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...

2008 Reports

Chris Parsons, CEO New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust

James Parsons

Supply chain relationships and value chain design.

New Zealand’s meat and wool industry must pursue the value chain approach with all speed.  But producers must enter them with enough collective strength to ensure they aren’t squeezed on price as they are today.  Instead of being retail-led value chains they must be producer-led chains.  Chains that have a firm consumer focus with producer owned niche brands.
  • 2008
  • Nuffield 2008
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Evan Heywood

“SPE or Free” What would happen to the Nelson kiwifruit grower in a deregulated environment?

This analysis examines whether Nelson kiwifruit growers would benefit more from deregulation versus Zespri's Single Point of Entry monopoly, using case studies from New Zealand and South African fruit industries.
  • 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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Herstall Ulrich

Agricultural Meat Marketing Co-operatives

The purpose of this project is to explore what New Zealand Farmers think about GM and whether they would consider using, or accept others using, GM plants or animals if they were approved for release into the New Zealand environment. Releasing a GM organism is an application process which no one working with GM has contemplated undertaking at this time.
  • November 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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Tim Hale

Future for genetic modification in New Zealand: what do farmers think?

The purpose of this project is to explore what New Zealand Farmers think about GM and whether they would consider using, or accept others using, GM plants or animals if they were approved for release into the New Zealand environment. Releasing a GM organism is an application process which no one working with GM has contemplated undertaking at this time.
  • 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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Craige Mackenzie

Understanding the carbon footprint in farming systems.

Climate Change has become one of the crucial issues of the early 21st Century. Pressures are increasing on agribusinesses to reduce carbon emissions.  This drive for change is coming from an international level, not just nationally. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), established in 1988 by the United Nations, has played a huge part … Read more

  • 2008
  • Nuffield 2008
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Ali Undorf-Lay

Bridging the divide: How farmers can improve their relationships with non-farmers.

As you drive around the New Zealand countryside it is not uncommon to hear farmers talk about a widening gap between rural and urban people. They say, that the lack of non-farmer understanding of ‘all things rural’ has let to unrealistic consumer expectations and too much regulation. Farmers are feeling disillusioned by the lack of … Read more

  • 2008
  • Nuffield 2008
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Kane, Sam

5-year economic outlook for Merino farming

NZ pastoral livestock production is currently faced with a rapidly changing environment. Input and output prices and their relativities are increasingly dynamic. The policy and regulatory environment seems to change quickly and with little warning. The physical climate and natural resource base is changing as a result of internal and external forces. Meanwhile agriculture continues … Read more

  • 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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Rollinson Bruce

Vegetable production in Ohakune – managing drought risk

The purpose of this report is to obtain further knowledge and analyse some of the issues commercial vegetable growers in Ohakune faced during the 2007/08 drought. The report explores some of the options for future irrigation opportunities and tools to assist growers make more informed decisions about irrigation. Rollinson Bruce

  • 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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Walter John, B

Synlait pasture monitoring and future directions

Synlait has an established pasture monitoring system across all the Synlait dairy farms. The objective is to provide accurate, consistent and comparable measurements that can be used for management decisions, including pasture allocation, surplus identification and regrassing options. The Synlait pasture monitoring service has provided a vast amount of data on pasture growth rate and … Read more

  • 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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Taylor, Sandra

Lifting the profile of farming in New Zealand

A growing division between urban and farming communities is having far reaching implications in this country. While 47% or $17.2 billion of this country’s export earnings comes from food production, only 7.7% of New Zealanders lives in what Statistics NZ describes as either rural areas with low urban influence or highly rural/remote areas. This country … Read more

  • 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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van Beek, G

Farmers should continue to farm Holstein Friesian cows: New Zealand milk pricing models have to change!

Dairy farmers take feed and convert that to milk and other farm products which are converted, typically in New Zealand by member co-operatives into marketable products for sale. The net revenue is distributed back to members through various payment models with the aim of providing clear market signals as to the value of their milk. … Read more

  • 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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Welsh Kylie, A

Igniting tutor potential: creating a higher standard of quality tutoring

The most telling measure of effectiveness as a tutor is the quality of a students learning. In recent years on average only 37% of Agriculture ITO trainees are actually completing their qualifications. There seems to be some potential barriers around a lack of emphasis being put on tutors capability or technique to deliver information. There … Read more

  • 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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Brian Russell

Dear ‘O’ Deer: psychological predisposition of an industry

The deer industry struggles to shake off the perception of being a young industry with growing pains. Product price volatility contributes to banks, farm advisors and the media being wary of promoting this relatively small industry. The entrepreneurs who initially developed the industry are now retiring, exposing a lack of new and younger deer farmers. Encouragement of a new generation of low risk taking and successful farmers is needed to stabilize and grow the industries perception, as being an attractive and viable farming alternative.
  • 2008
  • Kellogg 24
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