News
Thailand – Dairy Development Training Programme
Date: November 10, 2023
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.
Having helped host a visiting group of Thai farmers here in New Zealand in 2018 Chris visited Thailand in 2019, then the project was temporarily derailed by COVID. During the intervening years, the team maintained contact delivering monthly webinars on topics ranging from milk quality to reproduction, nutrition and extension mechanisms.
“This visit provided us with the opportunity to reconnect face to face and to deliver some ‘Kiwi style’ classroom, and practical skills training to approximately 35 learners plus an additional 30+ extension officers and scientists who joined morning classroom sessions via video link,” comments Chris.
This was a great opportunity to demonstrate some alternative training approaches involving group work, post-it sessions, and Kahoot quizzes in the classroom. Followed up with on-farm practical sessions in the afternoons. The topics ranged from basic reproduction, heat detection, feed evaluation and ration formulation, calf rearing, and growing young stock.
The training programme brought together a dynamic and diverse team including Chris Leach, Jane Kay (DairyNZ Nutritionist), Grant Rudman (Fonterra Sustainability Team Manager), Pete Morgan (Farmer and trainer), and Garry Udy (MPI). They received a great reception from the attendees, who warmed to the novel approaches
Other news
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QCONZ proudly sponsored the Milk Quality Conference in Hamilton on the 4th and 5th July. Attended by 125, this was a great opportunity for engagement and collaboration between industry and service providers in the Dairy sector.
In June, the QCONZ team gathered in Hamilton for our biennial staff conference. We had a great time bringing our team together from all corners of New Zealand to celebrate, connect, and have fun! Day one of the conference kicked off with a business update and group sessions where each business unit shared recent work
QCONZ was proud to be a sponsor of the recent Central Plateau and BOP Dairy Industry Awards, where we celebrated the successes of local farmers and connected with future industry leaders.
The Team at QCONZ is very proud, and excited, to announce that we’ve been chosen by New Zealand Farm Assurance Incorporated (NZFAI) and their Members to deliver audits and associated services for their programmes from 1 October 2023.
QCONZ has joined forces with DairyNZ to help deliver their ‘on-farm survey of workforce productivity.’ Our team will visit approximately 150 farms nationwide conducting a 60–90-minute survey with farm owners and managers by March 2023.
A big thumbs up to the organisers of the 2022 ITENZ conference which provided a great networking and learning opportunity for Tertiary Providers. This conference themes of courage, collaboration, capability, and creativity reflected the changing times and the new opportunities for the education sector.
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.