NZ Industry Craves Ag Graduates, Says Massey Professor
The industry is crying out for graduates with agricultural related degrees.
Kate Stewart, helped by a pet ram lamb Skippy, won this year’s Massey University Rural News Group-sponsored video competition.
The competition involved students creating a ‘commercial’ to encourage students in secondary schools to choose a career in agri and Massey University as the place to do this.
Good entries poured in, but none could head off Skippy the lamb, who led viewers on a tour of the university, on field trips and even to the Massey/Lincoln exchange visit.
This was the clear and popular winner.
Stewart, who has now completed her ag science degree, hales from Palmerston North and is heading to Te Awamutu as a DairyNZ trainee consulting officer. While she doesn’t come from a farm, her grandparents do.
“I went to Palmy girls college, but my grandparents have a dairy farm 20 minutes out of the city and I love the people and animals – especially calving,” she told Rural News. “I’d stay out with my grandparents every weekend so that sparked the love of agriculture.”
Stewart says she saw others making videos and after taking Skippy along to campus she decided he had a good story to tell.
“So I put the footage together and entered it in the competition. I enjoyed making the video as I hadn’t made one since I was at secondary school. It was quite a challenge at times, but Skippy cooperated and didn’t leave any ‘visiting cards’ in the library,” she says.
Stewart also won the Young Farmers Sally Hobson Award.
OPINION: The time has come for the Government to back the organic sector.
Plan ahead and be patient. That’s the message to farmers and horticulturalists from the chairman of the NZ Agricultural Aviation Association, Kent Weir.
The industry is crying out for graduates with agricultural related degrees.
While GPS and guidance have become the norm and yield mapping and variable application continues to gain traction, most agricultural machinery manufacturers continue to expand their technology offerings, amalgamating the vast amounts of data being collected to streamline real-time and ongoing management decisions.
Supply chain problems, growing protectionism and a move to greater food security are some of the key challenges facing New Zealand exporters, according to our top trade negotiator, Vangelis Vitalis.
A spat within the ranks of the New Zealand Deer Farmers Association has resulted in the suspension of outspoken North Canterbury farmer Barry Cuttance.

OPINION: The same mainstream media muppets that brought you Jacindamania in 2017 have been flat out pimping for the Opportunities…
OPINION: Your old mate reckons the atrocious way farmers in the UK are treated by their lords and masters in…