Prime Movers report: Pastures new for our farming industry

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Welcome to the latest Prime Movers, a special report to showcase some of New Zealand's best from land and sea.

In this report we focus on agriculture's next generation whether it be of people, plants, animals or rural services.

We look at some issues involved in ensuring there is a new generation in the primary sector, and the opportunities and risks they could encounter.

Hops may be one of New Zealand's smallest horticultural crops but that has only spurred its few but determined Nelson growers to strive for higher quality and new technologies.

Their success means New Zealand hops are keenly sought worldwide for their special qualities, and so too is a new extracting process that turns hops into an essence like liquid, golden honey.

The extracting equipment also may become an exportable product in its own right.

From the smallest to the biggest - grapes have overtaken apples and kiwifruit as our biggest horticultural crop. Greater size brings issues of supply and demand and we go to the more unsung end of the glamour wine industry for the views and experiences of a contract grape grower.

Glamour is not something most people associate with agriculture - one of the many reasons the sector struggles to attract and retain staff.

It's all hours, cows, scours, and low wages, according to some. But the sector that earns more than half the country's export earnings claims it has more to offer the career-minded than many people think.

In the next 20 years the dairy industry alone is forecast to need 8000 graduate farm managers, 250 consultants and 100 PhD level researchers.

We reveal unprecedented co-operation between agricultural and horticultural representatives and government departments who are forging ways to attract, train and retain a skilled workforce.

That changing workforce may increasingly see women in new roles and, some people hope, give better recognition for the significant contribution that female farmers already make. We look at women making their mark, and find out why others are not.

In the meantime, rural contractors are bringing a rising level of professionalism to the service they offer - a service many farmers say they could not live without.

And when it comes to support industries, the one no farmer can pass up is that offered by the bank manager. Our story shows who banks rural New Zealand and how that could change in the near future.

Is that money financing the most appropriate production from the land? We introduce a man who has a vision of a New Zealand reaping the rewards of growing what comes naturally to our climate and topography - forests, rather than pasture.

Finally, we investigate two major threats to New Zealand agriculture - the biosecurity nightmare of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, and whether the country is in danger of losing the heart of its agricultural research.