DairyNZ Celebrates Women Leaders on International Women’s Day
DairyNZ Chair Tracy Brown has seen a lot of change since she first started out in the dairy sector, with around one-third of dairy farmers now women.
Two rural data organisations - DairyNZ’s DairyBase and Farm Focus - have formed a new partnership that aims to remove data duplication and help provide more timely, useful benchmarking insights for farmers.
Dairy farmers can now connect their Farm Focus account directly with DairyBase, which simplifies data sharing, reduces admin time, and ensures their information contributes to industry-leading benchmarking.
“We know that data duplication can be frustrating for farmers, so this partnership is about making life easier and enables smarter and more timely decisions to be made,” says DairyNZ head of economics, Mark Storey.
“Farmers have also told us they want benchmarking to reflect what’s happening now - not what was happening 12 months ago. This is the first step in that journey, as we work on greater partnerships with other key sector organisations.”
Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) has released its 2026 election manifesto, outlining priorities to support the sector’s growth, resilience, and contribution to New Zealand’s food security and export revenue.
Farmers have voted to continue the Milksolids Levy that funds DairyNZ.
Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell has resigned after eight years in the role.
Matt McRae, a farmer from Mokoreta in Southland who runs a sheep, beef and dairy support business alongside a sheep stud, has been elected to the Beef +Lamb NZ Board as a farmer director.
Ravensdown's next evolution in smart farming technology, HawkEye Pro, was awarded the Technology Section Award at the Southern Field Days Farm Innovation Awards in February 2026.
While mariners may recognise a “dog watch” as a two-hour shift on a ship, the Good Dog Work Watch is quite a different concept and the clever creation of Southland siblings Grace (9) and Archer Brown (7), both pupils at Riverton Primary School.