increase font size
AUSTRALIAN DAIRY, banking and investment interests are out to entice ambitious New Zealand dairy farmers and workers across the Tasman.
They want to rejuvenate the Tasmanian and Victorian dairy industries and inject new impetus into productivity.
They are dangling the carrot of a cheaper path to dairy farm ownership – about one third the cost of New Zealand, claims Andrew Radford, a director of ATR accountancy and owner of two Tasmanian dairy farms. He and two Rabobank rural managers, from Tasmania and Victoria, Rabobank senior dairy analyst Michael Harvey, and another investment specialist, were delivering the message at four bank-organised seminars around the country last week.
They want Kiwi talent to cross the ditch to help provide "the next wave of farmers to take the industry up another notch," says Leigh Barker, a Rabobank rural manager in Devonport branch, Tasmania.
They think New Zealand farmers and workers will bring new ideas, new competition and new innovation. "In the late 1990s to 2000s when the first wave of New Zealanders came, they contributed to growing the industry to a new level," says Barker. "That contribution can come again with the capacity available."
With big investment in processing plant in Tasmania in recent years, there's an annual 335 million litres extra capacity in Tasmania alone, Barker says. "If you go over there and buy a farm, all processors will turn up on that farm and try to grab you. They need to fill that stainless steel," says Radford.
"There's a lot of spare capacity that can be generated by new blood." – by Pam Tipa
See full story, p3, Dairy News, March 23
37 farmers from across the Rangitīkei and Manawatū regions recently spent a day-and-a-half learning new business management and planning skills at Rabobank’s latest AgPathways Programmes in Whanganui.
Carey Pawson-Edwards, a South Canterbury stock manager, has been named the winner of the 2026 Rabobank Management Project Award.
Despite near universal optimism in the rural sector, a panel of New Zealand’s leading food and agri minds caution that the sector must be intentional about its future path.
Rabobank has celebrated the tenth anniversary of its AgPathways Programme, with 23 farmers from Otago and Southland gathering for two-and-a-half days to learn new business management and planning skills.
Rabobank launched its Good Deeds Competition back in 2017 with the aim of supporting and celebrating the incredible efforts of rural communities in enhancing their local areas.
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has admitted that a scheme bringing workers from Pacific nations to work on orchards has become too hard to navigate but says changes are coming.
A new app designed in New Zealand aims to help sheep, beef and deer farmers capture, analyse and use body condition score data more effectively.
Canterbury farmer Andy Macfarlane has been appointed to the board of AgriZeroNZ, the public-private partnership designed to accelerate the development and deployment of emissions reduction tools for New Zealand farmers.
For over 50 years Mel Ewers has been supporting the apple sector navigate through compliance and quality assurance issues.
The apple sector is enjoying a bumper harvest season.
Growers and farmers are being encouraged to have an important conversation before the coming season starts: how to prolong the effectiveness of the crop protection tools they rely on.
OPINION: City and regional councils have been put on notice - stop using extreme climate forecasting scenarios that can drive…
OPINION: The Green Party’s rivers and oceans policy may have a new name but nothing else has changed.
