Wednesday 19 February 2025
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Some bios to come


9.30am  Rachel Agnew                    
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Senior Rural Advisor – Land for Life

Unpacking the Land for Life Partnership
Land for Life is driven by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC), with funding from Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), and in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy Aotearoa New Zealand (TNC NZ) to help farmers reduce erosion on their farms and adopt more regenerative, resilient and profitable farming systems.

It provides the tools, expertise and capital needed for farmers to preserve productivity and business performance, whilst meeting environmental and regulatory demands.

Rachel Agnew is a Senior Rural Advisor - Land for Life based at Hawkes Bay Regional Council Napier offices.  Her primary focus being to engage with farmers and landowners interested in understanding the Land for Life programme and acting as a connector and linker to the Land for Life programme and connecting to Hawkes Bay Regional Council’s Catchment Advisors and the wider Catchment Operations team.  Rachel will also work with Catchment Group’s and Collectives who might be interested in how Land for Life can connect into their catchment plans

Rachel will share current state of the Land for Life programme, and in particular next steps since the announcement of MPI funding in December 2024.  This will provide an opportunity for interested farmers and landowners to understand more about the programme.


10.15am  Conrad Wiltshire Property Brokers General Manager, Rural            

Land Use Change


11am   Dr John Roche Chief Science Advisor, Ministry for Primary Industries 

Genetic Technologies - back to basics 


11am   Working Dog Demonstration with Guy Peacock & Ned George
Sponsored by McRae Trust Farm


11.45am   James Parsons & Mathew Barham

Behind the virtual fence​​​​​​​
                 

James Parsons Northland hill country farmer
James Parsons is based in Northland; he owns a 600 ha hill country sheep and beef property near Dargaville and was the first Halter Base™ beef farmer to deploy collars on his businesses stud beef herd in November 2023. 

James has a strong governance background serving on several industry boards over the years. He is also a partner with AgFirst Northland and a 2008 Nuffield Scholar.  Being an early adopter of virtual fencing for beef, James is now specialising in providing advice to farmers considering virtual fencing.

His property is a very steep hill country farm so was the ideal testing ground for Halter collars in a hill country beef system. 260 cows and replacement heifers are collared with uncollared calves creep grazing ahead of mum. Stud bulls are left uncollared. Pasture utilisation was the big prize James was chasing, which is challenging with conventional methods on steep hill country with big paddocks. Halter has completely changed the game around pasture utilisation on James’s farm. 

James will share his businesses journey with using Halter, what management changes were required, return on investment farmers can expect, and how to think differently about water infrastructure and physical fencing when using virtual fencing.

Mathew Barham Central Hawke’s Bay farmer

2012 Hawke’s Bay Farmers of the Year, Mathew and Gemma Barham farm 1020 hectare Mangatarata Station, a sheep & beef farming operation located in Central Hawkes Bay, where we have farmed since 2006.

Innovative systems are crucial to Matthew & Gemma’s business providing up to date data for them and their team. Mangatarata Station has been using Gallagher eShepherd since February 2024 at which time we started with 100 neckbands.  

Two weeks after seeing the first 100 neckbands effectiveness they purchased a further 300.  These 400 neckbands were on 8 mobs of bulls (Jersey, Hereford and Angus) grazing either kale or oats, with the addition of hay and balage in feeders over the winter.  eShepherd has revolutionised their wintering system taking the chore of day to day break feeding out of the equation.  

They will winter approx 550 bulls this coming winter with neckbands and have been planning this (planting different crops in certain areas) since the end of last winter.  


12.30pm  Beef + Lamb NZ led panel discussion

From Research to Reality: Managing Facial Eczema and Parasites on Farm

Caras Brosnahan Principal Scientist Animal Health Research; Beef + Lamb NZ
Cara is a scientist with a curiosity and passion for animal health. Her career has been focused on investigating causes of disease and finding new tools to identify these. 

Cara is the Principal Scientist, Animal Health Research at Beef + Lamb New Zealand. In her role she identifies needs, manages and designs research on priority animal health areas for sheep and beef farmers. She loves working with farmers and researchers in her role to find solutions that will help farmers in their business. 

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Greg Tattersfield; FarmPro and Wormwise facilitator

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Greg is a sheep and beef veterinarian with broad industry experience who is passionate about improving productivity. Throughout his career Greg has been a hands-on vet, a lecturer, published papers, held senior management roles in corporate farming business and supervised farms. An experience facilitator, Greg has facilitated a 3-year Beef and lamb monitor farm project in Hawkes Bay farm discussion groups.

Greg is currently the Beef and Lamb NZ Wormwise facilitator for the Gisborne and Wairoa region. He is also an accredited, elite level Farmax consultant.


​​​​​​​1pm  Drone Demonstration with Airbourne Solutions


1.30 pm    Beef + Lamb NZ Station Challenge           
Teams of 3 members from an East Coast station, will compete for the Beef + Lamb NZ Station Challange trophy


3 pm  Ben Purua  FarmUpNZ
Sponsored by Rural Support Trust

  •  2024 Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer Award winner 
  • Farm Manager at Waimakariri Lands Ltd, Tirau in South Waikato. 
  • 2024 NZ Dairy Manager of the Year for the Central Plateau 
  • 2024 National NZ Dairy Industry People and Leadership Award. 
  • The Food and Fibre Youth Network - He Tatai Rangahua council member

After growing up in an environment where gangs, substance and sexual abuse and domestic violence was normal, the Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer of the Year was on a pathway to being another negative statistic. However Ben found his passion for farming during his time in Waikeria Prison.

He shares his journey on social media at ‘FarmUpNz’ on Facebook and Instagram.
Along with his wife Nikki, they promote well-being through their clothing line, Kāmu tō Pāmu. 
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6pm    Property Brokers Muster
Networking event with keynote speaker Tawera Nikau - Sponsored by Corson Maize
$20 per ticket includes continuous canapes and cash bar

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Thursday 20 February 2025
Some bios to come


9.30am   Trevor Rudman Independant Parasitologist,Parascope
Combating Drench Resistance


10.15am  James Powerie  
RedAxe Forestry Intelligence project manager, leads Urban Kākābeak Project and Hawke’s Bay Forestry Group chief executive 

Urban Kakabeak Project


11am   Wild about Strong Wool - Panel Discussion

John McWhirterChief Executive, Wools of New Zealand; 
Kate Cullwick, Foxtrot & Home;
Daniel NormanNational Buyer, Big Save Furniture; 
Tom O’Sullivan, Business Development Manager, Floc.


11am    Working Dog Demonstration with Guy Peacock & Ned George
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Sponsored by McRae Trust Farm


11.45am Wahine te Pamu
​​​​​​​The panel discussion will give an insight into the opportunities and successes the primary industries offer women.​​​​​​​   
Panellists include:

  • Nancy Crawshaw, Current Zanda award winner 
  • Alice Anderson, HBRC Catchment Lead 
  • Ariana Hadfield, Rabobank Agribusiness Manager 
  • Mickey Trotter, Sheep & beef farmer and agritourism 

12.30pm  Rural News Cadet Challenge
Teams of 3 agricultural cadets or secondary school will compete in our rustic style masterchef challenge.


​​​​​​​2pm  Drone Demonstration with Airbourne Solutions


​​​​​​​2.30pm  Hon Andrew Hoggard
Minister for Biosecurity, Minister for Food Safety, Associate Minister of Agriculture (Animal Welfare, Skills), Associate Minister for the Environment