News

Erica van Reenen is presented the NZIPIM Rural Professional of the Year Award by Gavin McEwen, General Executive Manager at FarmIQ.

The AgFirst team gathered on the shore of Lake Taupo to celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary at the Lake Taupo Yacht Club, 2025

AgFirst is proud to announce that our very own agricultural and environmental consultant, Louis Batley, has been named the 2024 FarmIQ Systems Emerging Rural Professional of the Year.

This paper by James Allen, based on the research as part of completing a Nuffield scholarship, examines how the role of the rural advisor who supports farmers is evolving. The desired outcomes from this research were to redefine what excellence looks like in agribusiness advisory, and as a result, increasing productivity in the primary sector, whilst at the same time reducing the environmental footprint of both the advisor and the farmer.

With a high chance of an El Nino summer, which can bring dry conditions, particularly to the East Coast and Northland farmers and growers can start planning now to mitigate the risks. Some councils are already reporting dipping soil moisture levels below typical. Our AgFirst consultants have briefly addressed different areas of the industry in relation to predicted droughts and encourage individual stakeholders to reach out to their local consultant to start planning now for the summer ahead.

Data, technology and Innovation as well as balancing environmental and economic outcomes are what’s top of mind and most exciting for our consultants looking into the future. We discussed these leading concepts with a few of our consultants.

AgFirst New Zealand are thrilled to announce the appointment of the first AgFirst CEO, James Allen.

A massive congrats to consultant Louis Batley who together with his team took out the IFAMA Young Professionals Case Study competition.

Healthy Rivers Plan for change is creating a lot of interest throughout the Waikato with farmers coming to grips with what it could mean for them. For some of the rules such as restrictions on land use change and grazing/cultivation setbacks we can see how they will affect a property and what changes are needed to comply.