Calling all Maori dairy farmers
Entry is now open for the 2012 Ahuwhenua Trophy - BNZ Maori Excellence in Farming Award. The Ahuwhenua Trophy is the premier award for Maori in agriculture. It acknowledges and celebrates business excellence in the New Zealand pastoral sector and is open to Maori farming properties either owned individually, or managed by Maori trusts and incorporations in New Zealand. Each year it alternates between Maori beef and sheep farms and dairy farm - this year it is dairying. The Agriculture Industry's Training Organisation's strategic relations manager, Peter MacGregor, praised the competition's role in encouraging Maori farmers to make the best, sustainable use of their resources to build strong agribusinesses which provide not only good returns to shareholders, but long term employment and other economic benefits. The first Ahuwhenua competition was introduced in 1932 by Sir Apirana Ngata and, the then Governor General, Lord Bledisloe, to encourage skill and proficiency in Maori farming. The winner of the competition will be announced at a gala awards dinner to be held at the SkyCity Auckland Convention Centre on June 8. Entries close on January 27. Entry is free and entry forms are available from all offices of Te Puni Kokiri or www.ahuwhenuatrophy.moori.nz and www.mooritrustee.co.nz.
Entrants eye top prizes
Nearly 400 entrants have taken advantage of a prize incentive for early entry into the 2012 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards. National convenor Chris Keeping says 381 people had entered the awards by December 1 making them eligible to win one of three Honda XR125 Duster farm bikes each valued at $4000. To date, 99 entries had been received in the sharemilker/equity farmer contest, 112 in the farm manager contest and 170 in the dairy trainee contest - 50 ahead of the same time last year. Mrs Keeping said the response from Northland had been particularly pleasing. Twenty people had already entered in the sharemilker/equity farmer contest and a further 27 entered in the other two competitions. "With possibly more entries to come, this is a huge increase on last year when Northland attracted 24 entries across the three contests," she said. Entries into the Dairy Industry Awards remain open and are being accepted online until December 20. More information on the awards can be found at www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz.
Network founder stands down
Dairy Women's Network founder Christina Baldwin last month stepped down from the board after more than 14 years. The network which formed in 1998 has played an active role in connecting and motivating dairying women around the country, through the internet, and also through conferences and organised activities such as Dairy Days. She will be replaced on the board by Sue Lindsay, an experienced agribusiness manager and researcher. Among other issues Ms Lindsay will be looking to raise the representation of women on agribusiness boards around the country. Currently females representative accounts for 11.8 per cent. Global research suggest this figure should be at least 30 per cent.
Murray Goulburn join Fonterra
One of the biggest dairy organisations in Australia, Murray Goulburn, will join Fonterra and Dairy America selling products on GlobalDairyTrade (GDT). Murray Goulburn is a co-operative with more than 2500 supplier-shareholders providing 2.9 billion litres of milk annually - 32 per cent of Australian production. It has about 2200 employees and its sales revenue in 2010/11 was A$2.29 billion, including export revenue of A$1.17 billion. The Victorian company is expected to begin offering lactose on GDT from April 3 next year. GDT began in July 2008 as a single-seller auction for whole milk powder. Its sales to date total more than US$5 billion. It trades about 700,000 metric tonnes of products annually and has around 500 qualified bidders from more than 80 countries.