To be announced at the Farmax Consultants' Conference in Rotorua and Lincoln in November, the awards will name top North and South Island rural consultants using the pastoral farm decision support software.
Farmax general manager Gavin McEwen says the awards have been developed to recognise the expertise of consultants using the New Zealand-developed software synonymous with rural professional excellence.
"Rural professionals are an essential part of the service Farmax offers and without their expertise in driving the application and interpreting the results it is only software," McEwen says.
A $5000 award prize pool includes funds for further education in pasture-based production and paid hours to conduct a research project of the top consultant's choice.
About one-third of New Zealand's rural professionals are Farmax consultants.
Award nominations close on November 1 and North and South Island finalists will be announced at conferences in Rotorua on November 18 and 19 and Lincoln on November 21 and 22.
Judges include: DairyNZ regional team leader Craig McBeth; Beef+Lamb New Zealand farm general manager Richard Wakelin; ANZ Agri-Strategy head Dave Haden; and Farmax general manager Gavin McEwen.
Award entries should include a 500 to 1000 word written brief about the consultant, who needs to be an active user of Farmax. Consultants must include a submission on how they would use 40 hours research to benefit the pastoral industry. Entry information and forms are on the Farmax website: www.farmax.co.nz
Meanwhile, registrations are flowing in for the Farmax conference, open to all rural consultants, agri-business professionals and farm advisors. This year's conference will look at how the industry can better help New Zealand's pastoral farmers lift productivity.
"Lifting the average performance of pastoral farmers to the top 25 per cent of farmers will increase exports by $3 billion annually, and this is just using existing knowledge," says Mc Ewen.
"Everyone working in the industry - including farmers themselves, consultants, government, industry bodies and service providers - have a role to play in encouraging others to improve their businesses."
View the conference programmes at www.farmax.co.nz .
Commercially launched in 1993, Farmax was developed by AgResearch and born out of 20 years of research. It is an evidence-based software system giving farmers the advantage of accurately modelling complex pastoral farming systems.
