Kellogg Programme Reports

Farming livestock in New Zealand is becoming increasingly exposed to global and national economic, social, environmental and regulatory trends. Going forward there is increasing pressure from the public and consumers to preserve or ideally improve soil health, water quality and biodiversity, while ensuring that the food we produce is safe and nutritious, animals are treated … Read more

“It’s time I got out of the cowshed. What is the best way to do this?”Questions similar to this have often come up in my conversations with farmers. The information available tends to be fragmented, focuses on processes and procedures, and more often refers to family succession. While this information is relevant, more targeted information … Read more

The motivation to research what it takes to be a great employer in 2016? stems from the author’s 10-year involvement in the kiwifruit post-harvest sector and an acknowledgment that a number of forces both globally and within the kiwifruit industry have reshaped the employment landscape during this time. The author’s opinion is that the kiwifruit … Read more

The aim of this research was to explore ways to strengthen rural communities in New Zealand. The research focuses on the three small rural communities of Kimbolton, Apiti and Rangiwahia, all located in the northern Manawatu.  Six households were chosen from each community and invited to participate in the project. The participants were given a … Read more

As a relatively new asparagus grower, in the Waikato region of New Zealand, I am interested in exploring opportunities within this industry. The harvesting costs in an asparagus business are a significant portion of the total expenditure, so any efficiency gains would provide a direct contribution to profitability.  There are currently several different methods for … Read more

Why is family succession planning an issue we should be concerned about? It comes back to the word family. Family succession planning within the agricultural landscape conquers within, an emotional connection to the land and a cultural identity within New Zealand. There have always been family businesses running farms and there appears to be a … Read more

When looking at people and culture, it is difficult to use traditional academic processes to understand how we see the world, and how we think and feel. This is because the influences on humans tend to be more around emotions, rather than logic. Traditional academic process has been around logic or critical thinking, and this … Read more

Aoroa Farms Trust sees organics as a Get Out of Jail Card! This report was written to enable two decisions to be made: Whether or not Aoroa Farms Trust remain a conventional dairy farm or convertto becoming an organic dairy farm. If the decision is to convert do they supply Fonterra Coop or Organic Dairy … Read more

The coarse wool industry has been described as being in a state of malaise by the existing literature and industry experts. Back in 1981 Prime Minister David Lange infamously boasted that agriculture was a sunset industry (Federated Farmers, 2014). At the time this was challenged by industry sector leaders as being false. However, whilst undertaking … Read more

There is significant potential for New Zealand to increase its ability to utilise more bobby calves therefore making them a more valued product. It is important that we have a sustainable, viable, ethical and PR friendly value chain. It is also important that NZ Inc. gets this right to maintain farmers/producers’ ‘social licence’ to farm … Read more

The regional council of Southland (Environment Southland) is mid-way through its Water and Land 2020 and Beyond (WL2020) Project. This project consists of three stages, and is the council’s response to the government’s National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. It aims to prevent any further decline in water quality, and to help the Southland community … Read more

Psa has increased biosecurity awareness in the kiwifruit industry, and is reinforced by recent fruit fly incursions and biosecurity communications by industry bodies. Kiwifruit growers believe that a future biosecurity incursion is a significant risk to their investment in kiwifruit, if not the greatest risk. Yet on most orchards, biosecurity practices have slipped from where … Read more

It makes sense to look at disruptive technology within agriculture when so many other industries have been disrupted. Music (iTunes, Spotify, Pandora), books (Amazon, Book Depository), travel agents (TripAdvisor), transportation (Uber, Tesla), accommodation (AirBnB), entertainment (Netflix), insurance (Trov), recruitment (LinkedIn) or energy (Flick) have all been affected. What all have in common is a lack … Read more

The dairy industry is in a difficult period and faced with volatile global milk price, increased farm debt and an increasing level of compliance and regulatory costs. The industry is entering its second consecutive year of negative cash flows. The industry’s biggest processor, Fonterra’s current farm gate milk price of $3.90/kgMS, which is well below … Read more

Many agribusiness leaders see New Zealand as going through a transformational phase in agriculture. There is a lot of rhetoric about how best to solve the commodity cycle conundrum we find ourselves in. This ‘cycle conundrum’ is not new to New Zealand as we have been commodity price takers for decades and there are plenty … Read more

The underlying motivation behind undertaking this research is to identify some of the key processes and initiatives that successful New Zealand family businesses implement to ensure their successes and human capital are passed down through the generations effectively. Conversely, I was also interested in clearly identifying some of the common issues which arise in family … Read more

The use of Palm Kernel (PK) as a supplementary feed for NZ dairy cows has seen unprecedented growth over the past decade, despite volatile milk prices. Demand has been driven by system intensification, a production focus and climatic challenge. The availability, flexibility and cost- competitiveness of PK make it a popular choice with dairy farmers.  … Read more

Rural women are moving their social space and networks online and increasingly seeking to work longer hours off farm, while the communities they live in continue to operate in the historical colonial space of a ‘man’s world’.  Survey results for this report portray farming Mums in particular, as largely feeling lonely and isolated and without … Read more

Investment in time and capital to satisfy compliance requirements in the dairy industry is increasing year by year. While this is a necessary requirement to operate a business in our modern environment there is potential to create value out of this at the same time. Often when we look at disruptions we look for solutions … Read more

New Zealand’s pastoral industry was founded on the breaking in of the land, and the romanticised image of cattlemen droving stock across rugged countryside remains a powerful image, even today. In abrupt contrast, however, is the more recent focus on stock access to waterways and its power as a catalyst for intense debate about water … Read more

The South Island Dairy Development Centre (SIDDC) is a non-profit set up through a collaborative effort of seven dairy industry partners: Lincoln University, AgResearch, Plant and Food Research, DairyNZ, Ravensdown Fertiliser Cooperative, LIC, and SIDE (South Island Dairy Event). Founded in 2001, it has operated the Lincoln University Demonstration Dairy Farm (LUDDF) as a means … Read more