25 years on - where are they now?
To celebrate 25 years of the Hugh Williams Memorial Scholarship, Ravensdown caught up with past recipients to see where their careers have taken them, and what the future holds for the industry.
Ravensdown’s 2022 Integrated Report, published today, has revealed a 12% reduction in carbon emissions from fertiliser against the previous year.
The report tracks the co-operative’s performance against its strategic objectives.
The co-operative has produced the annual integrated reports since the 2018/19 financial year.
Ravensdown chair Bruce Wills says the company successfully overcame a wide range of challenges to help farmers and growers.
“Farmers and growers are both our customers and shareholders. They sit at the heart of everything we do. For our customers we supply the right amount of farm nutrients, and the right products and solutions to optimise production, while mitigating the impacts of land use on the environment.”
Wills says Ravensdown ended the year in a healthy financial position.
“In the face of global pressure on supply, and domestic incentives for environmental improvement, we leveraged long held and nurtured relationships to minimise supply disruption, while continuing to invest in services that support farmers,” he says.
Ravensdown chief executive Garry Diack says the co-operative has a clear focus on its vision statement: ‘Smarter Farming for a better New Zealand’.
“For us ‘good’ is meeting and exceeding our progressive pursuit of this vision. We do that on a sustained, planned basis, sharing that pursuit with all those who invest in us, work with us, work for us, use our products and services, and all those in society who live with the impacts of our endeavours.
“As proud as we are of our excellent company, there is still much to do to ensure our good performance remains aligned with, and where we can, leads in the fast-changing environment in which our farmers and growers operate.”
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).