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.

A new dairy beef programme has been launched by farm consultancy group AgFirst and Hamilton-based meat processor Greenlea to help promote better use of beef genetics among dairy farmers.

Dave Miller seems to think so, and his opinion is based on research into the industry which AgFirst carried out over the last season. This discovered the number of Herd Owning Sharemilking arrangements was dropping, and more Variable Order Sharemilkers were turning to Contract Milking arrangements. The reason appears to be because of milk price volatility.

There are compelling reasons for dairy farmers to increase the supply of beef calves from dairy cows, says a farm consultant.Dairy farmers would welcome the additional beef income and the calves were easier to sell, but First farm consultant Bob Thomson is warning farmers against using just any beef bull.

Article by Bob Cathcart of AgFirst Northland on ‘Observations on effects of Forestry on marginal land inland of Kawakawa’.

A case study of the regulatory requirements for a dairy farm in the Horizons region.

Our consultants James Allen and Nico Mouton have looked at the history of the farm management consultancy profession, issues facing provision of farm management advice, and some thoughts on the future of the profession.

AgFirst consultant, Mark Macintosh, is proud to be a key driver in helping ensure the Taumanu Lands Trust farm is set up to serve future generations.

Overall the dairy industry is more professional and in a good space, but volatility will continue, says James Allen. As James steps down as Chairman and focuses on his role as managing director of AgFirst Waikato, he shares his views of the future of the dairy industry.

AgFirst’s James Allen has been a key leader in transforming the value chain of maize and soya bean crops in Ethiopia and Rwanda.

Our consultant Kim Robinson concisely shares strategies for recovering from the severe 2020 drought using data from the Northland Dairy Development Trust Supplement Trial

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.