Taratahi set for growth
Agricultural training provider Taratahi says its efforts to attract new students have paid off with solid enrolments for 2018.
Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
Richard Lucas
Lucas has contributed to agriculture for more than 40 years.
He was a senior lecturer in the Plant Science Department of Lincoln University from 1974 to 2004. He created courses in tropical agronomy and ethno-botany to meet the academic needs of overseas students.
He served on a wide range of university administrative committees including the University Art Committee of which he was a founding member in 1974 and of which he was chairperson for 10 years after his retirement until 2014.
He has advocated the use of different clovers to improve the nutrition of sheep and beef cattle and as a sustainable method of introducing nitrogen to hill and high country areas of New Zealand. He has presented this information, largely on a voluntary basis, through field days, meetings with individual farmers, discussion groups and the agribusiness community. He co-authored the New Zealand Pasture Profile for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Programme and papers for the New Zealand Grassland Association. Lucas has mentored many young farmers on improving sustainability and flock performance and his advice has frequently led to the continued viability of farms in regions of climatic risk and variability.
Awards
Life Membership for services to the New Zealand Grassland Association, 2008
Lincoln University medal, 2008
Janette Wills
For services to the beef industry
Wills was involved with her local Herefords breeders club before being elected to the council of the New Zealand Hereford Association in 1992, the first woman to be elected to the council of a beef breed society.
As president of the association's council from 1992 to 1994, she led and developed the young breeders' Youth Programme, promoted the breed including through the breed magazine she edited, helped to drive the award-winning Hereford Prime quality beef programme and spearheaded a Hereford semen marketing programme into the dairy industry.
She was director and then chair from 2003 to 2004 of Performance Beef Breeders. She became first woman Secretary-General of the World Hereford Council in 2004, serving four terms until 2012. She was involved in contracting science groups internationally to carry out across-country Breeding Value estimations and in developing a world genomic selection project. She ensured, through her ability to get New Zealand farmers and scientists to work together, that New Zealand was the first country to adopt and use both of these programmes. Wills has been director of Hereford Prime Beef New Zealand Ltd since 1994.
Liz Evans
For services to Rural Women
Evans was the national president of Rural Women New Zealand from May 2011 to November 2013, and is a national life member.
She was elected to the RWNZ national governance council in 2005 as the representative of Top of the South region. She chaired the RWNZ national land use committee. She was elected president in 2009. A former journalist she initiated changes to the RWNZ's publications and media, contributed to branding initiatives and set up the Enterprising Rural Women Award. She led two delegations to the Associated Countrywomen of the World conferences in Tonga and India. Evans was also the provincial secretary of Marlborough RWNZ for 10 years, and administrator for the Marlborough Province Federated Farmers from 2003 to 2011.
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Patrick Willock
For services to agriculture and the community
Willock was a councillor on the Gisborne District Council from 1989 to 2001, during which time he chaired the council's Hearings Committee and Planning and Regulatory Committee and was responsible for bringing new district and regional plans to fruition.
Willock is a life member of Federated Farmers having previously been Gisborne/Wairoa Provincial Chair. He is a director of Ravensdown Fertiliser Co-op and served as deputy chair until early 2014. He chaired the Remuneration Committee of the board, served on the Audit Committee and chaired the High Williams Scholarship Awards.
He has been chair of the Eastland Rescue Helicopter Trust since 2001, overseeing the on-going successful funding and securing a local long-term named sponsor of this service, which recently opened a hanger and crew facility at Gisborne airport. He was appointed to the board of the Eastwoodhill Arboretum in 2012.
He is a voluntary radio operator with the Gisborne Coastguard and also chairs the Cancer Society 24 hour Relay for Life. Willock has offered services to less fortunate and able members of the community, mowing lawns, obtaining groceries and liaising with local agencies on their behalf.
Queens Service Medals
Douglas Bull
For services to dairy farming and the community
Bull has been involved with the farming industry and various community organisations in the Whakatane district since the 1970s.
He served as president of the Rotary Club of Whakatane West from 1987 to 1988 and Governor of the Rotary District from 2000 to 2001. He has served as a member of the District Advisory Council of Rotary International since 2000.
He has been Chairman of the Awakeri Young Farmers Club and was the Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers Provincial Dairy Chairman from 1977 to 1978. He was a director and chairman of the Rangitaiki Plains Dairy Company and Deputy Chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board. He was a director of the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand and was involved in the merger of several smaller dairy companies to form Bay Milk Products.
He was the inaugural chairman of the Bay of Plenty Education Trust serving from 1985 to 1998, and is currently Patron. In 2009, Bull was elected as a member of the Eastern Bay of Plenty Justices of the Peace Council and has been President of the Eastern Bay of Plenty Justices of the Peace Association since 2011.
Honours and awards
Bay of Plenty Balance Farm Environment Award, 2011
New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal
John Harding
For services to agriculture and aviation
Harding started his career in productive topdressing in 1956 at the age of 21, managing and flying for the company his father largely developed, Wanganui Aero Works.
He serviced mainly the volcanic Central Plateau area and Taihape region, known for its difficult terrain and demanding weather conditions, without sustaining any serious mishap in an industry fraught with high accident and death rates during its development.
He was owner operator of Rangitikei Air Service Taihape from 1970 until it was sold to Ravensdown Fertiliser Co-op. He did not retire from professional flying until the age of 77, having accumulated 34,000 flying hours.
For many years he was a member of the Wanganui Aero Work Cresco Display team performing precision formation flying at airshows throughout New Zealand. He strove for safer aircraft and loaders, safer airstrips, consistency of fertiliser, considerate farmers and strict supervised training for new pilots to the industry.
Harding's experience provided many young trainee agricultural pilots with inspiration on how to approach the job with absolute concentration and dedication.
Ian Noble
For services to farming and the community
Noble has contributed to the Bay of Plenty community for more than 40 years. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Noble served Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers. He was a Dairy Company Suppliers Representative, Federated Farmers Provincial President and a councillor on the Western Bay of Plenty District Council.
As a Bay of Plenty Regional councillor since 1989 he has played a leading role in key planning documents, SmartGrowth, New Zealand's first growth management strategy and spatial plan, which he negotiated between councils and the public, and the Regional Policy Statement.
He has served on a range of council committees and was a founding member of the Bay of Plenty Agricultural Advisory Committee. He has pursued an ethos of Clean Environment - Strong Economy and advanced policy on biodiversity and pest management. He is a strong advocate for waterway protection, particularly Tauranga Harbour sedimentation removal and has campaigned across the Bay of Plenty for clear, safe farm margins and fencing. For 23 years he served as a New Zealand Arbitrator on hazardous trees and power lines legislation.
Noble is a member of Katikati Rotary Club and supports the Katikati Adult Riding Club by opening his hill farms for members' use.
