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...
Jessie Chan-Dorman is a Kellogg Rural Leadership scholar, has completed a Fonterra governance programme and was the recipient of Canterbury’s Institute of Directors aspiring director award in 2014. And she was named 2017 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year at the Dairy Women’s Network annual conference in Queenstown.
https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/dairy/view/giving-back-drives-award-winner
NZ Young Farmers chairman and recent Kellogg alumni Jason Te Brake will attend the Te Hono Movement Stanford Bootcamp in the United States after receiving the Emerging Primary Industries Scholarship.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/94273240/young-farmers-chief-wins-scholarship-to-attend-stanford-bootcamp
Excellence in New Zealand’s sheep industry was celebrated in Southland with the annual Beef and Lamb New Zealand Sheep Industry Awards.
https://www.odt.co.nz/business/family%E2%80%99s-vision-property-vindicated
This report was aimed at discussing and presenting the ideas surrounding the future of the co-operative business structure in rural New Zealand. This was achieved through a review of relevant literature and surveying key co-operative members and employees to gather their opinions on how they saw the co-operative structures relevance today and in the future.
A brief summation of four key rural co-operatives was expanded upon throughout to build a picture of why these entities operated the way they do. The author found that all co-operatives researched had very clear business values and a simple vision. All surveyed were of the opinion that these values and visions were critical in the discussion of relevance both today and in the future and that any move away from these could lead to the demise of the business structure.
The grassroots and highly visible nature of the New Zealand farmer lends itself to the co- operative structure nicely. Farmers in New Zealand make up a very small percentage of the population but are responsible for the delivery of a large proportion of export revenues. The collaborative approach of co-operatives enables the New Zealand farmer to be represented to the wider public without fear of standing alone. As such it is the opinion of the author that the co- operative business structure in rural New Zealand remains as relevant today as it was when the first rural NZ co-operatives formed in the 1800s.
Alex Murray
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 location to develop this budding industry. We have the operational know-how, the geography and access to reliable water sources, a tourism market that opens our primary sector to the world, a developing pool of ovine milking genetics suitable to the New Zealand environment, capacity for diversification as we investigate change in land use opportunities and a hunger to pursue an alternative farming vision with learned failures of other ventures a source of inspiration.
“We believe that strong science, a supportive Government and industry solidarity are essential for the future success of sheep dairying in New Zealand” (Blue River Dairy)
Sheep Dairy is an industry that has experienced two substantial ‘false starts’, in both the 1970’s and 1990’s. One overarching factor was market fragility which proved too challenging and the detriment of the industry at the time. What can we learn from our chequered history? To determine a sound market before we establish supply, mitigate financial risk with comprehensive process of due diligence, a slow and steady approach to ensure long term viability and fundamental is collaboration within the sheep dairy community.
The aim of this project was to investigate viability of establishing a sheep dairy platform on North Canterbury dry land as a profitable land use alternative.
Key findings as a result of this research are that alignment of the sheep dairy community is critical to our success long term, honesty with information is vital and that although dry land sheep dairy in North Canterbury may be ambitious – nothing is impossible!
Kate Boyd
My project has investigated some of the current beef industry quality assurance (QA) programs which provide evidence based marketing tools to the livestock industry. The case studies have allowed me to identify key aspects of these programs which would be useful to utilize when designing a holistic QA program for the beef industry.
The key recommendations arising from the case studies include:
I have also explored areas that may need to be added to the current industry systems to take full advantage of the marketing and educational opportunities a holist QA system can provide.
Amanda Giles
New Zealand’s animal genetics industry started when two sheep were imported, and they both died within four days, (NZ Rural Press Ltd, 2007). Since then, with the expertise of passionate breeders, scientists, farmers and advisers it is has significantly expanded and will continue to do so. By 2021, animal genetics is expected to be a USA$5.50 billion dollar industry, (PRNewswire, 2016). International markets especially, are taking advantages of the incredible advances in genetic technologies that enable increased efficiency in breeding genetically superior animals. In New Zealand, we must take advantage of the genetically superior stud stock that have been especially bred for our environment to allow farmers and the industry as a whole, to reach our production targets but do so in a sustainable way and with ‘value add’. To do this, we must insure that the ‘value’ of genetics is recognised by our New Zealand farmers as a significant player in the agricultural system.
The question was asked “is there a gap in the understanding of farmers, when it comes to their animal genetics?” and the answer was yes. This research attempts to understand why there is this gap by interviewing farmers, industry professionals and advisers. Farmer behaviour has been aligned with answers to the interviews and both the livestock in New Zealand, and New Zealand farmers have been described under the concept that their performance is a function of their genotype, or their goals and objectives, and the environment that they live in.
There is a range of performance of New Zealand farmers in their farm systems overall, but also in their understanding when it comes to genetics. Some reasons for this are more obvious, like the fact that you can’t “see” genetics, which makes it difficult to comprehend, or the fact that there is actually no pipeline for delivering simple and aligned genetic information out to the commercial sector. The not so obvious reasons can be understood by further analysing the goals and objectives of farmers, but also the social pressures that they face when striving to be a ‘good’ farmer. An animal is more likely to be judged by the way it looks, compared to its genetic potential, which will be a direct indication of how good of a farmer the owner is.
Recommendations have been made to the industry, to the advisers and to the farmers. There needs to be collaboration across the genetics “players” to provide breeders and commercial farmers with quality information that is transparent and has integrity. Farmer objectives need to be better understood, so solutions can be tailored and aligned. Both farmers and their advisers need to be more critically aware about animal genetics, in terms of what they are buying and where they are buying it from. The story of animal genetics needs to be told and it is performance that needs to be made trendy.
In order to understand, and appreciate the value of their livestock genetics, commercial farmers need to be individually understood, and they need to be empowered with the information to make a decision, which fits their individual objective.
Johanna Scott
Throughout its short history, the New Zealand Wagyu Industry (NZWI) which was established in the early 1990’s with the introduction of cattle from Australia and the United States (US) via original parents in Japan has been struggling to grow.
This is partly due but is not limited to the long time frames required to breed up stock, lack of knowledge of animals, perceived lack of appropriate farming systems (feed lot) through to an unwillingness for capital investment in the industry due to some early adopters being burned by a small few fly-by-nighters who vanished owing large sums of money.
Although it has come a long way in a small country at the bottom of the South Pacific the industry still has some way to go; the need for scale, the ever-changing consumer landscape and so on, importantly what is no longer solely important is food safety and price.
We have seen food miles and carbon foot prints come and to a certain extent go or are rebranded, the global consumer drive for clean, green “sustainable” production is still being echoed loud and clear in all industries in particular that of agriculture which according to the United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally (IPCC, 2014).
The aim of this study was to ascertain what the shape of the industry is currently, where it is headed in terms of opportunities and threats and what it may take to be successful in the future. To answer these questions I split the research into two parts;
As a result of the research there are four recommendations in order to answer the question where to from here for the NZWI:
Michael McGehan
Central Otago is a region where farming is predominantly sheep and beef. The profitability of these farms varies, and in the last few years lamb prices have not helped this. Nitrogen use has the potential to help farmers improve production and profitability, but the use of it also varies a lot from farm to farm in the area.
The aim of this report is to explore the use of nitrogen on Central Otago sheep and beef farms in order to get an understanding of how farmers are using it, and how it could be used better. While using nitrogen can significantly boost productivity, it is important that this drives profitability as well.
Six Central Otago sheep and beef farmers were interviewed to get a good understanding of their systems, their use of nitrogen, and their profitability. These businesses have been compared and contrasted to build a picture of what good use of nitrogen in the future might look like for the area.
There were some similarities and differences between systems, but some major consistencies:
Farmers were also questioned around benchmarking, feed budgeting, and environmental regulation to build a picture of their motivation and execution of their goals.
From this, several recommendations have been made both for farmers and rural professionals:
The farmers in this area face a set of challenging conditions. In order for their businesses to be future-proofed for future generations, they need to build businesses resilient to the many environmental and economic challenges they face. Using tools such as nitrogen is just one part of the puzzle, but one which the industry can provide significant help with in order to improve profitability.
Victoria Magazinovic
The New Zealand Kiwifruit industry has a unique background and history; from 1928 when Hayward Wright developed the “Hayward” variety, to our first exports to England in 1952.
Rapid expansion in the 1970’s, followed a crisis in the mid to late 1980’s as a result of large crop volumes beyond market demand. In 1997, Zespri International Limited was formed as a global marketer of New Zealand Kiwifruit.
Since then the industry has gone from strength to strength. However, in November 2010 the industry was hit by the bacteria PSA which wiped out the gold cultivar Hort 16A and threatened the future of the kiwifruit industry. The industry faced major challenges to overcome PSA, but a united approach has seen PSA overcome and confidence return.
In the same manner that succession planning is discussed on orchard, succession planning in the post-harvest industry is an area that needs to be looked at further. Not only is the age demographic of orchard ownership increasing, but also in the post-harvest sector.
The rationale behind my report is to examine succession planning in the post-harvest sector. This report looks at the importance of succession planning in the post-harvest kiwifruit sector. As we go from “survival to succession” how we attract, retain and grow people becomes a critical success factor.
My aim is to look specifically at the Post-Harvest sector and examine succession planning, compare this against current literature and provide a list of recommendations that the sector can use to implement, or fine tune their current succession planning strategies.
In order to obtain data and information for the report, I interviewed senior managers from eight post-harvest facilities representing 95% of the kiwifruit packing and cool store capacity in New Zealand. I then undertook analysis of their responses to generate key themes around succession planning.
Several outcomes came from the interviews. First and foremost was around people and the importance of attracting, retaining and growing them. Second was that each organisation had some form of succession planning in place. This varied from informal and ad-hoc to formalised planning that is discussed regularly and executive level. Third was that many people are involved in succession planning from the CEO, Human Resources general manager and the individual team member.
I recommend that succession planning encompass the entire organisation, that some form of formal succession planning strategy and structure is in place and that organisations in the post-harvest sector need to be clear on “why” people should seek a career in their industry; specifically the millennials must be convinced of a career within the industry.
I am a fourth generation kiwifruit orchardist in the Bay of Plenty and have owned my own orchard since 2004. I also work in the post-harvest kiwifruit sector and have great confidence in the industry. However, I am aware of the issues the industry faces around attracting and retaining the best people available.
