Doug Laing: Jeffries takes over training organisation

Photo / Thinkstock

Former Meat Board and Meat & Wool chief executive Mark Jeffries has been appointed chief executive of the country's largest industry training organisation, Primary ITO.

With 27 years' experience in the Australian and New Zealand primary industries, he was most recently chief executive of the agricultural universities' joint venture concern Agri On, which held a contract with DairyNZ to facilitate the Lincoln/Massey Centre of Excellence in Farm Business Management.

DRONE FARMING

Things have been starting to happen since Beef+Lamb decided to go with a project looking at the use of drones in mainstream farming.

The project team of Neil and Mark Gardyne, technical advisers Aeronavics and AbacusBio scientist Bram Visser, is working on creating a system where piloting and computer skills are not required to obtain a stock count.

The bird's-eye views from drones are being tested as a means of automated stock counting in which the drone flies to a specific paddock, takes several digital images, and puts the mathematics in the hands of a computer.

Drones have also been used to detect cast animals, such as during lambing, and to visit troughs and detect if there are any issues around the stock's favourite watering holes.

The project is also looking at viability, benefits for farm safety by possibly cutting the time needed to be spent zipping around the real estate on quadbikes and other machinery, and public perception, and whether it may help attract young people into farming.

APP HAPPY

A smartphone app developed by the Massey-Lincoln OneFarm Centre of Excellence in Farm Business Management was selected to represent New Zealand at a global mobile competition.

The Grass2Milk app helps farmers feed and manage their stock and was shortlisted in the environmental category of the 2014 World Summit Award mobile competition, one of 64 environmental and health entries selected from 170 United Nations countries.

The Grass2Milk app, based on a feeding model by retired Massey University animal nutritionist Dr Ian Brookes, helps farmers plan their feed allocation for the day and determine whether they are feeding their herd enough to reach daily milk and body condition targets.

The OneFarm Centre of Excellence in Farm Business Management is a joint venture by Lincoln and Massey universities, with the support of DairyNZ and the Government through the Primary Growth Partnership.

GROWING SCHOOLS

Rural primary schools have been given a welcome boost to resources with the support of farmers and Central Hawke's Bay fertiliser company Hatuma Dicalcic Phosphate.

Farmers throughout New Zealand are invited to donate money to Hatuma's Growing Minds fund by nominating a school, and in return Hatuma donates a percentage of its fertiliser order to that school.

Over the past five years the company has donated $25,000 to rural schools.