Would-be journalists get a taste of the real country

These events were part of a field day for a dozen journalism students from Massey University's Wellington campus.

Organised by Rural News Group reporter Peter Burke and Massey journalism lecturer Cathy Strong, the day-long bus tour gives the students insights into the agribusiness sector. Also along were Leigh Catley, HortNZ and Jason Dawson, DairyNZ.

The students heard from Dr Penny Back on Massey's Number One Dairy Unit, which emphasises environmental management and is on once-a-day milking. They also visited the university's horticultural research centre and saw new pasture species being developed on Kebble farm.

The students quizzed Federated Farmers' Andrew Hoggard on issues affecting farmers including animal welfare and the need for farmers to comply with health and safety and employment laws.

Later they visited the dairy farm of Doug Easton, near Levin, to see cows being milked. Doug's father was a chancellor of Massey.

At the horticultural research centre senior lecturer Huub Kerckhoffs talked about the kiwifruit industry's geat recovery from Psa, and at Kebble Farm Dr Rene Corner and Dr Lydia Cranston showed the students new pasture species and talked about livestock body condition scoring. The students also met Westpac agribusiness manager Dave Hutchison.

The finale of the day was a special news conference held for the students at parliament, where they questioned Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy on subjects including wool, animal welfare and climate change – to name a few.

Burke helps set up this day for student journalists – along with a similar one for teachers – as part of a move to help bridge the gap between rural and urban communities. This is the second year he has helped run the journalism day out and he has run three similar events for careers advisors at secondary schools in the North Island to achieve the same goal.

"It is just one event and I acknowledge other people are working hard to achieve a similar goal. I have been an agricultural journalist for much of my career and I believe it is important that journalists entering the news media have a basic grasp of the size and scope of agribusiness, and the abundance of great stories about the sector," he says.

Burke's comments are echoed by Dr Cathy Strong who says the initiative by Rural News Group and the other supporters – DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb NZ, HortNZ, Fed Farmers, Westpac and Massey University – will give the young journalists fundamental understanding and hopefully a positive perspective of agriculture journalism.

"This is an opportunity to take our students out into the real world to see what they are in for in media work. This day was a serious exercise for them and they all produced video news stories about what they observed... and met some key people they are likely to deal with when they write a story in the future."

Strong says trips are valuable learning modes: nothing beats getting out in the field and seeing and experiencing things. The trip, like last year's exercise, is popular with students and resulted in some excellent stories, she says.

"Our journalism school being in mid-Wellington means students rarely get opportunities to get out to the rural sector. Everyone involved in organising this event has helped them take a huge step towards a better understanding of the farming sector."

Rural News Group general manager Adam Fricker says the company is proud to support the journalists' and teachers' trips as they help build better understanding between town and country.

He says the trips also help break down the misconception that farming is a career for 'dummies'.

"The reality is that the agribusiness sector is probably the greatest user of technology in the country. Few people can imagine, for example, some of the technology in the typical dairy shed. We in the industry tend to take this for granted, but city folk are often surprised at what they see."