News
QCONZ team take part in the Milking Machine Testing workshop
Date: September 1, 2022
In August, 9 of our QCONZ team members attended a 5-day, hands-on, self-paced ‘NZMPTA ‘ISO Milking Machine Testing’ course workshop covering 11 theoretical and practical modules.
This course is one of many courses provided by the NZ Milking and Pumping Trade Association (NZMPTA) that focuses on the training and development of people working within the milk harvesting and water application sectors and is the same workshop that Milking Machine Testers around New Zealand must complete as a part of the process to gain their practicing certificates.
This course enables testers to fully understand Milking Machine Systems and provides them with high-level technical knowledge that can be integrated in their day-to-day services.
This is just one of the ways in which QCONZ facilitates the growth and education of our staff in order to build a more capable and confident team and has an added bonus of bringing our remote field staff together. Many of our attendees from this year’s course commented on how “it was a momentous week” and that they enjoyed the opportunity to gain more in-depth insight into the milking machine tests as it has helped them to provide better support to our farmers when providing feedback and completing farm dairy audits and milk quality tracebacks.
QCONZ is the proud delivery provider of the ISO Milking Machine Testing courses on behalf of the NZMPTA and we are grateful that we have such knowledgeable tutors that makes the learning process fun and engaging for not only our own staff, but for all those who attend the courses.
Other news
QCONZ had the opportunity to engage with industry representatives at the Red Meat Sector Conference in Wellington in July. This year, our team participated in the conference under the theme “From our Pasture to your Plate,” highlighting our ongoing involvement in the industry.
Fieldays 2024 was a fantastic opportunity to present our FreshWater Farm Plan (FWFP) tool and reconnect with our clients and wider industry stakeholders.
After an impressive 25-year’s, Murray Pedley, QCONZ’s Major Shareholder, Director, former Board Chair and CEO, has retired.
Murray had the privilege of attending the New Zealand Roundtable for Sustainable Beef’s annual conference and AGM in Christchurch in May.
Justin Moss and Josh Wheeler from QCONZ took a trip to Parliament in May to meet with Hon. Andrew Hoggard to discuss Freshwater Farm Plans (FWFPs). We were excited to share our learnings from the past few years.
Big news for New Zealand farmers! QCONZ is excited to share our new FreshWater Farm Plan Tool. It’s a digital helper that makes it easy for farmers to create their freshwater farm plans quickly.
In late October Chris Leach led an MPI dairy development training programme for farmers and extension officers in Pak Chong, Thailand. Pak Chong is the central region of Thailand, approximately a 2 ½ hour drive north of Bangkok, and is at the centre of the developing Thai Dairy Industry.
We were thrilled to be a major sponsor of the New Zealand Association of Resource Management (NZARM) conference held in Christchurch in October.
We flew the QCONZ flag again this year at the annual Red Meat Sector Conference, jointly hosted by the Meat Industry Association and Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd.
As of 1 October, the QCONZ team will be delivering audits for the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP). We have been working hard behind the scenes to get systems and processes in place, and from August farmers can expect to start hearing from us regarding audit bookings.