K27 Reports

New Zealand's expanding dairy industry has created a crucial supervisory role between governance and farm management. This project surveys multiple farm supervisors to understand their varied tasks and identify ways to maximize their value.

New Zealand’s agricultural sector is critically important to New Zealand’s economic future. For Primary Sector and Economic Growth we must give assurances to our trading partners that New Zealand protein products are safe, healthy and disease free. To do so, Industry along with Government support have formulated an Animal Identification and Tracing System that will … Read more

The name of my project is ‘A picture is a thousand words’. I have chosen this name because I think we learn faster and clearer from video instruction manuals compared to written manuals. We learn faster through video recordings because it allows us to use all our senses in comparison to written manuals, which only … Read more

At 4.35am on 4th September 2010, Canterbury was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. On 22nd February 2011 and 13th June 2011 a separate fault line approximately 35km from the first, ruptured to inflict two further earthquakes measuring 6.3 and 6.0 respectively. As a direct result of the February earthquake, 181 … Read more

Few studies have looked at what is important to farmers when supplying meat companies. Research has looked at the farmer’s decision making process and what processors are doing to attract farmers but not the link between them. In this paper issues that are important to farmers relating to this link are discussed. Ladder interviews were … Read more

New Zealand was developed off the sheep’s back. It seems unfathomable that the strong wool industry, once our largest export earner, is today fighting for survival. Worse than that, until recently, there was a widespread view it had little chance of remaining viable, both economically and in the volume of fibre produced. During the Korean … Read more

The sheep industry, while largely depressed over the last few years of the last decade, has seen resurgence in the last twelve months and remains an integral part of New Zealand’s agricultural and National economy. Farmers must take advantage of current improved prices by improving productivity, becoming more efficient and remain competitive to ensure the … Read more

Breed Societies have had a place in New Zealand agriculture since the late 1800’s. Breeding groups of all species of livestock began incorporating Breed Societies particularly in the early 1900’s and this practice has continued for the last 100 years. The information gathered in this report refers to Sheep and Beef Breeds predominantly, however does … Read more

My initial intention was to explore Trading Among Farmers (TAF) benefits, as an option for family succession. I believed TAF could be used as an alternative to, or combination of asset distribution, retirement cashflow, family succession vehicle etc … During the ‘education’ process it became apparent that TAF’s options and its flexibility would be wide … Read more

I feel very passionate about the perceived lack of awareness on the whole in the rural sector in developing the young people’s interest and understanding of what he Agri-sector can offer as a career and lifestyle. Another concern is the lack of direction in many cases once people are on their career path within the … Read more

This report provides an overview of some of the developments in technology and how they have impacted on dairy farming at an industry level as well as an individual level. The process of innovation and adoption that can be applied to farmers is discussed, followed by a review of how proven precision technology is being … Read more

The New Zealand Deer Industry has rather a unique history. Kiwi ingenuity at its best, pioneers seeing a pest in the wild as an opportunity to deliver wealth. That vision continues to this day with deer now being farm raised to create a premium product. It has been a concern over the past five years … Read more

This study set out to discuss staff turnover, the factors that drive turnover and the implications of varying levels of turnover on the productivity and profitability of a business. Of particular interest was the examination of staff turnover in the agricultural sector in New Zealand the current levels and the factors driving turnover. Current statistics … Read more

On-farm Certification programmes and the successful uptake of them by producers relies on some key elements especially if the programmes are to help mitigate the ‘licence to operate’ debate that is currently hampering intensive agricultural practice. Certification programmes operate in many different contexts – the size, depth and distribution of them through the supply chain … Read more

This report explores local government reform within Northland. A mayoral forum in 2009/2010 recognised issues of dysfunctionality and inefficiencies in the current system and began a process of targeting the formation of a single unitary authority within Northland. To date this process has failed to effect any significant structural or procedural change. In researching for … Read more

The Industry triangle is made up of 3 key participants: Growers, Zespri, Suppliers. Each plays a crucial part in the integrity of the supply chain, though the supply chain is controlled mainly by suppliers and Zespri. The Suppliers role is to supply a product of quality and consistency that Zespri can take to the market … Read more