Winter grazing warning
Every time people from overseas see photographs of cows up to their hocks in mud it's bad for New Zealand.
Teachers have welcomed a move by the Government to put money into supporting secondary school agricultural and horticultural science and to get more students into a career in the ag and hort sectors.
Last week, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor announced funding of $1.6 million over five years, through MPI, to fund the initiative. He says the aim is to build resilience and meet future workforce demand as the sector grows.
"Our food and fibre sector is nothing if we don't have good, educated and enthusiastic people. We're backing the development of a nationwide advisory team to provide support to agricultural and horticultural science teachers, create resources and provide important links to local food and fibre sector partners."
O'Connor says there are 126 schools across the country teaching agricultural and horticultural science and the aim is to increase this number, especially in urban areas. He says the funding will provide for one full-time adviser and a support person plus up to 16 part-time regionally-based advisers.
The initiative came as a result of a proposal put to MPI by St Paul Collegiate, near Hamilton, which is a leader in teaching agribusiness, horticulture and agricultural science.
Kerry Allen, who runs the school's successful agribusiness programme and has been involved in other initiatives to raise the bar in teaching agriculture subjects in schools, played a leading role in putting this proposal together.
She says the money will go towards upskilling teachers and getting resources out to schools to help them understand new standards that are coming through, and provide general support to ag and hort teachers.
"Often ag and hort teachers are the sole charge people in their school and there is no other internal support for the subject, unlike maths which might have fifteen teachers," Allen told Rural News. "Ag and hort teachers have unique challenges because they need a lot of physical resources - such as glasshouses, farms, orchards and garden plots to maintain."
She sayswhile they cannot necessarily be helped physically, they can be given tricks and tips, better ideas professional development.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the relationship between New Zealand and the US will remain strong and enduring irrespective of changing administrations.
More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) says securing more China label registrations and developing its own nutritional manufacturing capability are high on its agenda.
Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.
As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.
Livestock can be bred for lower methane emissions while also improving productivity at a rate greater than what the industry is currently achieving, research has shown.
OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…
OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…