Massey University to upskill teachers amid rising ag subject demand
There's been unprecedented demand from secondary school students across the country to study agricultural related subjects.
Plans to expand the sheep milk industry have advanced to the formation of a society to develop and promote the industry, confirmed at the close of a recent two day conference at Massey University.
The conference exceeded the expectations of its organiser, associate professor Craig Prichard from the university’s school of management.
Prichard told Rural News they set out to attract a few key industry players: 40-60 people would have been great, he said. “In the end, we got 157 people, effectively the whole industry in the same room, which was fantastic. We had sheep milk producers, regulators, consultants, new farmers – a great range of people.”
He says the spirit of the group imparted a sense of what’s possible for this new industry.
The new society is a “coalition of the willing”. It will raise money for in-market research on sheep milk products, he says. The society needs some sort of marketing role given the nature of the industry, which currently has one big company – Blue River Dairy – and smaller ones.
There is speculation Landcorp will form a joint venture with a marketing and brand company and could then play a large role in the industry.
Prichard says there is so far no decision on what structure a sheep milk industry might adopt. The present aim is to get the society running well, hold more conferences, do some research and go from there.
Whangarei field service technician, Bryce Dickson has cemented his place in John Deere’s history, becoming the first ever person to win an award for the third time at the annual Australian and New Zealand Technician of the Year Awards, announced at a gala dinner in Brisbane last night.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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