This report covers a project funded by Our Land and Water, to investigate the challenges faced by landowners when they seek to diversify via land use change. The project itself involved interactions with 11 farmers within the Waikato who were investigating various options for land use change on their properties. This involved three workshops with …
Financial Survey 2021: Waikato & BoP Dairy
This report summarises the results of a financial survey of dairy farms across the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions, carried out by AgFirst through June 2021. A description of the model farm is at the back of the report. The key points of this report are: The 2020/21 season was again mixed climatically. A …
In Brief Global Issue No. 447
In this edition of In Brief Global we discuss the upcoming maturity testing season, the influence water quality has on fruit quality at harvest and an orchard variability investigation. View the newsletter here.
Drivers and Barriers to Land Use Change
Land use change has been a significant feature of the New Zealand landscape since European settlement, largely driven by economic factors, and has been a strength of our primary land systems. Over the last 25 years, the most significant land use change has been a switch out of sheep and beef farming, with an increase …
Calculating the Economic Thresholds Between Farming and Forestry
AgFirst were asked to provide a view on the place of forestry on pastoral land and an overview of the economic advantages of planting production forestry on behalf of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company. We analysed a series of farm case studies in the Hawke’s Bay region focusing on the relationships between land quality, …
Numbers Drive the Business- Matt Buckley on increasing bull beef production using FARMAX
In the latest edition of Country Wide NZ, Matt Buckley discusses how he is increasing production of his bull beef business with the help of software tools and an AgFirst facilitated group dedicated to benchmarking and the numbers. This year he expects production to reach 345kg/-ha a big increase from the 260kg not product/ha generated …
Achieving Zero-Carbon Act Reduction Targets on Farm
Our consultant Phil Journeaux and Scion scientist, Tanira Kingi have produced a report covering the results of the modelling component of the Farm Systems Modelling for GHG Reduction on Māori Farms project, a project funded by the New Zealand Agriculture Greenhouse Gas Research centre (NZAGRC). A major component of the project was to model four …
Future Farming Strategies Trial Approved
Northland Consultants Kim Robinson and Chris Boom are heavily involved in the new 5 year Future Farming Strategies Trial in NDDT. Read the overview here or contact Kim or Chris for more details.
The Changing Nature of Farm Consultancy in New Zealand
The nature of farm consultancy in New Zealand is changing. Farm consultancy is facing a challenging future with an increasing skillset requirement needed by the farming client, the corporate client and the regulators. AgFirst New Zealand reviews some of these changes.
Drought Recovery Farm Strategies with Kim Robinson
AgFirst consultant Kim Robinson concisely shares drought planning recommendations, on this easy to view webinar including how to prioritise and calculate your feed.