DWN Appoints Nicola Bryant as Associate Trustee
Dairy Women's Network (DWN) has announced that Taranaki dairy farmer Nicola Bryant will join its Trust Board as an Associate Trustee.
A new partnership between Dairy Women’s Network (DWN) and NZAgbiz aims to make evidence-based calf rearing practices accessible to all farm teams.
A Fonterra subsidiary, family, NZAgbiz specialises in manufacturing and supplying dairy-based animal nutrition products, including milk replacers and supplements.
The company says it achieves this by transforming downgraded milk ingredients from processing plants into high-quality nutritional products for calves. Designed with best-practice rearing principles in mind and an emphasis on setting calves up for strong early growth, resilience and lifetime performance.
DWN chief executive, Jules Benton, says the partnership aligns perfectly with DWN’s purpose of empowering our people with valuable knowledge and tools to increase farm productivity.
“NZAgbiz brings respected expertise and trusted products to the table, and their passion for supporting farmers at both national and local levels makes them an ideal partner for our network,” says Benton.
“Our members will be provided opportunities to access high-quality, research-backed information, and tools to improve young animal health and farm productivity, from a team that truly understands the realities of farming life.”
NZAgbiz general manager Sam Allnutt says partnering with DWN means we can share our knowledge, while learning ourselves, to continue to improve on rearing practices in New Zealand.
“Rearing young animals isn’t just about what to feed — it’s about understanding and initiating rearing practices that allow an animal to reach its full potential,” Allnut says.
“We’re passionate about empowering kiwi farmers with knowledge, informed by recent scientific and applied research, that allows them to unlock success.”
The first NZAgbiz Autumn Calf Rearing workshop is being held in Te Kauwhata on Tuesday 24 February, followed by webinars available nationwide to ensure all members have access to expert-led learning, no matter where they are based.
The closure of the McCain processing plant and the recent announcement of 300 job losses at Wattie’s underscore the mounting pressure facing New Zealand’s manufacturing sector, Buy NZ Made says.
Specialist agriculture lender Oxbury has entered the New Zealand market, offering livestock finance to farmers.
New research suggests Aotearoa New Zealand farmers are broadly matching phosphorus fertiliser use to the needs of their soils, helping maintain relatively stable nutrient levels across the country’s agricultural land.
Helensville farmers, Donald and Kirsten Watson of Moreland Pastoral, have been named the Auckland Regional Supreme Winners at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
Marc and Megan Lalich were named 2026 Share Farmers of the Year at last night's Canterbury/North Otago Dairy Industry Awards.
William John Poole, a third year Agribusiness student at Massey University, has been awarded the Dr Warren Parker and Pāmu Scholarship.

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