Massey VC Says University Best Placed to Support Dairy

 His comments come in the lead-up to the university celebrating its centenary next year, where there will be a significant emphasis on the dairy sector. It will also be 100 years since the Dairy Research Institute (DRI) was founded and sited on the same campus.

Finally, 2027 marks 60 years since Massey University began working with Fonterra which has its main R&D centre just across the road from Massey on the outskirts of Palmerston North.

In an exclusive interview with Dairy News, Venter noted that the DRI and Massey grew up together and there has always been close collaboration between the two organisations – and then more recently Fonterra.

Venter knows the dairy industry very well. Originally from a rural background in South Africa, he became an academic specialising in food safety microbiology, then joined Fonterra in 2011, his final role there beng director for global R&D. During some of that time he also served as an adjunct professor at Massey.

For 100 years the university has initiated or co-developed with partners such as the DRI some of the biggest and most significant innovations in the dairy sector. Right now, it is involved in Whenua Haumanu - a partnership between Massey University and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) through the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund which centres on exploring the most comprehensive programme on regenerative agriculture in NZ history. This is taking place at Massey’s No.1 dairy farm.

Venter says the role of Massey is to support the primary sector and to do this effectively it must be well connected with the sector, understand and solve its problems and support the whole of the value chain in the context of NZ’s exports globally. He says Massey does this exceptionally well and in a myriad of ways.

“Many of the people currently doing R&D in the dairy industry are also adjunct professors within our food technology area. When you look at who teaches most in terms of education for the dairy industry, it’s Massey.

“We have a post graduate diploma which is heavily utilised by the industry, especially for the processors in the manufacturing plants, who come and do that potentially part time from where they are working and they only come in for the contact blocks,” he says.

The Fonterra Connection

Venter says Massey University supports Fonterra with its graduate training programme and also trains local Fonterra staff in China at Massey's institutes in that country.

While Massey continues to lead the way in training students to work in the multi-faceted value chain of the primary sector - from farm to fork - Professor Venter says the key to success lies with people, and the university boasts a large and influential alumni.

In terms of people, there is one area that sits quietly in the background yet is extremely important to the dairy industry. Venter says that is what is called the 'sleep lab'.

"During calving, fatigue is the biggest threat for that farmer, and our people understand fatigue and also the impact of sleep and nutrition on fatigue, which is really important on farms at certain times of the year," he says.

Finally, Venter says Massey is in a growth phase having financially managed its way carefully through some difficult times, such as covid, and the focus will now be on implementing the university's new strategy with its focus on value creation.