By Dr Clive Dalton Remembering the students in my time (1993-2000) who went through The Waikato Polytech (TWP) farming courses, we learned so much from them and their experiences, and we also learned from their employers, many of whom had been former students years before. There are a host of issues for young folk leaving … Read more
By Dr Clive Dalton NZ 2025 export targets Fifty thousand new people needed for the agricultural industry to achieve our export targets by 2015 says the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry by 2015. He is quoted as saying that ‘we have got to get out and sell the primary industry story better than we have done.’ … Read more
By Dr Clive Dalton Challenges that need to be faced – and fixed immediately Challenge 1. With the current poor public and media image of farmers as employers – how are we going to get farmers to take an interest in demanding employees with qualifications, and pay them adequately for them, especially if farmers have … Read more
By Dr Clive Dalton A new approach is URGENT New Zealand’s primary industries should be screaming for a new approach to education, using every possible aspect of the Internet access aided by ultra fast fibre. What we are using today is already old technology. The big problem for our future exports is that we are … Read more
Clive Dalton Question 1. What’s the biggest national threat facing the New Zealand dairy industry in the next 5-10 years? The low milksolids payout due to a world surplus of milk powder is the wrong answer. The correct answer is farm staff literacy and numeracy, as it’s now recognised that 50% of new recruits … Read more