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AgFirst chief executive James Allen.
The future will see a continuation of the trend to fewer and larger farms, most of which will be ‘family corporates’, says AgFirst chief executive James Allen.
He says larger farms place more emphasis on reporting and information requirements than smaller ones.
Allen says he’s been talking to universities around the country about the implications stemming from his report and he says “they get it” and are starting to think about how they can best meet the needs of industry in the future.
He says while there may need to be changes to degree courses, it is essential for farm consultants of the future to have to have a core understanding of the basic principles of farming.
“The likes of an AgScience or BAgCom that gives an understanding of soils, pasture and livestock and how to integrate these is critical. What we need overlayed with that is a new set of skills around such things as data base management, GIS software skills and getting the best out of AI technology,” he says.
A hundred primary schools across New Zealand are now better resourced to teach their students about food and farming after winning ‘George the Farmer’ book sets in a recent competition run by rural lender, Rabobank.
83 students from the Massey University School of Agriculture and Environment were awarded close to $400,000 in scholarships at a recent awards evening.
What should be the role of the next generation of agricultural consultants?
Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) has launched its Rural Leadership Advancement Scholarship.
The farm consultant of the future will need to fully understand the various new emerging technologies and at the same time have good interpersonal skills to relate to clients.
WorkSafe is recommending the dairy industry reassess its use of slide pulsators, following a recent death in a Waikato milking shed.
The 63rd National Holstein Friesian Bull sale this week (September 18) will mark 54 consecutive years that retiring Kerepehi breeder Michael Lynch has entered and sold his bulls at the event.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients has launched SimplyFert, an ex-hub and therefore lower-cost offering said to give its shareholders choice and flexibility for purchasing nutrients.
Chloe Jones wears three hats and it's this trifecta that makes her tick.
LIC is embarking on a ground-breaking project aimed at breeding heat tolerant and disease resistant dairy cows for Sub-Saharan Africa, in collaboration with the global leader in precision breeding, Acceligen, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A critically threatened endemic freshwater fish found only in Canterbury has been discovered at a Craigmore Sustainables farm near Timaru.
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