Short courses for all visa holders
Primary ITO has a wide range of work-based training options to help you grow the skills and knowledge of your staff in 2025.
The curator of the main gardens at Wellington’s Botanic Garden has been chosen to help inspire other New Zealanders to follow a horticultural career.
The Primary ITO has appointed Karl Noldan as its new ambassador for 2016 – to showcase the career pathways available within the burgeoning horticultural industry. “It’s really coming back in vogue,” Noldan says.
“It has become quite a trend, especially for people later in their careers, to step away from high-stress jobs and want to work with plants instead.”
Noldan himself has made several career U-turns. After many years of tertiary study, a year off doing labouring jobs then led to “an epiphany” that he wanted to work in the fresh air.
“My favourite subjects at school were graphic design and horticulture, but my family and teachers didn’t see a future for me in this area,” he explains.
“I never knew the horticultural industry could take me where it has and I am keen to ensure that horticulture is regarded as a desirable industry. It is a career path that is extremely diverse and rewarding, filled with passionate people.”
He placed third in the 2015 Young Horticulturalist of the Year Award and won the Primary ITO Career Development Award, earning a $3000 scholarship to assist with further study or attend a conference.
Potatoes New Zealand has congratulated Peter Reynolds of TA Reynolds Ltd in Pukekohe on being awarded the Horticulture New Zealand Bledisloe Cup, recognising a lifetime of service and contribution to New Zealand horticulture.
Signing up to a benchmarking tool is not about competition, but about improving collectively, says Ximena Puig and Alvaro Luzardo who are 50-50 sharemilkers at a 164-hectare (effective) dairy farm in Eketāhuna in the Lower North Island.
A leading British farming politician says he's impressed with the positive attitude of New Zealand farmers that he met during his recent trip here.
OPINION: With 10,500 dairy farms, New Zealand continues to punch above its weight around the world.
The Southern Dairy Hub (SDH), which runs a demonstration farm for South Island farmers, has a new general manager.
Esther Guy-Meakin has been announced as the new chief executive of the New Zealand Meat Board (NZMB).

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