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CLIENT NEWS: Young Maori woman brings important cultural perspective to dairy farming

Lincoln University student Ash-Leigh Campbell, 25, is one of the bright lights of Maori agribusiness in New Zealand. Recently named as a finalist in the prestigious 2016 Ahuwhenua Young Māori Dairy Farmer Award – the first ever woman to make the finals of the dairy category – Campbell, who is of Ngāi Tahu descent, is passionate about bringing a Maori perspective to the dairy industry. She graduated with a Diploma in Agriculture from Lincoln University earlier this year, and is currently ...

CLIENT NEWS: Cambridge couple launches unique healthy pre-made meals

September is shaping up to be a month to remember for Cambridge locals, Wendy McGregor and Nick Moore. The two founders of Plate Me Nutrition have spent countless hours developing unique, delicious and nutritious pre-made meals with an 18-month shelf life. And, after lots of hard work, his month their products were officially launched into the market. McGregor and Moore say they are already blown away by early demand for their meals. "During our product validation phase we were contacted by h...

HMC News: Do you need to get social?

By Heather Claycomb, HMC Communications Social media isn't new. And chances are, your business has a few social media accounts you set up years ago. Whether your profiles are active, however, is another story. You are not alone. Many companies jumped onto social channels in the early days but enthusiasm and effective use quickly waned. If you've found yourself questioning the value of social media – or even seriously thinking of deleting your accounts because you've reaped zero val...

CLIENT NEWS: TrainMe programme helps Hamilton man secure work

Hamilton man Nikau Kelly-Goodwin, 23, has turned his life around – in part thanks to TrainMe's Training for Work programme. After spending several years in prison followed by eight months' unemployment, he was keen to make a fresh start. In April Kelly-Goodwin approached Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) who referred him to the TrainMe Training for Work programme based at Ruakura in Hamilton. The programme, which runs for up to 13 weeks, helps people find work that matches their in...

CLIENT NEWS: Ag companies form technologically robust partnership

Hill Laboratories and Ballance Agri-Nutrients have formed an exclusive partnership giving Hill Laboratories sole rights to the Ballance co-op's soil and herbage testing from 1 August. Ballance general manager of sales, Campbell Parker, says together the companies have plans to use new technology to help Ballance reps and their farmer customers make better nutrient management decisions using robust data that's now at their fingertips. "Hill Laboratories has recently developed a mobile app, cur...

CLIENT NEWS: Waikato family win farm-help for a day

Deserving local farmers, Judy and Ali Sherriff and their son Robbie, from the little Waikato town of Arohena, have benefitted from seven extra pairs of free helping hands on their busy dairy, sheep, and beef farm this month. The Sherriff's were recently selected by local energy retailer King Country Energy (KCE) as winners of the company's Holler for a Hand competition, along with two other farming couples from within KCE's operating area. Consequently, seven KCE staff members, including the ...

CLIENT NEWS: FoodWaikato spray dryer beats expectations at Waikato Innovation Park

FoodWaikato's open access spray dryer at Waikato Innovation Park is operating at capacity, helping companies using it for research and development to grow their export markets. FoodWaikato operations manager Dave Shute said the plant had been running at full capacity all year around was expected to continue doing so. The spray dryer, upgraded at a cost of $5.7 million a year ago, switched to mixing and drying formulated dairy cow, goat and sheep milk products after the fresh milk stopped flowi...

CLIENT NEWS: Turn your best bull calf into cash

Dairy farmers in the thick of calving are being offered thousands of dollars for their best bull calves by CRV Ambreed. The company is offering farmers who breed the best bull calves $4,000 if their bull calves are selected for the CRV Progeny Test program. That $4,000 could turn into $11,000 from graduation payments or more if royalty options are taken. CRV Breeding Program Manager Aaron Parker said with calving now underway, a lucrative source of extra income could be dropping in farm pad...

CLIENT NEWS: Kaivolution hits 100 tonne milestone, but needs help to grow

Hamilton food rescue organisation Kaivolution is celebrating a big milestone with a party – and a call for support. Since its inception in October 2014 the charitable trust has collected and redistributed 100 tonnes of edible food, approximately the weight of 10 Hamilton City buses. "That's 100 tonnes of good edible food successfully diverted from landfill," said Waikato Environment Centre general manager Ruth Seabright. "To reach this milestone in just 18 months is humbling and a test...

CLIENT NEWS: Hamilton million dollar homes show unprecedented increase in sales

Lodge Real Estate's managing director, Jeremy O'Rourke, today confirmed the number of million dollar residential properties sold in Hamilton has officially hit a record high. "Latest data shows that 6 Hamilton homes above the million dollar mark were sold in May 2016, compared to 3 during the previous month (April), and 2 one year ago (May 2015)," he said. "Overall, between May 2015 and May 2016 there has been an 89% increase in the number homes above the million dollar mark sold in Hamilton...

CLIENT NEWS: KCE finalist in Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards

Local electricity generator and retailer, King Country Energy (KCE), has been named a finalist in the prestigious 2016 Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards for its Waikato-based 'Tree of Light' initiative. KCE is one of four companies in New Zealand spanning the electricity, oil, gas and petroleum industries to this week be selected as a finalist in the annual Awards' 'Community Initiative of the Year' category. The category was open earlier this year to New Zealand energy sector organisations ...

CLIENT NEWS: Waikato women training despite dairy downturn

It appears the current dairy downturn is all-but deterring young Waikato women from agriculture training. In fact, if enrolments at Waikato-based private training provider TrainMe are anything to go by, young women are lining up in record numbers. Angel Ryan (17), Chance Taingahue (19) and and Brenda Pairama (17) are among nine 16 to 19 year-old females about to complete TrainMe's National Certificate in Agriculture Level 2 course this month. Remarkably, this is a record number of female e...

CLIENT NEWS: Tracking feed helps to improve herd productivity

Dairy feed company GrainCorp Feeds is offering a free milk monitoring and prediction tool that aims to help farmers increase their productivity. The tool, called Tracker, uses the latest in data analytics combined with nutritional information from GrainCorp Feeds to give accurate predictions on the farmer's average daily milk solids, including percentage of milk fat and protein. Tracker also provides live feedback on milk quality including somatic cell count and milk urea when that data is av...

CLIENT NEWS: Dairy farming teacher wins community leadership award

Passing on what Lisa Hicks has learned about dairying in the past nine years has led to her winning the Dairy Community Leadership Award. Hicks, who with her partner Graeme Sorensen manages an 800 cow 400 hectare dairy farm in Ohakune, received the Dairy Women's Network award this week at the organisation's annual conference in Hamilton. Hicks, the Dairy Women's Network Manawatu Regional Group Convenor, helped establish the Ohakune DairyNZ on farm discussion group and hosted local and intern...

CLIENT NEWS: Breeding programme gives birth to horn-less dairy cows

CRV Ambreed's latest breeding programme will offer dairy farmers a wider selection of high genetic merit, horn-less cows. The herd improvement company has been developing its polled product line for over a decade, which has been driven by farmers concerned about animal welfare, human safety and the cost of de-horning animals. The programme has gained momentum over the past three years and polled genetics will be available to market as soon as next year. CRV Ambreed research and developmen...

CLIENTS NEWS: Hill Laboratories to centralise Hamilton operations at new city location

New Zealand's leading analytical testing lab, Hill Laboratories, has announced that staff from all four of its Hamilton sites will soon consolidate in one city location. In approximately one year's time, the company's 300 Hamilton-based employees will begin to occupy what was formerly a New Zealand Post building on Duke Street in Frankton. The move will include all employees from Hill Laboratories' Hamilton sites in Clyde Street, Te Aroha Street, Clow Place and Waikato Innovation Park, and is ...

HMC NEWS: top tips from PRINZ conference 2016

We've collated out top take-away tips from PRINZ Conference 2016 and put them into bite-sized snippets for you. These tips come from top PR Practitioners - from NZ and overseas - and address communication challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. Create a single source of truth: Megan McPherson (Otago University) reinforced that, in a crisis, we need to set up our own single source of truth - or someone else will. This often 'looks like' setting up a webpage to house your information...

HMC NEWS: Hamilton PR firm finalist at international awards

Hamilton-based public relations firm, HMC Communications, was named one of 10 finalists in the 2016 COMM PRIX Awards. The awards recognise the best public relations campaigns in the world and other finalists include PR professionals from Italy, Kenya, Australia, Singapore, Finland and one other from New Zealand. The finalist nomination relates to HMC Communications and its client, Child Matters, work on Buddy Day. Buddy Day is New Zealand's only child abuse prevention awareness day, which occur...

CLIENT NEWS: KCE funding helps get the right tools for Taumarunui Volunteer Fire Brigade

Taumarunui Volunteer Fire Brigade works hard to ensure the safety of the King Country community, attending around 120 emergency incidents a year. Based in Taumarunui, the brigade attends incidents as far away as Ohura to the west, halfway to Te Kuiti to the north and Te Ponanga Saddle, on the road to Turangi, to the south-east. The region has lots of winding roads and rolling hills, and about a quarter of their call outs are for vehicle accidents on the road. It's therefore essential that ...

CLIENT NEWS: New naming rights sponsor for school technology challenge

Central King Country REAP's annual schools technology challenge will go ahead next month thanks to new sponsorship from local energy retailer, King Country Energy (KCE) Many thousands of primary school students (years 6-8) within the Central King Country region have participated in this annual event since it was established more than 20 years ago. However, Central King Country REAP's education manager Jenny Gawith said the organisation has struggled to find an ongoing sponsor for the event s...

CLIENT NEWS: Hamilton needs help: customer experience more important than brand or price

Hamilton retailers need to focus on the quality and consistency of their customer experience if they want to compete in today's market, according to Waikato customer experience expert Chris Bell. Bell, who moved his 12 year old business consultancy from Christchurch to Taupo a year ago, spent six months looking for a Hamilton business he could use as a shining example of a great customer experience but had difficulty finding one that stood out from the crowd. In one visit to a Hamilton depar...

CLIENT NEWS: Nominations open for Farmax Consultant of the Year

The New Zealand Institute of Primary Industry Management is playing a bigger part in this year's Farmax Consultant of the Year awards. The Institute, which will announce the winner alongside Farmax, at its national conference on Monday, August 8, is helping Farmax organise the awards and chairing the judging panel. The organisers of the award are broadening the criteria for the Consultant of the Year awards making it achievable for any rural professionals to enter the awards alongside farm c...

CLIENT NEWS: KCE Tree of Light to shine for ANZAC Day

The KCE Tree of Light on Te Kuiti's Rora Street is set to shine red this ANZAC Day (25 April) to commemorate all New Zealanders killed in war, and to honour returned servicemen and women. And although many locals will flock to see the Tree glow as the sun goes down, the tree's colour has extra special meaning to 87-year-old local man, Leo Dempsey. Leo's connection with ANZAC Day is decidedly personal. "In 1941, during the Battle of Britain, my brother went to England as a pilot in the Ro...

CLIENT NEWS: Dairy Community Leadership Award Finalists

Three finalists for the Dairy Women's Network's Dairy Community Leadership Award have been announced. They are Tracey Collis from Eketahuna, Lisa Hicks from Ohakune and Katrina Simpson from Hokitika. Collis, a first term elected member of Tararua District Council, will contest the district mayoralty in the local body elections on October 8. Tracey is passionate about dairy farming, business viability and community resilience. She is a first term District Councillor with numerous portfolio...

HMC NEWS: Maternity-cover position available with HMC!

If you're up for a PR challenge and love variety, let's talk! HMC has a maternity cover position available from 1 July 2016 to 15 March 2017. We require a mid-level, all-rounder to manage one of our team's largest accounts. You'll sit within the client's leadership team 28 hours a week, providing advice on all aspects of communications – both internal and external. You'll be providing comms advice... AND getting your hands dirty doing the work. You could be advising the CEO on an issue in t...