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

Andrew Jolly

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

Jolene Germann

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

Dale Cook

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

Rachel Baker

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

Nadine Porter

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

Sam Williams

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

Corrigan Sowman

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

Alice Reilly

T he New Zealand dairy industry is constantly evolving with changing practices, expectations from beyond the farm gate increasingly affecting farm practices, and consumer demands shifting – both in terms of product quality and the method of production. These issues are particularly noteworthy when looking at the Golden Bay population where this study is based, … Read more

Sarah Bell

This report explores leadership in New Zealand agriculture, emphasizing the need for diverse, collaborative, and resilient leadership to navigate future challenges and ensure industry success.

Grant Jackson

The New Zealand dairy industry, like many other primary industries, fuelled by market volatility is at a pseudo crossroads in its evolution. Does it look to secure its past dominance in global dairy commodity trade and optimise its investment into established commodity infrastructure? Or does it forego past heritage and investments, adopting a more singular focused strategic migration into revenue dominance from consumer value-add exports and secure the perceived provenance value of our dairy products?

Bede O'Connor

China is currently the most important market to the New Zealand Dairy Industry. I first visited in 2014 and soon realised there were some large differences to the information New Zealand Dairy Farmers believed to what was actually happening on the ground in China. Rapid development was occurring in the Chinese Dairy Industry and the … Read more

Michael Skudder

For the last 15 years I have been involved with the dairy industry in the capacity of a rural bank manager . Prior to this I worked as an accountant, property valuer and seasonal farm worker. Ironically I started with another topic in mind “key factors to staff retention in Northland dairy farms”, however after … Read more

Wayne May

The use of paddock recording by farmers is still very much done by traditional methods. The popular method of paper recording ie. In a farm diary, has many limitations and although the benefits of using technology are clear, not many NZ farmers have been brave enough to take up the challenge and use paddock recording … Read more

Zach Mounsey

The objective of this study was to investigate the aspects of production systems in the New Zealand dairy industry with profitability as the key driver, along with resilience to volatile price swings, international competiveness and an environmental enquiry. Existing data was used for this analysis . Over the past 10 years there has been a … Read more

Sam Riley

This report aims to identify the advantages and disadvantages of fodder beet (FB) as a feed option for lactating cows in the dairy industry. In this report I analyze the cost to grow, harvest and transport fodder beet. In addition, I compare similar stock feed that includes: palm kernel expeller (PKE), and grain. I pay … Read more

Paul Martin

New Zealand is a significant participant in the global dairy export market, making up 30% of this market. The major dairy export item from New Zealand is currently Whole Milk Powder (WMP), which is one of the most price volatile commodities in the world. The United States and European Union regions have become prominent competitors … Read more

Ross Wallis

The purpose of this study is to explore if there is a “disconnect” between Fonterra farmers and their Co-operative and in particular the Fonterra Shareholders’ Council. As a body one of its primary roles is to represent farmer share holder views – which raises the question of how effective it can be if there is … Read more

Simon Van Der Heyden

The New Zealand dairy industry has a broad range of career opportunities for people who are focused and disciplined to work their way through the stages of success. This report examines the pathways and steps to wealth creation within the dairy industry.  Research shows that career progression is not as clear cut in today’s environment … Read more

Clint Gulliver

New Zealand has a long history around agriculture. Over time farms have grown in size from single owner/operators to more commercial-based, corporate style farms. The average dairy farm size in New Zealand has grown to an average of 413 cows in the 2013/14 season (Walsh, 2014). Due to this growth farm owners have had to … Read more

Jeremy Anderson

This paper and the associated research sought to answer the following research question: What is the impact of machine to machine (M2M) communication on the dairy industry in New Zealand, and what is the likely impact in the future? Information and communication technology (ICT) plays a significant role in the information flow across the dairy … Read more

Duncan Mackintosh

There is global concern about food safety and the effect antibiotic use in animal production has on our ability to treat human infections in high profile “superbugs” such as MRSA. Antibiotic use in animals has come under significant scrutiny, with a call to reduce their use. Global consumer brands have increased the profile of this … Read more

Satwant Singh

NZ dairy farmers are directly exposed to uncertainty and fluctuations in commodity pricing. Over the past ten years external factors have had a significant impact on dairy farming businesses, leading to increased financial pressure, delayed investment plans and solvency issues. New Zealand (NZ) dairy farmers have been left behind. Sophisticated and diverse price risk management … Read more

Doug Dibley

Dairying remains New Zealand’s largest and most successful industry. A growing global population and higher rates of urbanisation have largely contributed to increased demand in milk globally. Current demand has driven the market and led to continued dairy development and conversion of land use to dairying within New Zealand. This intensification has placed significantly increased … Read more