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New Farmax accreditation on offer for all

Pastoral science company Farmax is giving rural professionals a chance to become accredited in the Farmax system with its new accreditation process that was recently launched at the company's biennial conference. The accreditation is offered free of charge to anyone interested in completing it. "We often get people contacting us for recommendations on who the best people are to carry out projects using Farmax, and we will be recommending those who are 'elite' accredited," said Farmax senior ...

Young Mamma Mia leads geared to give star performance

Hamilton-locals Gwen Lyon (20) and Conor Gyde (19) are, by their very nature, geared to give a star performance at the opening of hit Broadway musical Mamma Mia in Hamilton later this month. Gwen and Conor have been cast as young leads, Sophie and Sky, in the Hamilton Operatic Society's rendition of Mamma Mia, set to play at Founders Theatre from Friday 19 June to Saturday 4 July. And if there's one thing the dynamic-duo have in common, it's their innate desire to perform: not only on-stage,...

FoodWaikato plant expansion to inject $38.5m into NZ economy

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce today opened the $5m expansion of Waikato Innovation Park's FoodWaikato plant. The expansion is expected to inject an extra $38.5m per year in export revenue back into the New Zealand economy from the sale of new, value-added consumer products directly produced there. The first stage of the plant, a spray dryer facility, was opened in May 2012 and was funded by Innovation Waikato Ltd. and a Government grant of $3.95m and cost $12.8m to complete. ...

Hamilton man receives national aviation award

Rocky Rua (37), of Maori descent, is one of only ten people nationwide to receive an award at this year's Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) Annual Dinner held in Wellington this month (22 May). Mr Rua, a flight safety officer at Hamilton-based flight training organisation CTC Aviation, was the 2015 recipient of the prestigious Michael J Neville/Boeing Airplane Company Award. Chairman of New Zealand Aeronautical Trusts Limited (NZATL), John Mounce, said the award is managed by the NZATL and wa...

Hamilton PR agency wins national award for Buddy Day campaign

Hamilton PR agency HMC Communications took out a top Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ) award at the industry organisation's annual conference dinner in Wellington on Thursday night (20 May). HMC Communications was one of nine category winners of the 21 award finalists, winning the Sustained Public Relations category for its work with child advocacy agency Child Matters on the annual child abuse prevention awareness event, Buddy Day. HMC Communications director Heather Claycomb...

Social Media Marketing Matrix

Ever heard of a 'social media marketing matrix'? This simple table helps us (and our clients) get the most out of social media on a week-to-week basis... take a look and feel-free to download for personal use....

Waikato mothers and babies at risk of losing ‘invaluable’ support service

A renowned Waikato support service for mothers and their babies is in urgent need of funding to keep afloat. Over the past 19 years, tens of thousands of Waikato mothers with children under 12 months old have benefited from the Hamilton-based Waikato Family Centre's health centred services. Yet while the number of clients to receive the centre's help has tripled since its inception in 1996, the level of funding has remained relatively the same, risking potential closure. "The centre is the...

Kiwi demo farm will improve millions of lives: President of Colombia

The President of Colombia told those who attended the opening of the first NZ-Inc. dairy demonstration farm in the high tropics yesterday, that New Zealand's help in bringing best practice farming knowledge, animal and pasture genetics to Colombia will improve the lives of millions. President Juan Manuel Santos opened Waikato farm development organisation Dairy Solutionz (NZ) Ltd's 117ha, 350-cow demonstration dairy farm in south Colombia yesterday (NZDT). The farm is owned by Corpoica and s...

Facial eczema tolerant genetics “essential tool for the dairy farming toolbox”

A well-known and respected dairy farmer, who was one of the first in New Zealand to introduce facial eczema (FE) tolerant genetics into his dairy herd, says they are an "essential tool for the dairy farming toolbox". Managing director of Sisam and Sons Ltd in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Richard Sisam, has spoken out in support of these genetics, following an especially bad season for FE across New Zealand. This season is the fourth year Sisam & Sons have used CRV Ambreed's FE tolerant ge...

Popular calf nutrition workshop is back

Dairy Women's Network and SealesWinslow, a subsidiary of Ballance Agri-Nutrients, are again running free calf nutrition workshops throughout the country after last year's "extremely successful" events. SealesWinslow's Nutrition and Quality Manager Wendy Morgan said Dairy Women's Network had already received expressions of interest from 14 regions throughout rural New Zealand, highlighting just how valuable the best practice workshops are to successful operations. "Farmers recognise how impor...

CTC Aviation campaigns for safety around drones in New Zealand

A growing use of remotely piloted aircraft systems has prompted CTC Aviation to take action for the safety of its trainees and instructors in the Hamilton area. Remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) (otherwise known as unmanned aerial systems or 'drones') are becoming more and more popular for both recreational and commercial use. Readily available online or 'over-the-counter', RPAS can currently be purchased and operated without a licence or knowledge of the Civil Aviation Authority reg...

Hamilton businesspeople invited to hear from social media experts

Businesspeople interested in learning about best-practice social media use for building business reputation are invited to attend a unique event in Hamilton next week. The event, hosted by the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ) and held at Wintec on Tuesday 5 May at 5.30pm, will feature a panel of Hamilton's most accomplished users of social media for business purposes. Panel members include Anj Jones, owner of The Girl on The Swing; Steve Carpenter, owner of Lead Social (who ...

Farmers have the chance to get smart

Dairy Women's Network's next round of free workshops will focus on making farmers' smartphones useful business tools, but without the bells and whistles, says facilitator Marlene Williamson. Williamson, who is a DWN member and self-employed computing facilitator, said farmers needed to know the capabilities of their phones and the value that could be added to their businesses, but didn't need to get carried away with 'the rest'. This is the nature of the workshops that she and Agritec educa...

Dairy industry’s next ‘All Blacks’ selected

In what's arguably the equivalent of making it into the All Blacks squad for a bull, a rigorous four-year selection process has resulted in CRV Ambreed's latest group of proven sires that are set to become household names. Thirteen young superstars have just graduated as CRV Ambreed proven sires, which means they are considered to have the highest genetic merit. CRV Ambreed's proven sires feature in the company's bull catalogue, which thousands of dairy farmers peruse each year to develop a ...

Acting now can reduce facial eczema long-term

Hot and muggy conditions this year have provided a timely reminder for dairy farmers to breed a herd that will be more tolerant to facial eczema challenges and have greater resilience to facial eczema long-term. CRV Ambreed's genetic development strategist Phil Beatson says research and development completed over the past four years by CRV Ambreed and AgResearch resulted in the ability to identify facial eczema tolerant bulls. Sires now entering CRV Ambreed's progeny test programme are chal...

Could global warming incite greater interest in tropical dairy breeds in New Zealand?

New Zealand dairy farming is being confronted by climate change and CRV Ambreed is ready. The herd improvement company has recently widened the focus of its tropical dairy genetics scheme, which has sparked the interest of a handful of Northland-based farmers. Once only common in parts of Central America, South America, Asia and Africa, CRV Ambreed introduced Sahiwal and Gyr genetics to its breeding programme to meet a growing overseas demand for heat tolerance and tick resilience, combined...

Eighteen medals for the Kiwis in the 'Olympics of the Trades'

The team representing New Zealand in the international competition dubbed the 'Olympics of the Trades' at Wintec in Hamilton last week, won eight gold medals, eight silver medals and two bronze medals. A total of 23 Kiwis took on 102 international competitors from Canada, India, Malaysia, China, Australia and Korea over three-and-a-half days of intense competition in 30 different skill categories. WorldSkills New Zealand chief executive Bruce Howat said the national team is one that every ...

HMC Communications named as PRINZ award finalists

Hamilton public relations company HMC Communications has been named as a finalist in the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand's (PRINZ) annual awards. The PRINZ Awards are in their 41 st year and comprise 12 categories, ranging from corporate and government public relations campaigns, to limited budget and not-for-profit categories. HMC Communications is a finalist in the 'Sustained Public Relations' category for its work on the Buddy Day campaign. Buddy Day is New Zealand's only pub...

WorldSkills Oceania Competition kicks off in Hamilton

International competitors and their support teams from six Oceanic nations arrived at Wintec in Hamilton yesterday to prepare to take on the Tool Blacks in what is dubbed the 'Olympics of the trades.' The inaugural WorldSkills Oceania Competition started today and finishes on Friday 17 April. For the Kiwi team and 102 competitors from Canada, India, Malaysia, China, Australia and Korea, it is an intense challenge with a lot at stake – not least of which is a seat on the plane to Sao Paulo,...

‘Tool Blacks’ to be decided at upcoming WorldSkills competition

Twenty-three young Kiwis will battle it out at Wintec in Hamilton this week in what is dubbed the 'Olympics of the trades.' The inaugural WorldSkills Oceania Competition will take place from April 14-17 and see the Kiwi team take on 105 competitors from Canada, India, Malaysia, China, Australia and Korea in a total of 30 skill categories. "The New Zealand WorldSkills team will compete in 18 categories, ranging from aircraft maintenance to various auto and engineering trades, carpentry, join...

Budding engineers visit Wairere Power Station

A group of budding Hamilton-based trainee engineers have been given a taste of the real world at a recent educational visit to Wairere hydro power station in Aria. The group, who toured the King Country Energy (KCE) owned power station for the first time this month, consisted of 16 students in their final year of the three-year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (BEngTech) degree at Hamilton-based institute of technology, Wintec. As part of the tour, the KCE Generation team supervised the saf...

KCEPT distributes $1.25 million across King Country

Local consumer trust, King Country Electric Power Trust (KCEPT), has this month announced its largest-ever annual distribution. A total of $1.254 million has been credited to all The Lines Company Ltd (TLC) and King Country Energy (KCE) consumers in the 'southern' region. Trust chairman Robert Carter said beneficiaries (those who receive the credit) reside primarily between Hiwi Hill in the north, Tangiwai in the south, Motutere Bay in the east and Ohura in the west. Credit was shown on TL...

Survey of Waikato Innovation Park companies shows buoyancy

"Fostering innovation and the growth of the companies based at Innovation Park is adding value to the region and value to the country." These words come from LayerX group chief executive Bruce Trevarthen who took part in Waikato Innovation Park's recent survey of its 34 tenant companies. Results show collective turnover of the respondents 1 is up 18% from one year ago. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of the companies surveyed reported some financial growth, with an average of 33% growth. Laye...

2015 Dairy Woman of the Year named

Federated Farmers national board member and provincial president Katie Milne of Rotomanu, Lake Brunner, West Coast, has been named the 2015 Dairy Woman of the Year at the Dairy Women's Network conference gala dinner in Invercargill tonight. Milne farms with her partner at Rotomanu, Lake Brunner catchment on the West Coast of the South Island. They have a small high BW Jersey herd of 200 cows. On a separate run-off the couple rear replacement heifer calves and run a localised contracting oper...

Twin sisters double delight in aviation industry

(Link to Waikato Times version of our press release here) Waikato-based twin sisters Emma-Jane and Sarah-Lee Lacy (24) are proving to be a double delight in the aviation industry. Typically the number of males far outweighs the number of females working in the industry globally. However, the unbalanced statistics aren't stopping these sister from pursuing their passion. Both women work for world-leading flight training organisation, CTC Aviation; Emma Jane as a flight instructor and Sarah-...