Dairy Women’s webinars start

The professional dairy industry women's group will deliver the online training programme despite limited access to high-speed internet services in many rural communities.

Chief executive Sarah Speight says as dairy women's lives were getting busier, the network needed be innovative in how it delivered training.

"The network was founded on using technology to empower dairying women. Our email forum which started in 2002 was a leading innovation at the time and is still really well-used," she says.

"Sure, there are limitations to what we can do, but our members have said they don't want limited access to broadband to stop the network delivering innovative services that suit the rural dairying lifestyle."

The network's traditional Dairy Days are a series of one-day workshops which run twice a year across the country covering a range of topics from essential business skills to on-farm practices. The virtual Dairy Day webcast is an extension of the training programme.

Speight says a pre-recorded webcast format, rather than a live webcast, minimises some of the problems experienced by slower internet speeds. The webcast could be watched anytime online, or downloaded onto DVD or as an audio file for watching off-line.

Dairy Women's Network worked with OneFarm to develop the webcast. OneFarm is a joint venture between Massey and Lincoln Universities that is supported by DairyNZ and the Government's Primary Growth partnership.

The first virtual Dairy Days webcast focuses on developing human resources skills for dairy farm employers, and will be available to DNW members from today.

Speight says while rural internet access and speed was still a challenge for many, rural New Zealanders expected the same access to online services as their urban neighbours.

In 2010 the government committed to the Rural Broadband Initiative. The initiative will bring high speed broadband to 252,000 customers, and 86% of rural households and businesses will have access to broadband peak speeds of at least 5Mbps.

Currently around 20% of rural homes and businesses have access to 5Mbps. (Source: www.med.govt.nz)