, that’s not what I expected’.

Then we unpack where that conflict occurs. That’s really powerful. It’s those discussions and debates as you go along on the bus, that’s where all the power is. That’s where everyone has that real aha moment as they make sense of that. And not only make sense of what they’ve seen, but it’s this application of ‘how does that apply to my business that I run and my value chain that I’m operating in’ and asking hard questions about how you do things and how they need to operate.

Programme Details and Networking

SPL: And you make some fantastic friends. I ended up going to one of their weddings because he married my friend. So that was really nice. But really great networking as well of different people across the city that you probably wouldn’t meet otherwise. For those who are interested, it will run between the 8-14 of February, 2026. Applications will close on the 23rd of November 2025. We’ll put a link in the description below so that you can get all of the information.

It is a five-day tour, and as Hamish said, starting in the Hawke’s Bay and ending in Hamilton. You’re with your group the entire time, staying at various places, and then on the bus, as he was saying there. Thank you very much for your time, Hamish. I look forward to following who ends up on the programme next year. There’s lots of familiar faces, and just Hearing from them firsthand afterwards is pretty inspiring, and just around how much their mind has been blown.

To apply for the 2026 Value Chain Innovation Programme (runs 8-14 February) head to the Rural Leaders site.

Hamish Murray podcast - Building stronger on-farm teams

Hamish Murray: Building stronger on-farm teams by getting out of the way.

Supported by our investing partners, the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust is privileged to help grow many of our sector’s capable and purpose-driven leaders.

A key aspect of the Kellogg Programme (and the Nuffield Scholarship) is research based learning. The clarity of thought and confidence the research component of Kellogg promotes can be hugely transformative.

The Kellogg Rural Scholars Series booklets are distillations of this research – each focussing on a selection of reports covering one industry or topic.

Currently, there are five booklets in the series, with this latest issue being ‘Leadership Insights’.

Leadership Insights contains twelve reports spanning the last 7 years.

The reports in ‘Leadership Insights’ cover such topics as: Leadership During a Crisis, Emotional Intelligence, the Qualities and Characteristics of Good Leadership, and the Effect of Good Leadership on Staff Engagement and Retention.

These reports were written by scholars: Jack Dwyer, Jordi Hoult, Cheyenne Wilson, Louis Batley, Brian Henderson, Melisssa King, Henry MacIntosh, Jason Halford, Sophie Malone, Joanna Greaves, Hayden Dunne, Nick de Ridder.

You can view Leadership Insights here.

If you would like to grow as a leader; exploring research into a food and fibre topic of your choosing, apply for 2026 Kellogg Programme One by 19 October.

To learn more head here.

Kerry Worsnop shares Scholarship experience at Nuffield 75th.

Nuffield Farming Scholarships celebrated 75 years in New Zealand last Thursday.

100+ Scholars and their partners gathered for dinner, to hear from an excellent line-up of speakers and of course, chat.

Kate Scott, NZRLT Board Chair (2018 Scholar) opened and spoke on the impact of Nuffield Scholars before introducing host Hon Todd McClay.

Julian Raine (1997 Scholar) and Kerry Worsnop (2023 Scholar), spoke about their Nuffield experiences including some of the challenges overcome and unique opportunities encountered.

You can read Kerry’s speech below.

One of the most important moments of the night was an announcement by the Hopkins family.

John Hopkins,1979 Nuffield Scholar, passed in 2022. John and wife Elaine, gave generously to the Nuffield Programme over the years. This generosity included providing a Scholarship for Ben Anderson, 2021 Nuffield Scholar.

John and Elaine’s son and granddaughter, Andrew and Chelsea Hopkins, attended the dinner. Chelsea announced they would again support a Scholar onto Nuffield.

Here’s an excerpt from Chelsea’s LinkedIn post that echoes her excellent speech on the night:

“… My grandfather, John Hopkins was a 1979 Nuffield Scholar. I have fond memories of him telling me how the scholarship transformed him and the lasting impact it had on his life. I was lucky enough to share his story with the attendees last night and for this I am truly grateful.

To give back to the programme that gave us so much, we are providing a scholarship for 2026 Nuffield Scholars to support the next generation of agricultural leaders.

Being a part of last night’s celebration was super special for Dad and I. It was a reminder that life’s moments, although sometimes small, can have big impacts. This is a night I won’t forget.

A big thank you to Lisa Rogers, Rural Leaders and Kate Scott for the invite and making us feel so welcome.”

Andrew and Chelsea Hopkins are pictured below (image 4).

Images are: 1 – Hon Todd McClay. 2 – Owen Jennings (1980), Craige Mackenzie (2008). Lucy Griffiths (2014) Ben Hancock (2019). 3 – Gavan Herlihy (1985), Nick Tripe (1967), Richard Davison (1986). 4. Andrew and Chelsea Hopkins. 5 – Ian Mackenzie (1993). 6 – Marise James (1998), Don McFarlane (1981). 7 – Hon Damien O’Connor, Allan Richardson (1998). 8 – Don McFarlane, Ronny Percy, Nick Tripe, Elizabeth Davison, Richard Davison. 9 – Hon Denis Marshall (1983), Martin Nelson (1983). Bryn James, Brian Smith.

You can read Kerry Worsnop’s speech from the 75^th Dinner below. It was an excellent speech that may be useful for those considering a Nuffield NZ farming Scholarship in 2026.

Take a read, it gives some great insight into what to expect.

Scholarships are open until 17 August.

Kerry Worsnop, 75th Nuffield dinner speech, Parliament.

I applied for a Nuffield scholarship at one minute to midnight on the night that applications closed in 2022, having pitched it to my husband at about 9.30 that night.

Now because he’s used to me doing random things, Marcus just rolled his eyes, sort of shrugged, told me to do what I wanted and said he was going to bed.

On reflection, had my application not been so last minute, I would likely never have submitted it. The fact that I did set in chain a sequence of events that will forever make 2023 a pivotal year in my life. And that is without accounting for the two cyclones.

That’s another story.

Now for you poor souls who have had two- or maybe five doses of my research, you’ll be pleased to know that I’m not going to ram it down your throats again. But what I am going to do, is give you a little bit of my journey and in it, hopefully you recall some of your own.

I left New Zealand like many of you will have, wondering what in the hell I was doing, feeling overwhelmed with the magnitude of what I was attempting, and amazing that anyone was crazy enough to fund it.

I had no idea how to hustle meetings with foreign dignitaries, executives, scholars and all the others whose knowledge I would need to augment my own.

But like all of you – I would learn.

I learned that every no, was one step closer to a yes. That every connection can yield three more and most remarkably, that my own knowledge would become a form of currency, the medium of exchange valued by those whose own curiosity would draw them into a room with me.

I learned the value of being able to trade in ideas, to appreciate something I can only describe as intellectual alchemy.

My questions took me to Washington, Pennsylvania, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands and others. 11 countries in all.

I stayed in basements, slept in hostels – had one very dodgy experienced accidentally being the only female in a sardine can room with 7 men from all corners of the world.

I missed flights, misplaced luggage and got lost on numerous occasions – but only once did I end up in the wrong city attempting to board the wrong ferry. Naturally – another Nuffielder put me up for night on half-an-hours’ notice, and on I went.

I met people like Guy Peters, the godfather of public policy research who himself had no real reason to meet me – beyond the fact that New Zealand was fascinating to him.

I found myself in incredible situations, an exclusive cocktail party with US senators, meeting the UK’s agriculture minister, in rooms with countless officials, public servants and farmer organisations and farmers themselves.

I marvelled at how many people made time for me and the generosity of spirit that every Nuffielder I met seemed to share.

For the rest of my life I will never forget the two days I spent with Dorothy Fairburn in Yorkshire, or the lengths that Katlyn Cruiskburg went to, to host me in Canada.

Of course no Nuffield would be complete without someone being sick in a suitcase after too many vodka shots (it wasn’t me) and the painful test of everyone’s social endurance that is the GFP program.

It doesn’t matter if you visited Argentina, Ireland, Poland and France as I did, or India, China and Zimbabwe as others have, the universal truth is that our humanity and the land itself connects us.

I applaud Nuffield NZ for ensuring the GFP’s are an integral part of the journey and I maintain the ultimate test of your capacity – is can you still be talking some kind of sense at midnight when your host is still in fine form but you’re on day 26 of your GFP and it’s your turn to be leader, so you can’t go to bed.

And this is where the rubber hits the road. As New Zealand scholars, we have a clear expectation set for us and we understand our role as ambassadors for our country and for this organisation.

I expect that of all the scholars world wide, New Zealanders are the least likely to go to bed when the host still wants to talk, and we are the most likely to ask questions when someone needs to show an interest, even if it’s the 500^th dairy farm visit.

New Zealand Rural Leaders Trust sets the standard and it’s Nuffield program stands alone in offering a truly life changing experience. Much like the Greek myth of Odysseus, once we have wondered the word in search of answers we can not help but return changed.

In accepting a New Zealand Nuffield scholarship you agree to explore parts of the word, and parts of yourself that you may never have reached alone.

In return Nuffield in this country defends the space for your conclusions. They did this for me, and likely, for most of you.

I can not emphasise enough the value in this.

Not every country offers this. I spent time with scholars agonising over the fact that their conclusion were increasingly at odds with the business model of their sponsor, I spent time with others for whom getting the sponsorship itself predetermined their research topic.

In New Zealand our most curious minds are entirely free to search the world for answers and when they return, they are free to speak whatever truth they find.

This is exceptionally rare in a world where research funding is thin and increasingly political and where commercial interests often guard the doors.

Our sponsors deserve great recognition and immense gratitude for their willingness to support such impartiality, which no doubt at times may have been at odds their own interests.

So my message to all those who deliver this program and to those who support it, you have created something precious and rare, and this country is ultimately the better for it.

Thank you.

Alumni in the Spotlight – Marise James, Amber Carpenter, Iain Inglis, and more.

Here are just a few of the media pieces covering the impact of Rural Leaders’ Programme Alumni in industries and communities across the sector.

Marise James, 1998 Nuffield Scholar

This is one we missed. Former Fonterra director Marise James told Dairy News that the future of the dairy industry depends upon the direction of travel with respect to climate change.

Marise says, “Farming has always been the backbone of the New Zealand economy, seeing us through really tough times and creating a place in the world that recognises the value of high-quality food, fibre and health production.”

Read the article here.

Carlos Bagrie, 2024 Nuffield Scholar

Carlos was in Farmers Weekly a couple of weeks ago encouraging a national conversation on what other options NZ’s economy may have to enjoy stronger economic growth.

Talking to Farmers Weekly, Carlos said, “Our growth in agriculture is pretty much looking to be more linear than exponential heading into the future. It is not that there are not gains still to be made, it’s just those gains are more seconds than minutes in terms of performance lift.”

Read the article here.

Iain Inglis, 2024 Kellogg Scholar

CountryWide spoke to Iain Inglis, about his Kellogg research report ‘Better cattle handling: For people, product and perception’.

Iain covers off three opportunities that come from Low stress handling – improved operational efficiency, enhanced meat quality, and a safer working environment for handlers.

Read the article here.

Sarah How, 2019 Kellogg Scholar

Sarah How was featured recently in Alumni in the Spotlight, but we missed this article in Sheperdess. Sarah is the co-founder of Landify, a platform which connects farmers with potential partners and investors to explore collaborative opportunities in farming.

The April article talks about her background, the Landify story, and on being a finalist for the 2025 Zanda McDonald Award.

Read the article here.

Amber Carpenter, 2018 Kellogg Scholar

Amber featured on page 92 of the latest NZ dairy magazine. Amber and her husband Fraser, have recently purchased a digital marketing business to sit alongside Grass Roots Media, also owned by the couple.

Take a read of Amber’s story here.

Kellogg Programme One 2025 (K53) graduate.

Congratulations Programme One 2025. 18-inperson days in Lincoln and in Wellington, one research report, one presentation of said research report, tens of insights sessions from industry leaders, workshops, reflections, at least 22 new friendships, and much more.

This graduation marked the completion of the research component of Kellogg. Scholars presented their work to the cohort throughout their phase three. Their reports will be made available on the Rural Leaders’ site in the next two weeks.

The graduation ceremony was held in Lincoln University’s Memorial Hall. Thank you to Lincoln University (NZ) for the use of this incredible space.

Lisa Rogers, Rural Leaders CEO got the graduation ceremony started, introducing new Rural Leaders Associate Trustee, Katie Rodwell (2019 Scholar).

Katie spoke to the graduates about the transformation the programme had created for her. Katie discussed the critical thinking skills, networks and connection that are developed on Kellogg, and encouraged the group to stay connected and to lean into any opportunities for growth.

This cohort’s reports will be shared with investing partners for a first preview, then more widely soon after.

As a heads-up, scholars and their report topics (under broad theme headings) are as follows:

Environmental management in agriculture.

Adam Williamson
Water quality in the Amuri basin – where are we at?

Jodie Goudswaard
Balancing profit and environment: Insights from New Zealand’s leading dairy farms.

Cameron Walker
Enhancing on-farm carbon stocks.

Jess Ross
Softer Crop Protection, The Way of The Future?

The business of agriculture and horticulture.

Michele Cranefield
From Seed to Success – Transitioning Farm Ownership in New Zealand – The Ownership Equation: Exiting with Value, Entering with Vision.

Emma Harvey
Opportunities within New Zealand agri-tourism.

Kurt Harmer
Dairy diversification into raw and pasteurised milk sales.

Pare Taikato
The opportunity cost to New Zealand of under-developed whenua Māori.

Malinda Wynyard
Building diversity in New Zealand dairy export markets for independent manufacturers.

Grant Kay
Dairy farmers love sharing data…but there is a ‘but’.

Sam Connor
Partnerships within the food and fibre sector: do they return value to the farm gate?

Kaitlin Bates
Smart Nutrition, Stronger Herds: A Holistic Approach to NZ Dairy Excellence.

Matt Ward
How can we maximise profitability in our decreasing ewe flock?

Daniel Judd
The soils gap: Interactions between culture, research and fertiliser.

Developing our people and communities.

Emma Weston
Career satisfaction and job retention for front line vets in government roles.

Katrina Roberts
Dairy farmer-female veterinary advisor relationships in New Zealand: Identifying the key attributes of a flourishing partnership.

Morgan Jones
How do we develop financial literacy in rural New Zealand?

Michele Findaly
What factors enable trusted, high value relationships between rural managers and clients in New Zealand’s food and fibre sector?

Jack Dwyer
Leadership qualities needed for first time managers.

Richie Cameron
How can the sheep and beef industry retain farm managers without ownership opportunities?

Anthea Yule
Does the decline in school bus services highlight more significant issues affecting rural primary education?

Phil Holland
Guardians or executioners: Navigating the ethics of deer control.

Richard Dawkins – from the World to Waihopai. A farmer’s path in rural leadership.

In this episode of Ideas That Grow, Bryan Gibson, Farmers Weekly Managing Editor, talks to Richard Dawkins, 2023 Kellogg Scholar and Marlborough sheep and beef farmer. Richard is also the new Meat and Wool Chair for Federated Farmers.

Richard discusses his family’s diverse 602-hectare farm operation, which includes sheep, cattle, forestry, and viticulture. He shares his experiences abroad and how returning home reignited his passion for farming.

Richard speaks about his Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme journey and research on lamb and ewe mortality, emphasising the need for better data and body condition scoring.

The discussion also covers leadership, collaboration, and the importance of timing when engaging in personal development.

Listen to this episode of Ideas that Grow, or click on one of the platform icons below to listen on your favourite player:

Episode Transcript

Bryan Gibson, Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly.
You’re with Ideas That Grow, the Rural Leaders podcast. I’m Bryan Gibson, the Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly. This week on the show, we have the new Meat and Wool Chair for Federated Farmers and Marlborough Sheep and Beef Farmer, Richard Dawkins. Richard, how are you?

Richard Dawkins, Farmer, 2023 Kellogg Scholar:
Yeah, good. Thanks, Bryan. The sun’s threatening to shine here, so we’ll take that as a win.

BG: Yeah, being pretty wet down your way, hasn’t it?

RD: Yeah, absolutely. We recorded 138mls in 24 hours, which was a record for us since 1954, but certainly, none of the damage compared to over the hill.

Farming to suit your environment.

BG: You farm up behind Blenheim, and you’re the latest in a long line of people in your family who have farmed there.

RD: Yeah. We’re 30 kilometres southwest of Blenheim, up the Waihopai Valley, or the Avon Valley, just off the Waihopai. I’m the third generation on the land, and my children will be the fourth. My wife, Jess, and I came home a decade ago and since have taken over and have three children.

BG: Excellent. Can you just Can you tell us a little bit about your farming business?

RD: We’re 602 hectares. The livestock side of the business is a composite ewe flock. We’re about 60% sheep and 40% cattle. We also do Jersey bulls, service bulls for the dairy industry, and some Friesians, which are just a straight fattening proposition for the works.

Our motto here has always been, you farm to suit your environment. You don’t modify the environment, you modify your farm systems to suit. We start lambing next week, late July, and main weaning is in November, and we sell all the lambs at weaning.

Last year was a record for us, actually. We sold 96% of the lambs straight off mum at 43. 5kg’s. Composite ewe flock, Jersey Bulls, a few Friesians, but we also have 20% of the property in farm forestry and 135 hectares of viticulture.

BG: Quite a diverse operation you’ve got going.

RD: Yeah, you have to be these days, don’t you? My father said in the late ’80s, 65% of his income was from wool. We’re now down under 1%, so yeah, just need to diversify those income streams a bit.

BG: Now, you mentioned you came back to the farm about a decade ago. You grew up there, I guess. What did you do after school?

Seeing the world before farming.

RD: Jess and I spent significant time in Western Australia. Funnily enough, we were in a different industry. We spent a fair amount of time working in the mines in WA near Kalgoorlie, and Jess was further north in Karata. But then we spent time in the United Kingdom as well, and it was really interesting to see their farm systems. I did a bit of labouring on farms. I worked on a dairy farm, more of an indoor system over there, and did a harvest up in Norwich, drove a lot of tractors.

So, yeah, that was a good experience. Good experience in Australia as well, but really glad to be home now and setting the foundation for the future, I suppose. We’re certainly not planning on going anywhere.

BG: Many, many, New Zealanders in their 20s head off to see the world. In a farming sense, do you think it’s good for people to go off and see, say, the likes of how you did a harvest a Norwich or a dairy farm in the UK?

RD: I think it is, Bryan, but there’s opportunity costs to everything isn’t there. Coming home in my mid-20s and seeing fellows in their teens who were a bit more advanced than me and had left school and gone straight into farming. It took a fair bit of catching up, which was a bit of a wake-up call.

You spend your childhood on the farm, but boy, there’s a big difference between helping dad shift some sheep and doing the tailing and things and helping in the sharing shed versus actually running a farm business. It took some catching up.

That’s what’s been fantastic about Federated Farmers is getting those farmer networks and rapidly expanding your knowledge. But at the same time, look, learning other industries, living in other countries, that was really valuable too.

Building knowledge and leadership skills.

I’ll tell you one positive was when we did come home, we were so full of enthusiasm. We hit the ground running and haven’t stopped, to be honest. Whereas some of my friends who did leave school and go straight into Ag, some of them are just thinking it’s a big wide world out there. Maybe I could go and try something else. I mean, it’s up to the individual, isn’t it? But there’s pros and cons with everything.

BG: Yeah, I often think that we see a lot of exporters and processors take farmer shareholders into export markets to give them an idea of actually what it’s like there and how people buy their food and how chefs cook it, or various other things. I think that global view and getting a first-hand understanding about how the fruit of their labour here in New Zealand is used, it can be really helpful in understanding why certain things have to happen.

RD: Yeah, for sure. I was fortunate enough to go on the Silver Fern Farms and Market Tour last year. We went through China and Korea, South Korea of course. Like you say, fantastic perspectives and quite mind-blowing, to be honest.

BG: Now, you’re a relatively recent Kellogg scholar. You went through the programme just a couple of years ago?

The Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme experience.

RD: So 2023, Phase One, part of K49. The timing for me was perfect, to be honest, in that I’d done a lot of industry stuff by that point. I had a few connections and a reasonable understanding of the bigger picture. But look, to go into Kellogg, it just really supercharged that foundation I had.

Getting those cross-sector connections, people from all walks of life, and hearing those different perspectives as well was hugely valuable and empowering. I guess since I’ve just carried on that journey, I would find very well-invested, I must say.

BG: That network that you build and the people you meet is really important. Of course, another thing they do is you find out quite a lot about yourself, which is good to what you’re good at, what you perhaps need to invest time into improving.

RD: Yeah, look, self-awareness is just absolutely essential. That was a big thing that I took out of it. It can be very confronting, but I think you go in as a bit of an unpolished diamond, and you have those courageous conversations and have that self-awareness.

You may be smooth off some of those rough edges. But some of those things you need to embrace, too. I’ve recognised that. Hey, I’m pretty extreme in this area, and maybe I need to tone it down sometimes. But look, maybe that makes me the man for the job with certain tasks. So, embrace those things as well.

Lamb and ewe mortality, leadership, and learning.

BG: Totally. Now, of course, a big part of the Kellogg Programme is the report you write. You looked at mortality in lambs and ewes?

RD: Yeah. I called it ‘Addressing Mortality in New Zealand Lambing Systems’ because I didn’t want to just purely focus on the lambs. Mortality in ewes is a huge issue as well. The findings were quite interesting. I guess the major takeaways were there’s not actually strong data sets out there.

The actual extent and understanding of the issue is not particularly good as an industry. Probably the lowest hanging fruit for progress is simply body condition scoring and feeding.

On the farm here, we take it to the enth degree, and we lamb our triplets indoors to give them extra care and attention. But look, as an industry, I think getting those body condition scores up and getting those pasture covers up prior and post-lambing is where we’d see the biggest gains.

BG: Now, you talk about data. I guess in a lot of cases, what happens on the farm stays on the farm in some ways in terms of the snow rolls in or whatever down in the high country and losses that no one quantifies in some ways.

RD: Yeah. It’s a real catch-22, isn’t it? In that our strategic advantage, our point of difference is those outdoor lambing systems. It’s free range for sure. How do you balance the welfare aspect versus that strategic advantage? I think the absolute majority of New Zealand farmers and farm systems are geared towards that low input, medium fecundity type breeding.

We do the indoor lambing here because we’re a highly fecund composite ewe flock, and it’s pretty simple at the end of the day, isn’t it? A ewe’s got two teats, and when she’s spitting out three or four lambs, I don’t think it’s controversial to say she needs a bit more TLC.

BG: Yeah, totally. In the drive for efficiency, which has been excellent over the years in the sheep and beef sector, that’s something everyone keeps in mind, I think.

RD: Look, and these composite ewes are amazing. Those ewes that leave the shed with three lambs, their average weaning weights, the combined weight of their three lambs was 110 kilos. That was at 105 days of age. So three lambs, straight off mum to the works, that’s about the most efficient ewe in the country. They’re big ewes, they’re 80 kilos at mating. But when you’re weaning 110 kilos of lambs, it’s worth putting the effort in. I mean, that’s just 1% of the flock, Bryan. Certainly not every ewe, but it is very rewarding when you get to weaning and all your effort pays off.

BG: Your project obviously completed, submitted, but it seems to have been read by some of the organisations that matter in our sector.

RD: I won’t take credit for that, I suppose. But it’s great, really cool to see Beef + Lamb New Zealand pick up a lamb survival module now. I was involved behind the scenes, just having those discussions and organising a few things, bit of a working group. I’ve had a few podcasts and also going to have workshops around the country just focusing on lamb survival. That was one of my key recommendations. So full credit to them. It’s great to see.

Federated Farmers Meat and Wool Chair and further study.

BG: Now, obviously, the Kellogg Programme is based around growing rural leaders in our sector. You’ve come up through Federated Farmers, and you’re the new Meat and Wool Chair. So it looks like you’re taking the ball by the horns in terms of leadership roles.

RD: Like I said earlier, it really did turbocharge things. I did learn a lot, learnt a lot through the process, but I think the biggest thing it gave me was confidence. Like, look, I can go through 500 hours or whatever I invested in. I was part of those deep conversations. I understood everything, had a really good cohort, and it just gave me that confidence to push to the next level.

It made me realise, hey, you are ready for those leadership positions. But it really was a foundation. One of the biggest takeaways for me was it’s fantastic work by the Rural Leaders team. I’ve actually connected the Kellogg Programme through Lincoln and Massey, and actually you can achieve a Postgraduate Certificate in Commerce.

That actually gains you entry to a master’s-level programme. After the Kellogg Programme, I went on to studying a Master of Business, and that’s taken all of that stuff I learned through Kellogg to a whole other level. That’s a fantastic opportunity for anyone. If they’re considering it, I’d be happy to talk people through that process.

BG: That’s excellent. I didn’t know about that. How are things going with Feds? How are you enjoying being on the National Exec?

RD: Look, it has been an absolutely flat out first fortnight. I probably look a bit tired at the moment. AGM and conference, followed by a lot of conversations. Obviously, a lot of media. We’ve had our oral submission to the select committee, and then on to the Silver Fern Farms Conference and all of the governance work that goes on in the background, the advocacy, the exciting stuff, the fun stuff.

But hey, this is a fantastic organisation. You have to govern as well. So, yeah, it’s been absolutely completely flat out. I think that may slow down a little bit, but with advocacy, the work never ends, and then we’ll be full steam ahead, trying to achieve what we want to achieve for not only the meat and wool council, but obviously every member too.

BG: It’s a big job and a big responsibility being the voice of our farming sector to not only the Beehive, but also the wider population of New Zealand, I guess, that you really are the window into that world.

Putting leadership development into practice.

RD: Yeah, you absolutely are. Look, it is a real privilege. When you come under a bit of pressure and you’re finally in this position, I guess your natural style comes out, shines. I’ve just realised that I’m more of a collaborator and a facilitator of these discussions. I don’t have a monopoly on good ideas. I have a fantastic council behind me, 24 men and women who volunteer their time and seven on the executive.

I think you need a bit of courage. Courage takes many forms. It’s putting a line in the sand and saying, this is not good enough, it needs to change. You probably saw that with the oral submission, the bill as it stands, isn’t fit for purpose. But courage is also saying, hey, I don’t know everything. Can I facilitate this discussion? Let’s get four or five people in a room and work out the pathway forward.

I mean, you’re never always going to agree, but at least have that talking to a friend or someone close to you and saying, This needs to change, that needs to change. We need to tidy up this area or that area. Actually, one thing I’m struggling with, which takes a bit of courage, is just learning to delegate. As a farmer, you see a problem, you want to go and fix it. But takes a bit of courage to say, Hey, I’ve got a bit much going on, or, You’re actually better at this than me, so could you please take care of it?

Again, we’ve got this council full of enthusiasm. So, yeah, quite often they’re willing to take up that mantle. And look, it’s just hugely appreciated these people volunteering their time, not for me, but for the whole sector.

BG: If someone’s out there thinking about developing their leadership skills to maybe looking at governance or just their own personal growth, the Kellogg Programme, something you’d recommend?

Get involved, be part of the bigger conversations.

RD: Look, it is, but I think it’s all about timing. I would really I encourage people to do a bit of that local provincial, maybe it’s volunteering any leadership position, and just do a bit of that.

Be part of those bigger conversations, those sector-wide conversations. Join your Federated Farmers and get involved. Join your Beef + Lamb New Zealand, various councils or working groups they have, or your rural advisory groups, things like that. Just get a bit of experience on that side of things, then go for Kellogg.

I think if you were just starting your leadership journey, you might not get as much out of Kellogg as you potentially could. But once you’ve done that foundation work, it’s absolutely fantastic.

BG: Thanks for listening to Ideas That Grow, a Rural Leaders podcast presented in Association with Farmers Weekly.

For more information on Rural Leaders, visit the pages for Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships, the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, the HortNZ Leadership Programme, the Engage Programme, or the Value Chain Innovation Programme.

Kate Scott: Front footing the fast-moving regulatory environment.

Jack Cocks has just finished a one year term as Associate Trustee for the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust (Rural Leaders).

Jack is a high country farmer who holds a bachelor’s degree in farm management from Lincoln University and a masters in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois. He is as much at home in the city as he is in the Otago high country running Mt. Nicholas Station with his wife and children.

Jack suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm twelve years ago which saw him spend eight months in hospital over six years and undergo fifteen major surgeries.

Following this experience he researched how ‘Resilient Farmers Thrive in the Face of Adversity’ through the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme. He is now a well-respected speaker on farmer resilience.

Early in 2024 Jack joined the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust (Rural Leaders) as an Associate Trustee to learn more about governance from the Trust’s experienced board.

“I enjoyed learning from the other trustees. They all had different skill areas and very smart perspectives too. Being part of a team was also an appealing thing to me. The frequent events, such as the Kellogg networking event in Wellington, were great too.”

Mt. Nicholas is remote, so Jack cites the board interactions, both online and in-person, as being another important draw. “You’re not in an immediate community here at Mt. Nicholas. You’re not going to the local field days, meetings or functions that often. So, keeping involved with board matters was enjoyable,” says Jack.

Jack’s plan is to now shift his focus closer to home, on family and the business.

“Our kids are going through high school, they’re both week-day boarding in Invercargill, two and a half hours away. It’s a reasonable commitment to head up and down the road every week.

I’m still doing one or two speaker engagements a month. I’m able to give back a bit to the sector and the community, and a lot of that has spun out of my Kellogg,” adds Jack.

Jack plans to continue his governance journey once his children leave school. He acknowledges the strong foundation the year as an Associate Trustee has given him and he mentions some advice he was given before he went into the role.

“Some advice I got from a wise director before joining Rural Leaders as Associate Trustee, was to look at the one year term in three parts. The first part is asking plenty of questions. The second part is establishing credentials. The final part is adding some value.

I didn’t throw any ideas around for a start, but tried to understand the business. Then I established myself in that second part and looked for ways to add value in that last part. Some of the work that Lisa Rogers and I were doing towards the end with the Value Chain Innovation Programme; like looking at an offshore component for it, fits into that.

That’s how I approached the one year, and I found that advice really useful. It reassured me that I didn’t need to go in guns blazing,” says Jack.

Kate Scott, Rural Leaders Board Chair, spoke of Jack’s measured and intelligent approach to his time as Associate Trustee, “The knowledge Jack has passed on, especially around farmer resilience, has been invaluable. Jack’s calm, clear and curious nature make him a standout as he continues his governance journey.”

Katie Rodwell recently joined as the new Associate Trustee, marking the end of Jack’s year.

“It was a tremendous opportunity. I thank the board and the Rural Leaders’ team for their openness and inclusiveness. I really felt comfortable and that I could contribute to make a difference,” concludes Jack.

FMG Young Farmer of the Year winner to attend the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.

Hugh Jackson, a Waikato Bay of Plenty Young Farmer, has won the title of New Zealand’s top young farmer.

Hugh is a 26-year-old sheep and beef farmer and was crowned the 57^th FMG Young Farmer of the year at the Grand Final event in Invercargill on 5 July.

Working on his family’s farm north of Raglan, Jackson also has an interest in technology, and a passion for mental health.

Jackson believes technology will play a big role in shaping in the future of farming, as well as in the lives of the young people who will be using it.

The New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust (Rural Leaders), in partnership with Lincoln University, sponsor the FMG Young Farmer of the Year winner on a place to attend the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme. Rural Leaders and the University have been doing this for several years.

Rural Leaders CEO, Lisa Rogers said it was a close finish but Hugh’s determination shone through, and added, “We look forward to seeing Hugh on the Kellogg Programme soon. It was a privilege to attend the Grand Final and see first-hand, the depth of talent we have coming through New Zealand Young Farmers.”

New Zealand Young Farmers chief executive Cheyne Gillooly in a Young Farmers article said Jackson impressed everyone with his talent. “…It’s inspiring to see the recognition go to someone who will not only be a strong ambassador for the next generation of young farmers, but across the agricultural industry.”

Source: https://www.youngfarmers.co.nz/news/hugh-jackson-crowned-2025-fmg-young-farmer-of-the-year

Katie Rodwell joins NZRLT as Associate Trustee.

The NZRLT Board and Leadership Team welcomed Katie Rodwell, Associate Trustee, to the NZRLT Board in May.

Katie replaces outgoing Jack Cocks. We’ll share more on Jack and his time with the NZRLT board soon.

Katie has recently returned to work after being on maternity leave for a year. She is looking forward to getting into the year and the new governance opportunity that being selected as Associate Trustee represents.

Rural Leaders caught up with Katie on her third week back at Rabobank to discuss her background and why she went for this governance role.

Katie, her husband, Luc and son Paddy, live in North Canterbury, just on the outskirts of Amberley. They have been on their six hectare block just over a year and a half.

Katie grew up on a farm north of Kaikoura; a farm that sold just before the Kaikoura earthquakes. Since then Katie has been Canterbury-based for most of her life. She attended Lincoln University and after graduating went to Farmlands Cooperative, where she worked for eight years as both Brand Manager and Marketing Manager.

This was followed by a move into the Head of Sustainability and Land Use role. Then to Rabobank as Sustainability Manager where she has been for three years, two of which were working – one on maternity leave.

Katie completed the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme in 2019 as part of cohort 40. Her Kellogg research looked at the consumer-driven and environmental challenges the primary industries face. Her report proposed New Zealand lead in nutrient-dense, sustainable food, using innovation, education, and collaboration to reshape agriculture and meet rising health-focused demand.

It was the Kellogg experience that underscored her decision to join the Rural Leaders’ Board. “It was a really transformative experience for me, and I wanted to give back to the organisation that had helped me so much”, Says Katie.

The opportunity to work with and learn from Rural Leaders’ experienced board members, Katie cites as one of the other standout reasons for her decision.

“I also relate strongly to the vision of Rural Leaders – around growing our leaders and the importance of developing leaders in our sector. I want to help drive impactful change so, I see Rural Leaders and the programmes and projects they undertake as being a powerful tool to help achieve that.

My passion is around how we create thriving, resilient farming businesses, and I see that having good leaders is fundamental to achieving that”, concludes Katie.

On the appointment, Kate Scott, NZRLT Board Chair said, “We’re pleased to have Katie join the NZRLT Board as Associate Trustee. Katie brings a range of skills but most of all a demonstrated passion for leadership development in food and fibre.”

Katie’s first official board meeting as Associate Trustee will be this month (July).

Hugh Ritchie – Leadership, innovating in arable, and Nuffield.

In this podcast, Hugh Ritchie, 2000 Nuffield Scholar and Hawke’s Bay farmer, shares his leadership journey and insights with Bryan Gibson, Farmers Weekly Managing Editor.

Hugh discusses growing Drumpeel Farms into a diverse 2000-hectare operation, the impact of his Nuffield experience on his personal growth, on innovation in irrigation and strip tillage, and on the need for better water access and infrastructure.

Hugh emphasises collaboration, global learning, and the importance of leadership development as vital to strengthening NZ’s food and fibre future.

Listen to this episode of Ideas that Grow, or click on one of the platform icons below to listen on your favourite player:

Episode Transcript

Bryan Gibson, Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly.
You’re with Ideas That Grow, the Rural Leaders podcast. I’m Farmers Weekly Managing Editor, Bryan Gibson. This week on the show, we have Hugh Ritchie from Drumpeel Farms. Gidday Hugh, how’s it going?

Hugh Ritchie, Farmer, 2000 Nuffield Scholar:
Good thanks, Bryan. And yourself?

BG: Yeah, pretty good. How are things over in Hawke’s Bay?

HR: We’ve got a very nice day. Had pretty big winds last night, which was good. I know we’re just finishing off the carrot washing harvest, and then we’ll get back into maize again. But no, it was a pretty good wind last night. But other than that, we’re good. Been a good summer for growing grass, so can’t complain.

BG: Very good. You operate a pretty diverse farming system over there.

A little about Hugh and Drumpeel Farms.

HR: Yeah, we’re just over 2000 hectares in total. We do about 800 hectares of annual cropping. So half of that’s processed vegetables. The other half is seeds and cereals with a little bit of vegetable seed production as well. And then we have 1500 bull beef on a pastoral block.

We normally finish between 8500 and 10,000 lambs – winter lamb trade as well. So that keeps the business going on many fronts. We haven’t got dairy, and we had deer, but haven’t got deer anymore. So, we do most things.

BG: Has running that operation been the bulk of your farming career?

HR: It has, yes. I left school and did a Bachelor of Ag at Massey. Production and Management was more my side. Then I came home to run the block. In those days, it was 300 hectares. We’ve grown the business quite significantly in that time as a family business. We’re reasonably proud of the fact that it’s up over 2000 hectares, and it’s quite diverse and quite intense.

We have great staff helping. I have a very good stock manager who runs the livestock site, and I tend to stick to the overall management in the cropping. It gives me a wee bit of flexibility and scale to go and do other things.

I’ve been on the Federated Farmers Board. I’ve spent some time on the Nuffield Trust, and recently on the FAR board and HortNZ board as well. So yes, I have done quite a lot of off-farm stuff as well as farming. Currently trying to get water storage across the line in Hawke’s Bay, which is proving rather tricky.

BG: Yeah, that’s been years in the making, hasn’t it?

HR: Yeah, it has.

BG: You were a Nuffield scholar in 2000?

2001: A Nuffield Odyssey.

HR: Adrian (Gault) and I travelled in 2001. I looked at irrigation efficiency and direct drilling till type systems. From there, we brought back the basis of the irrigation New Zealand design and monitoring system. I came back from a course I did at Cal Poly/University with Charles Burt, the director there, on how to evaluate irrigation systems for distribution uniformity.

Went through the Midwest and strip tillage was a big thing happening there in min till. So I brought back a strip till and worked a lot with landwise, which was a sustainable cropping programme here in Hawke’s Bay, where we developed strip till to run in New Zealand.

So, the trip itself had big impact on bringing knowledge back, which I’m pretty proud about. But equally, the trip itself, in terms of forcing you to be off-farm and allow people to run the business and do it for you also created, I suppose, opportunity within to make sure that you didn’t just then beaver away with your head down and not really looking at the bigger picture. So it was a very useful journey to go on.

BG: It sounds like it was useful not only personally for you, but in terms of the way New Zealand Food and Fibre has progressed since then.

Giving back to New Zealand food and fibre.

HR: I’d like to think that that is the core of Nuffield. It’s a personal development journey in leadership, but it’s also because it is funded by people (Rural Leaders’ investing partners), I think there’s a responsibility to bring things back that can be useful. That was the whole concept of it, to my mind, was to go and learn and explore things and bring ideas back that we could utilise in New Zealand.

I know everybody says that we lead the world in agriculture, but there’s some really clever people overseas that are more than willing to share their ideas and learning. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel. You can go and learn from people. That’s a pretty good thing.

BG: And was getting out and seeing the way farming is done in other parts of the world at that young age, good for you in terms of your way of looking at things back home?

HR: It certainly got me out of my shell. I remember driving down the interstate in the US, and 2000 was when the UK had foot and mouth. So, I moved to the US pretty quickly. And again, obviously, irrigation and direct drilling was probably their forte.

Nuffield and getting out of your comfort zone.

HR: But It was quite interesting driving in the States and I’d just see something that was interesting or something going on, and I pull over to the side of the road and jump the fence. And you could see these guys looking at you a bit sideways for a while, and eventually they’d stop and you’d go and have a chat. I wouldn’t do that in New Zealand necessarily, but over there, they probably are never going to see you again. If it went badly, you could just walk away.

But it was an incredible journey to see people, they really explained what they were trying to achieve. I visited the conservation information centre, again, because timings were out with the universities, And Dan Tauri, who was running that centre, and he just rang people up and said, hey, I’ve got this New Zealander looking at these things.

I think it’ll be interesting if we talk to you and just set up a whole lot of visits. So it was very spontaneous. Which is something we probably don’t always do a lot of – and just taking the opportunities and meeting people, and then they would send you on to somebody else. I was probably not that outgoing at that stage. And so you had to get over not wanting to push people or ask for things.

It was quite a learning journey there, but it was just amazing how willing people were to give their time and information to help. I think New Zealand reflects that and does that too. It’s a two-way street, but certainly that was eye-opening to me, just how open people were to share.

BG: You’ve gone on to take on some pretty big leadership roles in the farming sector. Obviously, Nuffield might have been a good base for that, good grounding.

Nuffield and the global perspective.

HR: Certainly, I think, as I said, Nuffield gave you that broader picture of what was happening in the world. We could sit back here and moan about things or moan about pricing. You really had to understand that we are a small part of a very big system, especially within the cropping scene in terms of direct import and things like that.

There was no point moaning about price because if someone could import it cheaper, that’s what was going to happen. We had to really get on side with how do we make our systems better, more efficient, more cost-effective, and grow that way. That was very useful.

I think coming back and sitting in Fed Farmers meetings when people were trying to give the millers or the bakers a hard time about not paying enough for wheat, and you just had to say, well, occasionally it is what it is. And so we can either agree to grow or not. But there’s no point beating the guys that are going to buy your crop, because it’s probably not going to do anything for your relationship.

BG: It’s funny. I was in a conference last week talking to someone, and they thought the goal should be that all of New Zealand’s agricultural sector should be like our arable sector, which has always been small and nimble and knows its place in the world and has innovated to make sure it’s sustainable. That’s a good model.

Innovating in the arable sector.

HR: It is. But again, I’ll be the first to admit at the moment, it’s really hard work making arable pay and sitting on the HortNZ board and looking at what IP good varieties of apples can make in the market. Or you look at kiwifruit and how well that’s going with dedicated export and serious funding around marketing and driving the supply. I mean, a really good example to follow.

I am really proud that we set up the Cultivate Ventures thing and during my time with FAR to try and create that work stream to find ideas and innovation that we can be nimble about and follow. But Certainly, we do have to, I think, do things differently going forward within the arable sector because things haven’t really changed. There’s big players out there that can produce volume commodity crops.

We’ve really got to look to what is the alternative? Where’s our niche play and where can we really drive value? If there’s a frustration I have, it’s probably the fact that just in the recent times, we see the influence of the primary sector pulling New Zealand’s economy around and making trade surplus. And yet, where is the science, technology, or the resource running?

Water is the key.

HR: We’re getting better, but trying to get water on the side to provide reliable supply should be easy, especially when it’s going to backstop a primary sector that can then grow and do things. And where’s market or trade and industry helping? I just think we don’t really get a strategy that lines all the things we can do up to really make the most of it. We leave it to the individual, and sometimes that becomes a very hard push.

BG: Yeah, the water piece is really interesting. You brought back some innovative ideas in 2000, but we’re still having the same conversations about how, where, and why when it comes to water storage and that sort of thing.

HR: What I brought back was efficiency and distribution uniformity and how do we make what we’ve got go as far as it possibly can? Because as we all know, it’s not cheap to pump water and put it through irrigators. So, you have to make sure you get the best bang for your buck from that.

So that was the efficiency side. And that, I think, goes without saying, we should be striving for that when it comes to water. But when it then comes back to at the moment, this mentality, I think, is almost how do we cut the pie up, the current pie up smaller and smaller and make all those things happen. Whereas we actually aren’t water short in New Zealand.

We’ve got a huge primary resource there. I’m not saying we waste it, but I think we shouldn’t be afraid to utilise it to the best extent. I just look across the ditch at Australia, Murray, Darling Basins somewhere like 115 % allocated. Canterbury and here in Hawke’s Bay, probably the max out at about 7% and 3% respectively. We’re not even getting close to pushing the boundaries of the available water, but absolutely, we have to do it as efficiently as we possibly can and be mindful of the environment.

I just think we shouldn’t be afraid to look at how do we grow that pie because that’s what we can then grow value and further productivity gains on.

The trickle-down effect.

BG: Yeah, and with the climate getting a bit more unpredictable, it’s a great opportunity to build resilience into communities as well, like people who are not part of food and fibre or maybe are supported through their work.

HR: Absolutely. If you look at the Opuha Dam when that was put in, it’s about the only study that’s being done. I think that showed on a MAF report, it was about $6.50 further value created from every dollar spent on farm, on water. And a lot of that went into the businesses, the support businesses in the town.

I think Temuka Transport before Opuha was 20 odd trucks, and now it’s 100 and something. Businesses support businesses, and hence the communities that support those businesses really do grow off the back of getting good water. So to my mind, it’s the enabler. We can talk about everything we like, but it’s the first stage in the process. We’ve got great soils and good climate. We just have to manage the water.

On Nuffield and leadership.

BG: You mentioned earlier, you’ve been part of the governance group for Rural Leaders. It’s obviously something you believe in, something you’d recommend to someone looking to get a good grounding in leadership.

HR: Look, absolutely. I mean, leadership does have to come from within, but the Nuffield Programme has developed so much from when I went through.

I remember going into my interview and there were nine primary sector leaders sitting in a semicircle, and I was sitting in the middle, and they each had a question to fire at me, and you went home.

Now, there’s still the interview process, but we’ve got the global tours that get the scholars together and look at different areas. There’s different focus tours around the world. We do a lot of training with getting the scholars ready to go on their journey. And it is a journey, and it’s a lifelong journey, and the network that you become part of and that you can link into.

It is a very big network that I think if it came together, it would be great. So absolutely I believe in it. And obviously there’s coupling it in now with some of the other programmes, like Kellogg and things, almost a progression, but it doesn’t have to be.

I think the opportunity of creating leaders or supporting leaders is more the thing. As I said, it’s time out of your life, it’s a commitment you have to make, and it’s an ongoing commitment. I’d like to think that part of the nature of the Nuffield Scholar is how to give back to the industry or the bigger picture. Certainly an opportunity not to be missed.

I know it’s difficult with a lot of people with young families and things like that. How do they make the time? And so you have to think carefully about that. But I really encourage partners to be involved because it is quite a liberating experience to go and see and visit and get your mind open to the opportunities and the scale.

You can come back quite a different thinking person. So Again, having partners involved to explore and understand that, I think, is quite critical to success.

BG: For more information on Rural Leaders, visit the pages for Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships, the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, the HortNZ Leadership Programme, the Engage Programme, or the Value Chain Innovation Programme.

Hamish Murray: Building stronger on-farm teams by getting out of the way.

Rural Leaders, in partnership with PwC New Zealand, have piloted a new concept: the Future Food and Fibre Leaders Pulse Check. It’s a snapshot of what’s top of mind for the latest Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme cohort, captured through a workshop facilitated by PwC and Rural Leaders earlier this year.

What do the next generation of food and fibre leaders believe we need to act on right now?

The result? Five clear, practical messages for today’s leaders—touching on:

Harnessing tech in a producer-centric way
Balancing productivity with sustainable resource use
Strengthening confidence through regulatory certainty
Building our global reputation
Investing in people through better systems and storytelling

👉 Download the Pulse Check here.

This is the first time we’ve run this kind of initiative—and we’d love to hear your thoughts. Is this useful? What could make it better? What other voices should we bring to the table?

Please get in touch with Lisa Rogers at Rural Leaders if you would like to discuss.

Thank you to PwC, our Strategic and Programme Partners for their ongoing support of the Kellogg Programme and our shared mission to grow leadership in the food and fibre sector.

Alumni in the Spotlight – Blake Irving, Jenna Smith, John Foley.

Here are just a few of the media mentions that cover the impact of Rural Leaders’ Programme Alumni in industries and communities across the food and fibre sector.

Blake Irving, 2022 Kellogg Scholar

After five years with Comvita Limited, and 8 years in the apiculture & honey industries, Blake to a new opportunity leading Clelands Timber Products , learning all things timber and manufacturing, and contributing further to its 100+ years of success.

Congratulations Blake.

Jenna Smith, 2024 Nuffield Scholar

Jenna Smith’s research into peatlands was covered last week in an informative article by Farmers Weekly.

Jenna’s Nuffield research focuses on opportunities for improved environmental and production outcomes for peat country.

Jenna is CEO for Māori-owned Pourarua based on Hauraki Plains. Pourarua has interests in dairy, arable, beef and horticultural enterprises.

Read the article here (you can access Jenna’s Nuffield report here too).

John Foley, 2021 Nuffield Scholar

In an article for Farmers Weekly’s regular column ‘Eating the Elephant’, John Foley writes on the impact family farms have played in shaping Aotearoa New Zealand.

You can read the article here.

Kellogg offers two qualifications.

Just over a week ago, many alumni of the 52nd Kellogg cohort graduated with Post Graduate Certificates.

Credentialisation of the Kellogg Programme through Rural Leaders’ academic partners Lincoln University means Kellogg graduates can gain the Post Graduate Certificate in Commerce as well.

The next opportunity to do this for yourself will be on Kellogg Programme One, 2026 (late January start). Early applications are welcome. Head here for more information.

Congratulations to these double qualification recipients.

Congratulations to the following PG Cert graduates from cohort 52 Nick Martin, Megan Fox, Cheyenne Wilson, Richard Pentreath, James Prunty, Hamish Symons, Kendal Buchanan, Jordi Hoult, Laura Deeming, Iain Inglis, Whitney Conder, Ben Aiken, Oliver Hampson, Kate Kellick, Hamish Hodgson, Anita Fleming.

And also graduating were Wyatt Johnston, Lisa Lunn and Allan Dunn from the 51st cohort.

Image comes courtesy of Lincoln University.

Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme cohort 52 (Programme Two 2024)

2024 Nuffield NZ Farming Scholarship reports.

Rural Leaders is pleased to be able to share the 2024 Nuffield Scholars’ Individual Research Reports.

Our four 2024 Scholars have undertaken research on a diverse range of topics, each addressing a topical and significant challenges in Food and Fibre, from sustainable land use to succession, and from the future of farming to genetic technology.

The Nuffield Scholarship is about impact – so, we hope you find these reports inspiring and thought-provoking.

We’d like to acknowledge those of you who have contributed your time and experience to the Scholars, a Nuffield Scholarship is after all, a team effort.

This year we have included a one-page summary of each report. You will find these short report summaries via the buttons below.

Carlos Bagrie – Beyond the farm gate: Rethinking New Zealand’s economic future.

Agriculture and tourism in New Zealand face growth limits, threatening export earnings. With global trade shifting and land constraints increasing, we must rethink NZ’s economic future; exploring high-value industries, supply chain control, and innovation.

It’s time to ask: what comes after agriculture and tourism to sustain long-term prosperity?

Rachel Baker – Coding for Change: Navigating adoption of gene editing in the New Zealand primary sector.

Gene editing in New Zealand’s primary sector offers opportunities to address climate change, sustainability, and productivity. Proposed legislation aims to align regulations with trading partners, balancing innovation with public trust.

Early engagement, investment in innovation, and leadership in regulatory frameworks are essential to enhance competitiveness and drive sector growth.

Jenna Smith – Changing the Bog-Standard: Repeatable solutions for Aotearoa’s Peatlands.

Occupying only 1% of Aotearoa’s land yet holding close to a fifth of the nation’s ecosystem carbon, New Zealand’s peatlands are indispensable but rapidly degrading. This report does not offer a silver bullet, but a new way of looking at what we’ve long called marginal land. It suggests that peatlands, when managed well, can be part of our productivity, our identity, and our climate response—not in spite of their wetness, but because of it.

Peter Templeton – Putting the Success back into Succession.

New Zealand’s farm succession faces challenges due to aging farmers, rising land prices, and financial barriers. The report explores alternative models like share-farming and equity partnerships, emphasising the need for early planning, government support, and industry leadership.

Innovative succession pathways are crucial for sustaining the agricultural sector’s future.

Threads of influence. A Champion of rural leadership development.

For the last eight years Dr Scott Champion has been a key figure in the development of leaders in food and fibre. He has made a direct impression on over 300 leaders on the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme and many more through Nuffield, Engage and the HortNZ Leadership Programme.

Scott’s deep sector-wide knowledge, delivery style, ability to deftly weave discussion threads, and tease out insights, has made him one of the sector’s most in-demand facilitators.

As Scott leaves his role with Rural Leaders for a new challenge at Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), we thought we’d take a look at his career so far – one chaptered by key sector roles, research, and developing food and fibre’s leaders.

Foundations in agriculture.

Dr Scott Champion’s journey into agriculture didn’t start in the heartland of rural New Zealand. The story is no less compelling. Raised in Sydney, Scott was drawn to the land from a young age. Family connections to farming in New South Wales sparked an early fascination in the potential of agriculture to sustain humanity in exciting new ways.

His entry into agriculture came at an open day at the University of New South Wales. Scott came across a programme in wool and animal science. He enrolled in the degree, and this soon led to a deep scientific interest, particularly in the relationship between animal nutrition and wool quality. This path took him on to a PhD, which he completed partly in Sydney and partly in Tasmania.

After completing his doctoral studies, Scott moved into teaching and research in animal science at the University of Tasmania. Then in 2001, a new opportunity arose: a product development and research role with the New Zealand Merino Company.

Scott on-farm with a recent Engage Programme cohort.

Science and innovation.

At this time, the New Zealand Merino Company had challenged the long-standing wool auction system, which traditionally kept growers disconnected from brands and consumers. Instead, the company fostered an attribute-based, contract-led supply chain model. The partnership with Icebreaker, one of the company’s earliest and most well-known collaborators, illustrated this shift well. By building direct links between growers and end-users, the New Zealand Merino Company helped brands create compelling product stories while giving growers visibility and value beyond auction prices.

Scott’s science background played a pivotal role in telling the story of Merino wool in new and practical ways. He worked alongside the commercial wool team to deliver training and develop retailer experiences that showcased the performance benefits of Merino, such as moisture absorption and fire resistance, often through live demonstrations. These tactile, science-backed experiences helped redefine how retailers and consumers perceived wool, especially internationally, where traditional wool was often associated with scratchiness and discomfort.

“We thought of ourselves as being an ingredient brand that could sit inside retail brands. So the purpose was not to create a retail brand in its own right around New Zealand Merino, but to create an attribute, an origin story that functioned as an ingredient brand,” says Scott.

the New Zealand Merino Company’s approach, Scott notes, wasn’t just commercial, it was transformational. The company positioned Merino not just as a material, but as an important performance attribute. This shift, from commodity to value-added story, inspired similar approaches across the food and fibre sector.

The CEO.

Scott’s next move was to Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ), initially as General Manager of Market Access and Services. The position brought together technical policy, trade access, animal welfare, and red meat promotion; areas that spanned local and international impact. Scott worked on initiatives such as the Five Nations Beef Alliance (which later expanded to seven countries), focusing on improving global trade outcomes for beef.

Later, Scott was appointed CEO of B+LNZ and concurrently led the New Zealand Meat Board, where in addition to strategic oversight, he was responsible for managing farmer reserves and quota access for red meat exports to the US and EU.

Following his tenure at B+LNZ, Scott explored a new direction, founding the consultancy Primary Purpose with a business partner. The consultancy would offer strategic advice and social research across food, agriculture, and natural resources.

Growing rural leaders.

Around this time, Scott’s relationship with the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme deepened. Having previously been a regular industry speaker on Kellogg, he took on the role of Programmes Director and lead facilitator.

Speaking to Kellogg participants, Scott emphasises leadership is not about titles or standing at the front of the room telling others what to do, it’s more about being in the middle, understanding context, and drawing on lived experience. One of the programme’s unique strengths, he says, is its ability to give people confidence, regardless of their academic background. Participants, some without tertiary education, emerge from the programme with a deeper sense of self and purpose, and an understanding of the broader food and fivre industry.

Kellogg also offers access to influential speakers and one-on-one conversations with senior leaders across government and industry. For many participants, it’s a rare chance to see high-level leadership up close and to realise that those in senior roles are human, facing many of the same challenges anyone else does.

“The convening power of the programme is often underestimated. People are always willing to talk to our Kellogg cohorts. These are people who would have lots of things that they can potentially do in that time slot. I think that’s a mark of Kellogg’s standing”, says Scott.

The long-term impact of Kellogg is increasingly evident, with alumni populating boards, advisory groups, and sector leadership roles. The programme, nearing its 50th year, continues to be a vital part of New Zealand’s rural leadership pipeline.

“As the sector becomes more complex, the need for good leaders who understand context is significant. Not just the narrow technical nature of many of the roles that we all operate in, but that they truly understand the wider context in which they’re operating. I think that’s a key benefit of Kellogg – it’s what makes it so unique”, says Scott.

Scott with Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme cohort 52 (Programme Two 2024)

More to do.

Looking ahead, Scott is set to take on a new challenge. In July, he begins as CEO of the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), working alongside current CEO, and friend of Kellogg, Dr Allison Stewart through June. FAR is widely respected for its research and extension services in the arable sector, and Scott is looking forward to contributing further.

Meanwhile, Primary Purpose, will continue under the leadership of the partners. The business remains committed to supporting clients with insight-driven strategy and research, helping organisations navigate the complex landscape of agriculture and food production.

From animal science to strategic leadership, Scott Champion’s career has so far been marked by curiosity, innovation, and a desire to give back. His impact has rippled through the primary industries in both Australia and here in New Zealand.

“When done well, applying good leadership can have a hugely exponential impact on the wellbeing and performance of people, teams, communities, industries and on a country. It’s been a privilege to have played a role in developing leaders through Rural Leaders’ Kellogg Programme and I look forward to coming full-circle and returning as a speaker”, adds Scott.

Over the last 8 years, Scott has been an integral part of not only the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme but Rural Leaders as a whole.

“Scott has brought wisdom, insight and encouragement to all that have attended our Kellogg and Engage programmes. It has always been satisfying to watch the personal confidence and clarity of thought shine through programme participants as Scott guided them through their Kellogg journey. While we are sorry to see Scott move on, we are delighted for him and his new role at FAR”, concludes Lisa Rogers, CEO Rural Leaders.

MyLead.co.nz is live.

Listen to our podcasts focused on discussion of the Food & Fibre CoVE Report and the MyLead platform.

MyLead.co.nz has been live for nearly a month with an invitation to feedback on user experiences. We’ve incorporated much of this feedback and from late May 2025, the site will feature the resulting enhancements.

Aligned to the NZ Rural Leadership Trust’s (Rural Leaders) purpose to grow world-class leaders for our country, MyLead helps to identify development pathways for people at all stages of their leadership journey.

This site is just one outcome of research conducted by Rural Leaders and commissioned by Food and Fibre Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) and the site draws down information from this research relevant to each user.

MyLead allows a user of the site to generate a leadership development pathway based on two data inputs, ‘current leadership stage’ and ‘industry’.

Along with this pathway, MyLead gives actionable outcomes from the research’s latest Leadership Pathways Report https://ruralleaders.co.nz/realising-leadership-potential-in-new-zealands-food-and-fibre-sector/ with practical examples people can implement into practice immediately.

It’s really a starting point for anyone taking the lead on their, or their team’s, leadership development.

We have been gathering user experience feedback and incorporating this into the site, before the formal launch in late May.

“If our sector is to grow stronger it must nurture a sustained flow of capable and self-aware leaders that are continuously developing themselves and the teams they work with”, said Lisa Rogers, Rural Leaders CEO.

It is our hope that MyLead will help nurture our people and play a role in building an ever more vital and vibrant food and fibre sector into the future. We’ll continue to update and improve the site for the medium term, before offering programme partners to opportunity to login and manage their own programme(s) content.

A big thank you to all of the MyLead participating programme partners: NZ Young Farmers, AWDT, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Business Torque Systems Ltd., University of Canterbury, DairyNZ, Dairy Training Ltd., Lead With Virtue, Mayfield Group, NZIPIM (NZ Institute of Primary Industry Management), Rural Coach, Rabobank New Zealand, HALO Training, Rural Leaders, STAMP, The University of Waikato, Horticulture New Zealand, Farmlands Co-operative Society Limited, Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC), Activating Potential, FoodHQ, Silver Fern Farms Ltd.

Feedback to mylead@ruralleaders.co.nz

Jenni Vernon – Insights from a career built on taking the lead.

In this podcast, Jenni Vernon, 1994 Nuffield Scholar, Farmer, and former Chair of Environment Waikato, talks to Bryan Gibson, Managing Editor at Farmers Weekly, about how a lifetime of leadership in rural communities began with a strong connection to farming and a willingness to step forward.

Jenni also talks through her Nuffield research, the Nuffield experience, and on not underestimating the power of face-to-face communication in a sometimes-disconnected social media age.

Listen to this episode of Ideas that Grow, or click on one of the platform icons below to listen on your favourite player:

Episode Transcript

Bryan Gibson, Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly.
You’re with Ideas That Grow, the Rural Leaders podcast. I am Farmers Weekly Managing Editor, Bryan Gibson. This week on the show, we have a very special guest, Jenni Vernon, who is the very first woman to graduate with a Nuffield Scholarship. Kia ora, Jenni. How’s it going?

Jenni Vernon, Farmer, 1994 Nuffield Scholar:
Kia ora, Bryan. It’s great.

BG: You did the Nuffield Programme in 1994. What drew you to that? Do you have a background in farming? Did you grow up on one?

A strong connection to farming.

JV: My father was a rural bank manager, but my mother’s parents were farmers in the Ruahine Ranges at a little place called Rangawahia. My farming life really started following my grandfather around learning to ride ponies. In those years, 50% of his income was from wool. We used to do sheep dipping – plunging them in the sheep dip.

We used to have to pluck wool off dead ewes and off the barbed wire fences. That was my introduction to farming at a very early age. I always had a passion, really. Then I was led by a very good school friend to join the Young Farmers Organisation. And from there, just got involved with Young Farmers, became National President, and actually always worked in rural areas when I was a primary school teacher in Waipukarau.

Through Young armers I met my husband. We settled, or he lived on the Raglan Coast at Tāwhata on a small dairy farm. So, that was my real hands-on, ownership, full nine yards of being a farmer, and have done so ever since.

BG: What drew you to Rural Leaders and to apply for the Nuffield Scholarship?

From Young Farmers to a Nuffield Scholarship.

JV: I guess it was my experience through Young Farmers. I did 13 years there and went on to be National President. In 1985, I first did the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.

Just through opportunities and leadership roles, I could see that to do something like a Nuffield, where it really does extend you, not only your personal development, education-wise, but your international perspective too.

We are at the bottom of the world, all our exports, everything is offshore. That was one of that bigger picture issues. I guess Nuffield for me was a bit of a circuit breaker in my career because prior to winning my scholarship I was actually a divisional director for the New Zealand National Party. I was working there for eight years managing; I always said, ‘…people, paper and money.’

Many thought I would head down the line of becoming a central MP, but I don’t think that was really me. This opportunity to have a go at applying for Nuffield and gaining further leadership roles and a bigger worldview – came up, and I was fortunate to be selected and travelled in 1994.

It definitely met my expectations of being extended personally. But I’ve had a lifetime now of connection and value and actually being able to mix and meet, not just internationally. Within New Zealand we have amazing rural leaders, and I feel very privileged that I have learned a lot from those people. Our paths would never have crossed if I hadn’t done that.

That led me into a whole lot of other leadership opportunities. It really was a diving board into my future leadership roles, passion for rural communities and agriculture in general.

BG: What did you focus your scholarship on?

Nuffield research still relevant 30 years later.

JV: My research looked at the deregulation of the Milk Marketing Board, which was big thing in the UK at the time, and also looking at cooperatives.

Just by chance, one of my fellow Nuffield friends from Zimbabwe, Helen Locke, was the first woman to be selected from Zimbabwe, that same year. She was studying the Dutch flower industry because she had a huge flower enterprise. They exported their flowers to Europe through the Dutch market. That really was probably, for me, the highlight of my Nuffield because that really opened my eyes to the consumer market and how fickle consumer markets can be for something a fragile product like flowers.

It also opened my eyes to the amount of research and development that the Dutch government was spending – because flowers and seeds are a big export market. That was probably the highlight.

Even today, that study, and it’s what, 31 years ago that I did my scholarship, that is still relevant today, the consumer market. One day they want red roses, and the next minute, they want some dried weed that you find in the back garden or in the paddock.

We were privileged to see the back of the Dutch flower market, it’s absolutely huge. If it’s not sold, it’s just thrown out. It’s the equivalent is something like eight football fields and all these flowers had been flown in. If they didn’t want them that day, they were gone.

That meant that back in the countries like Zimbabwe and quite a lot of South American countries, they didn’t get any income. That was it. You’d produce that flower or product, and it took how long to grow it and then export and everything else.

What was equally interesting, an so was the deregulation of the Milk Marketing Board, because I looked at a company which is well known nationwide or worldwide, Kerry, in Northern Ireland, an island, and the influence of how they diversified their portfolio out of milk and into other industries. Then, of course, we I’ve got cooperatives, Fonterra, for example. Actually, 31 years later, my topics haven’t actually become obsolete, and I still look back and think I was very privileged to have that understanding way back then.

BG: Now, obviously, you went through this leadership programme, and as you touched on, it led to decades of leadership roles since then. Can you walk me through some of the greatest hits?

A career in leadership.

JV: Some of the greatest hits. Well, I had the privilege of being on the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust (Rural Leaders) Board for six years. We went through that transition where we amalgamated the Kellogg and the Nuffield Programmes together.

I look at where the Trust is now with the other programmes. I was asked this question recently because I do a little bit of mentoring for women in leadership. One of the greatest hits was really to be actually Chairman of Environment Waikato, where we led the protection of Lake Taupo.

My greatest achievement was that my signature was on that paper protecting that lake forever. Now, it was a huge challenge. It was the first time farmers had to be consented. It was tough. There’s a lot of Māori, undeveloped land that will never be able to be developed to its economic potential to save the lake.

But that whole process and programme – to think that forever. I mean, we know that the lake’s water quality is going to deteriorate a little bit before it gets better, but it’s not long term. It’s going to have a better future than what it was probably looking like.

The most productive conversations are face-to-face.

BG: It seems we live in a bit of a sound bite world with social media and that thing. Being angry is commodified in some ways, which doesn’t help with actually thinking about the bigger picture as a nation.

JV: I guess I was privileged or otherwise that my term in local government, we didn’t have the influence of social media. I mean, yes, people could get angry with you, and yes, we were yelled at, but it was more face to face. It was in the local community hall or it was out in the field, standing on the ground, talking face to face.

There wasn’t this anonymous or down the line Facebook stuff. I mean, it was the beginning of, but certainly we didn’t have those anonymous Facebook conversations where nobody has any ownership. We owned it and we had to face up to it. I openly admit that there were times when it wasn’t very pleasant, but it was face to face.

It’s much harder to have a face to face conversation and be really nasty because there’s always a way through it. You can at least talk through the issues even if you want to raise your voice for the first ten minutes, generally, people calm down.

You’re right, the social media, I mean, I’m really glad, sounds very selfish, but I’m glad I’m not in local government or even central government now, where I think it’s sad that people find the need to hide behind the social media tool instead of actually upfronting. I mean, you can write submissions, that’s fine, but upfronting, honestly, within hall meetings and face-to-face. It’s a different world, a very different world. It’s one I struggle with at times.

BG: Now, you mentioned you still do some leadership mentoring? Do you have some work in that space? Yes. Are the attributes and skills and qualities of a good leader in the Food and Fibre sector, are they the same as they’ve always been?

Rural leadership pathways.

JV: They are, Bryan. In actual fact, one of the things that really concerns me is that we had a nice pathway into leadership roles in rural communities. When I first started, like young farmers or federated farmers, and then say your dairy board or apple and peer marketing board or whatever you wanted to do it. People seemed to want to embrace that.

Today, it seems harder for that pathway. I do have concern about people, how do you get into that leadership role? I do think sometimes that people have this view that once you’re a director or you’re on a board, that it’s easy, but it isn’t. It’s not fluffy stuff. It’s absolutely you’ve got a fiduciary duty. I think probably it’s harder now, because of time to run your business and the pressures and the responsibilities to take up some of those leadership roles. But certainly, if you do, it is exciting, and that’s where you can influence.

If you want change, it’s no good sitting in the back paddock and complaining. You’ve got to come to the front gate, and you’ve got to get out of your farm gate, and you’ve got to engage, and you’ve got to be part of a group, and that will lead you.

Some of the catchment groups, I look at them now. Some of those leaders, like Anna Nelson, for example, started off leading a big catchment group in, and now she’s Chairman of Silver Fern Farms.

It’s great to see that there is a pathway, but it is challenging. It’s still not easy for any generation to take it up because you have to, well, sometimes your business does suffer, but we do need to see people wanting to do that because we need a strong rural voice. The issues are not going to go away. They’re going to be more challenging, whether it’s environmental, whether it’s markets, or whether it’s political, dealing with your local councils or whatever. I mean, the issues are not going to go.

That’s the other thing that I look at and reflect is it’s harder for succession for family farms as well. That’s one of the other things that I have a bit of a concern about.

BG: Now, you mentioned that some of those tried and true pathways weren’t as strong as they used to be. But of course, there are the Rural Leaders Programme, obviously something you’d recommend to people.

Applying for a Nuffield.

JV: Totally, Bryan. It’s interesting. A lot of people go, Oh, I could never do that. I look at them and I go, Why not? The only thing stopping you is not applying. Because I’ve had questions like, how come you won a Nuffield Scholarship? Because, I mean, to be honest with you, Gordon and I only milked 180 cows on the Raglan Coast. We weren’t big-time farmers. But it was because I applied.

I applied myself in making sure that I was well prepared. I understood the dynamics of agriculture in New Zealand, the primary sector, but also internationally, and had a go. I also had mentors. I don’t mind saying it that John Kneebone was my… until he passed away, he was my mentor through my Nuffield, through being on the regional council for a lifetime.

If you can find somebody like that that helps you gain that confidence, because a lot of it is about confidence. That’s what Kellogg and Nuffield gives you – that confidence. People could say, I don’t have those qualities. Well, I could have looked in the mirror and said, well, neither did I. But actually, you’re surprised when you lift the lid, what’s underneath, and you can actually do it if you really want to.

I mean, I would never have guessed that my leadership pathway would have been what it has been over the last 50 years. Because if you looked at my school record, I was not a school prefect. I never won any prizes. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So, it’s that one opportunity that taps into that reserve. When people say to me, I couldn’t do what you do. I say, No, you just don’t want to – but you can.

Hamish Murray: Building stronger on-farm teams by getting out of the way.

Kate Scott: Front footing the fast-moving regulatory environment.

From Engineer to Agri-Strategist: Emily Walker’s Path to Making an Impact in New Zealand’s Agribusiness Sector

A Canterbury native, Emily Walker’s story so far, has been marked by a commitment to innovation, sustainability, and leadership—values that are now shaping her efforts to play a role in transforming New Zealand’s agricultural sector.

The Spark: A Mackenzie Charitable Foundation Scholarship.

In 2022, Emily was awarded the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation Scholarship, a pivotal moment in her career. As a structural engineer with a Master’s in Engineering Management, she had already established herself in the engineering world. However, a growing interest in agribusiness led her to explore ways to combine her technical background with her passion for supporting sustainable farming practices.

“The Mackenzie Scholarship gave me the financial support and confidence to explore my ideas further on the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme,” Emily says. “Without it, my pivot into the agri-sector would not have happened the way it has.”

Emily’s Kellogg research, asked a key question: Does an evidence-based approach to decision-making improve outcomes for small-scale agribusinesses in New Zealand? The research aimed to identify ways that evidence-based frameworks could enhance decision-making, particularly in the face of the complex environmental, social, and economic challenges farmers face.

The findings of her research were clear: there is strong demand for better decision-making tools that help farmers evaluate and balance these impacts. Key recommendations included maintaining a deep understanding of the operating environment, aligning decisions with core values, and implementing multi-disciplinary boards to support decision-making.

The Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme and a Business Launch.

The Mackenzie Charitable Foundation Scholarship enabled Emily to participate in the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme. Despite holding down a demanding full-time job, she took leave to complete the programme. The skills and confidence Emily gained during Kellogg were instrumental in the launch of Tupu Strategic, a consultancy offering strategic and governance advisory services to agribusinesses.

Emily’s work with Tupu Strategic is grounded in the principles of her research. “I’ve integrated what I learned in Kellogg into every aspect of my work,” Emily says. “The decision-making framework is now a core part of my strategy work, governance roles, and client engagements. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see how these tools can help drive better outcomes for the sector.”

Expanding Reach: Governance and Podcasting.

Since completing the Kellogg Programme, Emily’s career has rapidly expanded. In 2024, she became an Associate Trustee for both Wai Wānaka and AgResearch, roles that allow her to grow her governance skills while contributing to the strategic direction of key organisations in the food and fibre sector.

But it’s not just about boardrooms and business strategy. Emily also co-hosts and produces the Ag in Conversation podcast, a platform she describes as her most impactful project yet.

The podcast provides a space for open, thoughtful discussions on some of agriculture’s most pressing issues, ranging from rural women’s mental health to global trade agreements. By bringing the “kitchen table” conversations of rural communities into a global spotlight, Ag in Conversation aims to educate both those inside and outside the sector about the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand agriculture.

“We aim to scale impact through education,” Emily explains. “By diving into complex issues and sharing them with a wider audience, we can foster deeper understanding and encourage more informed conversations, both in the sector and beyond.”

Balancing it all.

In addition to her professional commitments, Emily is also a farmer and mother to a one-year-old daughter. Life on the farm in Tarras, in Central Otago, brings its own set of challenges, but she embraces the necessary juggling act.

“Balancing the podcast, client work, governance roles, farm life, and being a mum is definitely a challenge, but each part brings its own rewards,” she says. “The diversity of my experiences—whether it’s from the farm, the podcast, or my governance work—helps me grow and make a bigger impact in everything I do.”

Looking Ahead.

Looking to the future, Emily’s ambition is clear. She plans to continue her leadership development and expand her influence in the agribusiness sector through both governance and education. She is committed to creating a lasting impact by fostering evidence-based decision-making practices, supporting rural communities, and advocating for sustainable, forward-thinking strategies within food and fibre.

“The Mackenzie Scholarship set me on a trajectory towards making meaningful change in agriculture,” Emily reflects. “It gave me the space and resources to grow, and now I’m in a position to give back to the sector that is so vital to our country’s future.”

You can view Emily’s Kellogg report here.

Thomas Holmes – scholarship opens doors for Canterbury arable farmer.

Kellogg Programme Scholarship Opens Doors for Canterbury Arable Farmer Focused on Industry Change.

A scholarship from the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation provided a unique opportunity for a Cantabrian to take part in the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme. Kellogg gave Thomas Holmes the chance to expand his leadership skills and has provided him with a platform to advocate for change in the fast-evolving arable farming industry in Canterbury.

Roots in Canterbury farming and connection to the Mackenzie brothers.

Growing up on a mixed arable farm in Methven, where his family has farmed for nearly 150 years, Thomas has a deep connection to the land. He pursued an AgScience Honours degree at Lincoln University, before working for eight years across various farms in New Zealand, Canada, and the UK.

Thomas is currently employed in a Central Government role with Ministry for Primary Industries. He works to support farmers and growers navigating the increasingly complex regulatory and environmental landscape.

Thomas’s motivations for applying for the scholarship were twofold. Financial support was certainly a factor, but it was the story behind the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation that truly resonated with him. Inspired by the selflessness of two brothers who established the trust to support young people in the Canterbury region, he felt a strong personal connection to their values and desire to make a meaningful difference.

“The Trust’s foundations are all about giving back to the community, and it was the bother’s selflessness in this space that really drove me to apply,” said Thomas.

Expanding horizons with the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation Scholarship.

The Scholarship has enabled Thomas to take part in the Kellogg Programme, to engage with peers and experts across various industries and expand his professional network. For someone from a rural farming background, he explains, the opportunity to step outside his comfort zone and engage with others in the agricultural sector has been invaluable.

The role he holds with Government sees him acting as an On-Farm Support Advisor, where his primary role is to bridge the gap between farmers and the technical experts who assist them. Working closely with the arable farming community, he brings crucial information on everything from chemistry to land use changes. His expertise in arable farming allows him to provide tailored advice, helping farmers adapt to the ever-changing landscape of modern agriculture.

In a sector facing climate challenges, evolving regulations, and land use changes, Thomas believes farmers need clear, actionable guidance to make informed decisions. The shift towards new crops, such as stone fruit and apples, is one example of how quickly the Canterbury region is evolving.
“Arable farming is at a crossroads, but there’s a real opportunity to focus on the positives and identify where the silver linings are,” he explains.

The Kellogg Programme has played a pivotal role in Thomas’s professional and leadership development, particularly in his understanding of leadership. “I’ve realised that leadership isn’t about a single person at the top. It’s about collaboration and empowering teams,” he reflects. He credits the programme with expanding his thinking and helping him gain a clearer vision of where he wants to take his career in the future.

So, what does the future hold?

Looking ahead, Thomas is keen to take on more leadership responsibilities, either on-farm, in a government support role, or both. With an open mind about the potential of agri-tech and the future of the industry, he’s also considering opportunities like the Nuffield Scholarship as a way to broaden his perspective further. “I’d love to balance farming with supporting the wider sector,” he says, “and to contribute to meaningful change for the future of agriculture.”

The scholarship, he says, has given him the opportunity to reflect on the broader picture of New Zealand’s agricultural landscape and to think critically about the challenges and opportunities ahead.

“Through the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation’s support in completing the Kellogg Programme, I truly feel I am better placed to play a part in shaping the future of farming in Canterbury.”

You can view Thomas’s Kellogg report here.

Isabelle Coates – networking, leadership, and giving back.

Isabelle Coates, 2021 Mackenzie Charitable Foundation Scholarship Winner, 2022 Kellogg Scholar.

For young professionals in the food and fibre sector, finding the right opportunities to grow and make a meaningful impact can be challenging. But for Isabelle Coates, the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation and the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme provided both a transformative experience and a vital network of connections that has helped to shape her career path and her passion for supporting others.

Motivations for Applying: A Desire to Give Back.

The journey began while working for a not-for-profit, where limited resources sparked a desire to make a bigger impact. The organisation faced the common challenge of workforce attraction and retention, a theme that has become central to Isabelle’s career path. “I was working for a not-for-profit at the time, so we didn’t have a lot of money, but we were trying to do a lot with what we had,” said Isabelle. “The role opened my world to the power of workforce retention. Like many in my network, I wanted to do so much.”

Isabelle’s background in the meat industry, where she had previously been supported by the Meat Industry Association, further fuelled her drive. She wanted to give back to the industry that had supported her and had an ambitious vision for a project that aimed to secure funding to help improve workforce challenges within the meat processing industry. Gaining consensus from a large number of meat processors proved difficult – leaving the project in limbo. Despite this, Isabelle continued to look for opportunities to make a difference.

Winning the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation Scholarship: A Vote of Confidence.

Winning the Scholarship enabled her to complete the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme. It also marked a pivotal moment in her career. “Being so early in my career, winning the Scholarship meant a lot,” she shared. “It was a vote of confidence that the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation were willing to invest in me and, more broadly, in young people wanting to advance and grow in the sector.”

At a time when many young professionals can often feel uncertain about their place in food and fibre, the Scholarship offered not only financial support but a vital network of peers, mentors, and industry leaders. “There’s over two and a half million dollars’ worth of scholarships in the food and fibre sector, but so many people don’t know about them or don’t have the confidence to apply,” she explained. “Winning The Mackenzie Charitable Foundation Scholarship to do Kellogg, showed me that there’s a need for young talent and that the sector wants to invest in our growth.”

Kellogg didn’t just provide Isabelle with technical skills and knowledge—it also helped her grow her confidence and broaden her professional network, an invaluable asset early in her career. “Kellogg helped me grow my confidence. It gave me the tools to think more critically, be more efficient with my time, and to avoid my own past mistakes like falling into the work habits that lead to burnout,” said Isabelle.

After Kellogg: A New Outlook and Career Path.

Since completing the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, Isabelle’s career trajectory has shifted. She transitioned from PGG Wrightson to Muka Tangata, where she worked on qualifications and standards for nine months, engaging heavily with the forestry and agricultural industries. From there, Isabelle moved internally to a role focused on engaging with the dairy, sheep, beef, and deer industries. “I really enjoyed the human connection in my role. It was the huge motivation for applying,” she said. “I love meeting farmers and understanding the challenges and opportunities they face across New Zealand’s diverse farming regions.”

Alongside her career, Isabelle has also found time to start a Young Farmers Club in the Waihora Banks Peninsula area, offering a platform for young people to connect, share experiences, and build leadership skills. “I was a little bit lonely in my previous role to be honest, so I wanted to create something that could help others feel connected,” she said. “We’ve got about 16 members right now, and it’s been really rewarding to see people build their networks.”

A Commitment to Creating Impact.

As Isabelle’s career progresses, she remains focused on creating real impact. Whether that’s connecting farmers to policymakers or helping young people build the confidence to lead, she believes change begins with listening. “Making a difference starts with someone listening,” she said. “The change happens at the intersection of people doing clever things for the right reasons, and then you connect the dots.”

For Isabelle, the future is about more than advancing her own career. It’s about driving human-centred change and creating a supportive, connected network that just might help shape the future of New Zealand agriculture.

You can view Isabelle Coates’ Kellogg Research report here.

Alumni in the Spotlight – Murray King, Penny Timmer-Arends, Alison Bentley, and Mihi Harris.

Here are just a few of the media pieces covering the impact of Rural Leaders’ Programme Alumni in industries and communities across the sector.

Murray King, 2003 Nuffield Scholar, ONZM

On Friday 7 February, Prime Minister the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon, Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop, and the new South Island Minister James Meager, Murray King ONZM and others, opened the Waimea Community Dam.

As the Prime Minster noted, this project is an “incredible legacy”, albeit one “we wish we’d got onto sooner”. And as MP Boyack noted, the region now has water security.

In no small part, thanks to the tenacity and leadership of Murray King and his colleagues.

Take a read of an article on the Waimea Water website here. https://waimeawater.nz/2025/02/10/dam-opening-ceremony/.

Penny Timmer-Arends, 2023 Kellogg Scholar

Penny contributed to a DairyNZ ‘Inside Dairy’ article recently. The article, ‘Decoding Rumination Data’, looks at the data wearables such as collars and tags can provide to measure a cow’s wellbeing. This technology has made monitoring rumination easier.

Take a read of the article that suggests visual monitoring and physical examinations should also be used to monitor rumination rates. https://www.dairynz.co.nz/news/decoding-rumination-data/.

Alison Bentley, 2023 Kellogg Scholar

Alison spoke to Radio New Zealand a couple of weeks ago about growing beef cattle, hazelnuts and a wide range of fruit on her small farm near Rotorua.

Alison says small farms have a pivotal role to play in addressing domestic food security and the environment.

“Seven hectares can produce a magnificent amount of food.”

Take a listen to the RNZ interview here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/2018976890/could-small-scale-farms-be-the-best-way-to-feed-the-country.

Mihi Harris, 2021 Kellogg Scholar

B+LNZ continues to build its support for Whenua Māori, with the establishment of a Kāhui (Māori agribusiness advisory group). Mihi Harris is now part of this seven-strong group that will represent the needs of Whenua Māori entities.

Read more about the Kāhui and about Mihi here: https://beeflambnz.com/news/meet-blnzs-maori-agribusiness-advisory-group.

The 2025 Food and Fibre CoVE Research and Insights Forum.

The 2025 Food and Fibre CoVE Research and Insights Forum.

The 2025 Food and Fibre CoVE Research and Insights Forum showcased crucial projects delivered throughout the last year, that have helped address the challenges our sector faces, specifically around workforce talent, the pace of change in technology and uncertainty.

The two-day Forum got underway at Wharewaka in Wellington yesterday, with Rural Leaders’ CEO Lisa Rogers in attendance.

The following is a summary of the excellent posts (and photos) from Food and Fibre CoVE.

Day One.

The Honourable Andrew Hoggard opened and shared his vision for advancing a thriving skilled food and fibre workforce while Shamubeel Eaqub gave the economic realities and implications for NZ as a trading nation – a lot of it good news.

A session ‘Talent for our Future’ followed and brought the Skills Framework to life. This was conducted by Kathryn Koopmanschap, Nicky Murray and HTK Group’s Neala Rosandich.

The Skills Framework focuses on a skills-first approach encompassing: mōhio (understanding). mātau (expertise) and mārama (enlightenment).

Alongside this, a Te Ao Māori Skills Toolkit has been developed as a guide and support for learners, employers and providers.

View the Skills Framework toolkits here: Food and Fibre Skills Framework.

Forum goers also heard about the Secondary School Transitions and Pathways to Vocational Education, Training, and Employment project from Josh Williams of Skills Group.

To view the policy review by Josh Williams and Arthur Graves, or for more on the project, click here: Secondary School Transitions and Pathways to VET and Employment.

The second session captured a key range of projects focussed on workforce retention. Adam Barker of Scarlatti on insights looking into the possibility of coordinating New Zealand’s seasonal workforces between sectors and regions.

The final report is due to be published shortly.

Emma Boase of PwC New Zealand profiled the Employer Toolkit that has been developed for the ‘Retaining our People – Food and Fibre Retention Pilots’ project.

This toolkit for supervisors, managers and employers developed alongside industry provides free online information for better workplace wellbeing and culture, Māori cultural confidence, mentoring and more.

Head to www.employertoolkitnz.org to see this valuable work.

Sector snapshots from Dr Lesley Petersen included a sneak peek into the Aquaculture New Zealand mentoring and coaching pilot programme and the results from an impact evaluation of Mr Apple New Zealand Ltd’s internship, called Growing Future Horticulturalists. Both these pilots provide learning and guidance to take programmes like this to other food and fibre sectors.

Moerangi Vercoe and Daniel Wallwork of Muka Tangata Workforce Development Council shared the Te Haumako – Māori Workforce Development Plan recognising the significance of Māori agribusiness and growing demographic within food and fibre, with the opportunity to enhance qualifications and training that work for Māori.

You can read more on Te Haumako here: mukatangata.nz/te-haumako/

And connecting much of this work to leadership development is the Food and Fibre commissioned leadership project with Rural Leaders. The most recent report in this project, ‘A Path to Realising Leadership Potential in Aotearoa NZ’s Food and Fibre Sector’, was available to those attending.

Day Two.

Session three ‘Integrating Technology’, exploring the potential emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence has for food and fibre.

Dan Browne and Hamish Webber of Indelible – Creative Studio with CoVE’s Dr Lilla du Toit looked at how technology can advance learning and training capability, with AI researcher Dr Jace Hargis from Orlando on current possibilities.

Delegates gave new tools a go too – including an immersive experience on keeping safe when moving stock. 3 pilots to test the technology are underway with Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and DairyNZ.

Take a look at a report exploring the possibilities of emerging technologies for NZ food and fibre by Skills Group, here: Investing in Emerging Technologies: Gamification, VR and AI Research project and pilots.

The Scarlatti team’s Phoebe Gill and Julie Moularde spoke on two key projects including AI in assessment practices that are accessible for learners and providers.

Delegates were also introduced to Food and Fibre CoVE’s interactive Online Excellence Framework Scarlatti and Skills Group have done to bring the Rubrics and its ‘superpowers’ to life.

In Session four – a panel line-up spoke on positive disruption for the future of food and fibre VET. Grace Moscrip Josh Williams and Lisa Rogers, CoVE Board member Cheyenne Wilson and Chair, William Beetham who reflected on the learnings of the Forum’s two days – shaping a VET sector for the ever-evolving future-focussed food and fibre sectors of New Zealand.

Food and Fibre CoVE’s Chair William Beetham provided an update of Food and Fibre CoVE’s Future Directions Initiative, working with our stakeholders and PwC New Zealand on what comes next.

Have your say on what Food and Fibre CoVE’s focus should be beyond 2025. Click here: Food and Fibre CoVE Future direction

The Nuffield 2025 Contemporary Scholars Conference.

The Nuffield 2025 Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC) wrapped up last week in Auckland, running March 8 to March 16.

This CSC, organised by Rural Leaders and hosted by Rural Leaders and Nuffield International, brought together over 100 newly selected Nuffield Scholars from around the globe. The CSC offered scholars an immersive experience through a series of carefully curated activities, workshops and speakers.

It’s an immersive platform for new scholars to engage with thought leaders to address global agricultural challenges. The 9-day programme featured presentations, panel discussions, and field trips. This year’s conference emphasised leadership development, critical thinking, effective communication, wellbeing, Te Ao Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, trade and exposure to New Zealand’s unique value chains.

For Rural Leaders, hosting this CSC provided an opportunity to showcase Aotearoa’s advancements in the food and fibre sector. Participants explored local farming systems, sustainability practices, and technological innovations, gaining insights into how New Zealand maintains its competitive edge in global agriculture.

An important aspect of the CSC is the networking among scholars, fostering international collaboration and knowledge exchange. Many of these newly connected scholars will travel together internationally in small groups during their Global Focus Programme (GFP), another key chapter in the scholarship programme.

The GFP is a four-week tour across multiple countries, further enhancing scholars’ global perspective on agricultural practices.

CSC Programme highlights included:

Presentations: Scholars attended sessions led by global thought leaders addressing pressing agricultural challenges. These talks provided insights into innovative solutions and strategies shaping the future of agriculture.

Speakers included: Jodie Redcliffe (Nuffield International and Australia CEO), Kate Scott (Nuffield/Rural Leaders Chair), Hon. Damien O’Connor MP, Christoph Graf Grote (Nuffield International Chair), Steve Kearney (Chief Mental Health Officer NZDF), Shannon Stallard (Lead with Virtue), Russell Pickering (The Pickering Group), Andrew Watene (Head of KPMG Propagate), Jessica Smith (Deputy Chief Executive at Te Tuapapa – Ministry for Housing and Urban Development), Marcin Markowicz,

(2023 Nuffield Scholar, Poland), Bruce Weir (GM Country Banking Rabobank), Campbell Parker (CEO DairyNZ), David Chin (CEO LIC), Tim Gibson (Director LIC), Corrigan Sowman (LIC Board Chair), Charlotte Rutherford (Dir. Of Sustainability Fonterra), Vangelis Vitalis (NZ Chief Trade Negotiator), Sally Thomson (Nuffield Executive – Brazil), Bev Flatt (Global Partnerships Manager – Agriculture Advocacy and Activiation, Bayer-Sponsor), Lisa Rogers (CEO Rural Leaders) and more. Thank you to all for giving your time and sharing your isnights.

Panel Discussions: Engaging panels allowed scholars to delve deeper into topics such as sustainable farming practices, climate change adaptation, and technological advancements in agriculture.

Field trips: Participants embarked on field trips to local farming operations and agri-businesses, witnessing firsthand New Zealand’s cutting-edge agricultural practices and value chain innovations.

These included: DairyNZ, LIC, Balle Bros., Plant and Food, Leaderbrand, Punchbowl and more.

Networking: The entire conference was essentially a networking session, enabling scholars to connect, share experiences, and lay the groundwork for future collaborations.

And, did we mention the Nuffield Games? These were held near the end of the conference and, well, there’s really nothing like it.

While the true impact of this CSC will play out over time, these activities collectively enhance the scholars’ understanding of global agricultural dynamics equipping them with the knowledge to drive positive change in their respective regions and industries. For New Zealand – it puts the country front of mind amongst a large cohort of rising global rural leaders.

Feedback has been unanimously positive. The success of this CSC is underpinned by our conference sponsors’ generosity.

Rural Leaders, Nuffield NZ and Nuffield International wish to express their thanks to: Bayer, Nuveen, LIC, PWC, Rabobank, Laguna Bay and MyFarm Investments. Thank you for making this CSC possible.

You can download this CSC’s programme here for more detail on the conference’s nine days.

A huge thanks also to Phil Morrison for binding together the CSC’s insight threads so well during the conference. Phil facilitated the event expertly and was instrumental to its success.

For the 2025 Nuffield New Zealand Scholars: Lisa Portas, Dani Darke, Alan McDermott and Jon Pemberton, their journeys are underway and their research topics are now more carefully defined. During the CSC every 2025 scholar gave a 2-minute summary of their intended research.

Take a look at the topic presentations from our four 2025 NZ Scholars below:

The 2024 NZ Scholars will submit their completed reports in the coming weeks. We’ll share those widely after our investing partners have had a first preview.

The Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme has been developing leaders for the rural and agri-food sector since 1979.

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The Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarship is one of the most valued awards in New Zealand’s primary sector.

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Innovating for our fast-changing value chains.

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Fast-track your food and fibre skills, knowledge, and confidence.

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Episode Transcript

Family Farm Background and Evolution

Career Path and International Experience

Kellogg Research Focus: The Future of Arable Farming

Farmer Perspectives: Looking 25-50 Years Ahead

Key Recommendations: Integration and Collaboration

The Challenge of Farm Independence Culture

Personal Leadership Development Through Kellogg

The Need for Disruption and Adaptation

Recommendation for the Kellogg Programme

CountryWide Podcast Transcript

The Four Value Chains

Target Participants

Core Learning Framework

Intellectual Property Insights

Rethinking Value Creation

Global Market Reality

Preparation for International Engagement

Mental Models for Analysis

Programme Success Stories

Organisational Alignment

Learning Environment

Programme Details and Networking

Marise James, 1998 Nuffield Scholar

Carlos Bagrie, 2024 Nuffield Scholar

Iain Inglis, 2024 Kellogg Scholar

Sarah How, 2019 Kellogg Scholar

Amber Carpenter, 2018 Kellogg Scholar

Episode Transcript

Farming to suit your environment.

Seeing the world before farming.

Building knowledge and leadership skills.

The Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme experience.

Lamb and ewe mortality, leadership, and learning.

Federated Farmers Meat and Wool Chair and further study.

Putting leadership development into practice.

Get involved, be part of the bigger conversations.

Episode Transcript

A little about Hugh and Drumpeel Farms.

2001: A Nuffield Odyssey.

Giving back to New Zealand food and fibre.

Nuffield and getting out of your comfort zone.

Nuffield and the global perspective.

Innovating in the arable sector.

Water is the key.

What do the next generation of food and fibre leaders believe we need to act on right now?

Blake Irving, 2022 Kellogg Scholar

Jenna Smith, 2024 Nuffield Scholar

John Foley, 2021 Nuffield Scholar

Episode Transcript

A strong connection to farming.

From Young Farmers to a Nuffield Scholarship.

Nuffield research still relevant 30 years later.

A career in leadership.

The most productive conversations are face-to-face.

Rural leadership pathways.

Applying for a Nuffield.

Murray King, 2003 Nuffield Scholar, ONZM

Penny Timmer-Arends, 2023 Kellogg Scholar

Alison Bentley, 2023 Kellogg Scholar

Mihi Harris, 2021 Kellogg Scholar