2026 Nuffield NZ Farming Scholarship. Apply by 17 August 2025. Read More...

Apply for 2026 Nuffield NZ Farming Scholarship by 17 August 2025. More details...

Dairy

Jason Hoyle

From my time researching my chosen Kellogg’s topic, I have found it very easy to say something is broken.  We need to change.  This needs to be done by aiming for those low hanging fruit that shock and challenge us as dairy farmers. I have since come to the realization that great leaders can inspire … Read more

Mark Hooper

Federated Farmers is a strong lobby and advocacy organization that has proudly represented New Zealand’s primary production sector since 1946. In the period from 2014 to early 2018 Federated Farmers experienced a 7.5% decline in membership subscriptions. While much of this decline can be attributed directly to a significant downturn in dairy farming returns in … Read more

Jason Grant

Currently, the environment and water quality are at the forefront of New Zealanders minds. There is a general consensus that our environment is suffering from the strain modern society has put on it. As a consequence of this, the agriculture industry is coming under increased pressure and scrutiny to find solutions to address this problem. … Read more

Nick de Ridder

The New Zealand Agricultural Sector makes up about two thirds of the exported goods from New Zealand and as such remains the most important industry for New Zealand’s economy. Agricultural farms span from Stewart Island in the South to Cape Reinga in the North, some 1600 km away and from one coast line in the … Read more

James Courtman

The decision by Fonterra to implement TAF (Trading Among Farmers) back in 2012 was a major decision in the history of the co-operative and was predominantly to address an issue know as Redemption risk. This redemption issue was something Fonterra conceded to in the process of forming Fonterra in 2001. Government at the time wouldn’t … Read more

Pablo Gallegos

“If anybody anywhere in the world can use small amounts of energy, water and nutrients to create the same quality food as we can here then why would anyone buy from New Zealand?” That’s the question that Lance Wiggs director of several New Zealand high-growth companies (www.lancewiggs.com) asked to his readers back in February 2016. … Read more

Allister Holmes

It is naïve and self-centered to even consider our selves the owners of land. Land has existed for millennia before we “own” it, and will continue to exist for millennia after we no longer “own” it. We are simply occupiers, users and stewards of it for a fleeting time. Current land stewards should undertake succession … Read more

Solis Norton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjzbCEmvtGk&list=PL_FGrpOWrfXvXSGWBr9pj48LJHnXeZeJ5&index=3&t=0s Listen to the podcast Download the report This report explores and applies a novel methodology of standardising and quantifying energy flows within New Zealand’s primary food production chains and more widely within New Zealand itself in relation to the Zero Carbon bill. Then demonstrates the method as a critically important adjunct to economics in … Read more

Tony Dowman

The dairy industry has for a long time been challenged to recruit sufficient people to fill vacancies and to meet the needs created by natural attrition. Generation Z (Gen Z) are people born after 1995. The relevance being that Gen Z are aged up to approximately 20 years (as at 2017) and are starting to … Read more

Paul Edwards

During the last two decades (1995 to 2015) the New Zealand dairy industry has undergone significant growth. Nationally, cow numbers have increased 70% from 2.9 to 5 million, the area in dairy has increased 45% from 1.2 to 1.75 million hectares and milk production has increased 129% from 8.1 billion to 18.6 billion milksolids (DairyNZ … Read more

Edward Von Randow

Is there an issue with how dairy farm staff are being trained off farm and is this giving the results the farmers need. For the diary sector to continue to farm in New Zealand we need to make sure that our staff are well trained in all aspects of farming not just the day to … Read more

Kate Boyd

Is now the time for bovine dominance in the milk market to be challenged? There are variable and questionable milk alternatives more readily available both locally and abroad and our New Zealand sheep dairy history would suggest the current spike in popularity will be short-lived. I disagree. In my opinion New Zealand is the ideal … Read more

Brook Yates

The dairy industry in New Zealand today is as important to the future of the dairy farmer as it is to the future of the New Zealand economy. But as the industry stands, dairy is at a crossroads. New Zealand was identified early in its colonisation as being blessed with the ideal climate and wide … Read more

Rhys Roberts

This report aims to identify a pathway for dairy farmers to move from land farmers to land owners. In this report, I single out a pathway known as lease farming and analyse the feasibility and financial pathway to farm ownership over a ten-year time frame. To begin I set the scene on trends formed over … Read more

Wilma Foster

This project aims to assess what DairyNZ can do to improve the way it learns from other organisations. Thirteen interviews were carried out, seven with people from DairyNZ and six from organisations related to the kiwifruit industry (HortNZ, KVH, NZKGI, Zespri). The interviews were transcribed and then analysed. The key findings below are supported by … Read more

Ryan O’Sullivan

The NZ dairy industry has always historically enjoyed the advantage of being the world’s lowest cost producer of milk with our cheap pasture feed resource being the envy of the dairy industry globally. Despite this, farmers in the Europe and the US, the worlds 2nd and third largest exporters are eyeing opportunities for growth to … Read more

Sophia Clark

50/50 Sharemilking as a path to farm ownership is a tried and true journey in the NZ Dairy Industry. Often, sharemilkers have to grow their herds quickly over a short period of time. For example, moving from a 270 cow farm up to a 500 cow farm. A sharemilker’s herd is their biggest and most … Read more

Cam Henderson

Dairy farmers are being encouraged to tell their story by leaders in the New Zealand dairy industry. This study surveyed opinions from fifteen New Zealand dairy industry and media leaders and discovered a need to share good stories with other farmers to improve uptake of on farm practice, with the general public to improve the … Read more

Joanna Greaves

Enthusiasm and passion for the Primary Industry, and it’s people, ignited an aspiration to understand how the Primary Sector is going to boost human capability to achieve it’s ambitions of doubling export earnings by 2025. Seismic market movements, international politics, technological advances and climate change all contribute to an unsettled and fickle business environment. Increasing … Read more

Shirley Kissick

“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

Stuart Taylor

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

Penny Smart

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