Training and education

Global exchanges

Caitlyn Poole and other Fonterra staff planting trees at Fonterra’s Brightwater site.

Growing up on a dairy farm, Caitlyn Poole always knew she wanted to work in the agriculture industry.

The 28-year-old holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and a Master of Science (Animal Science) from Massey University’s Manawatū campus.

Throughout her studies she was awarded multiple scholarships, which took her to China and Brazil before she returned home and began working for Fonterra.

“I was lucky enough to receive two DairyNZ scholarships during my studies. The support was amazing, especially from my master’s supervisor and mentor Dr John Roche,” Poole says.

Massey, with its good reputation for all things agriculture, was a natural choice for Caitlyn, and three of her siblings had studied there.

She’s now studying via distance toward a Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Management and is employed as an environmental manager based at Fonterra’s Te Awamutu site. She took a break from her studies last semester to focus on her management role, but is looking to pick it up again this year.

“My team manages the Biological Wastewater Treatment System for the site and ensures our final discharge is within our resource consent limits before it is discharged to the environment,” she says.

“Unlike many Fonterra sites, we don’t irrigate our treated wastewater. We have a major multimillion-dollar upgrade to our plant happening at the moment, so in a year our discharge will be even more pristine than it currently is – it’s an exciting time for us.

“The upgrade will ensure we meet our new, tighter resource consent limits.”

Poole manages the environmental management system at the site, to ensure it meets international standards.

“This involves identifying and reviewing environmental aspects and impacts and ensuring the implementation of suitable operational controls. I’m a member of the Te Awamutu site leadership team and drive sustainability improvements on site,” she says.

Caitlyn moved to Chengdu in China after completing her masters and interned for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the New Zealand Consulate for six months. She and partner Ben also studied Mandarin at Chengdu University during this time.

“We aim to make year-on-year reductions in water, energy use and our carbon footprint, as well as reduce the waste we send to landfill and are working to build our relationships with iwi.

“It’s been great to get experience from a manufacturing perspective – a change from the on-farm focus I studied. It’s pretty cool how under the right conditions bacteria are able to break down the contaminants in our wastewater – a natural process can make it so clean. And it’s amazing to see how my team – Sinkie, Graeme and Sam – manage to keep these bacteria healthy on a daily basis.”

During her second year at Massey, she took part in a student exchange, which saw her move to the island of Florianópolis, in southern Brazil.

“It was the best year. I lived with a really amazing Brazilian family who had kids my age. Many of the papers I studied were cross credited to my AgriScience degree, so if I had come back as planned, I would have finished uni at the same time as everyone else,” she says.

“I stayed on a while longer and moved to Rio de Janeiro where I focused on Portuguese language studies for four months, graduating about six months after my peers.”

But the travelling, and love of learning new languages, didn’t stop there.

“I moved to Chengdu in China after completing my masters and interned for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the New Zealand Consulate for six months,” she says.

This was made possible by an Asia NZ Foundation Business Internship Scholarship.

“After that I joined my partner Ben at Chengdu University and we studied Mandarin for six months. We were both fortunate to receive the Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Asia which funded this study,” she says.

A key aim of the Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Asia is to strengthen NZ’s ability to engage with key Asian trading partners. Her interest in China and learning Mandarin was sparked by many discussions about China as an export market for NZ dairy products.

On her return to NZ, her first role with Fonterra was South Island based, and while it was an “awesome experience”, she’s enjoying being back on the family farm in Pirongia in the Waikato with Ben, and their pets – dog Lincoln and cat Steve.

“We love travelling around New Zealand – but during these lockdowns I’ve gotten into cycling around the Pirongia Mountain hills,” she says.

She is looking forward to learning more at Fonterra.

“We’ve got lots going on with the upgrade, and that will keep me challenged for the next few years. I’m really fortunate to work with a really cool team at the Te Awamutu site who have supported me so much already in the short time that I’ve been here,” she says.

“I’ve been able to learn from a few wastewater legends namely Ron Hamilton and Marc Carney and the Plant Operators Sinclair Watson and Graeme Jacobsen who are always there when we need them and keep things in control on a day-to-day basis.” n

Caitlyn Poole and Fonterra senior environmental operator Graeme Jacobsen on the top of the clarifiers. Wastewater Treatment Ponds can be seen in the back.

Growing demand for ag studies

Massey University has the highest number of undergraduate students in more than a decade enrolled across its agriculture-related programs, with more than 350 people studying agricultural science, agribusiness, horticultural science and animal science, and are hoping for similar numbers in 2022, with early enrolments at record levels.

DairyNZ Professor of Dairy Production Systems Danny Donaghy, from the School of Agriculture and Environment, says the increase is probably due to a combination of factors, including targeted recruitment in schools and a huge joint effort from industry and the university to change the perception of careers in agriculture.

He says covid-19 and its impact on industries like tourism and hospitality has also led people to look for careers in sectors which are not as greatly impacted by the pandemic.

“The student make-up is very interesting, with a mix of school-leavers as well as mature students choosing to change careers, or looking to upskill,” Donaghy says.

“An increasing number of students are choosing to study online or a mixture of online and in-person. By increasing our online offering we are providing an opportunity for people who may not live near our campuses, or who want to upskill while working.”

He says the increase in school-leavers shows speaking to secondary schools is working.

“The School of Agriculture and Environment ran a lot of activities with high schools in 2021. We have been to schools, hosted multiple groups at Massey, and have spoken to students, teachers and parents explaining that a career in agriculture is not just behind the farm gate growing animals or crops,” he says.

“Roles are needed across the spectrum, and along with farmers and farm managers, we need experts in technology, engineering, environmental management, human resources, marketing and more. These are highlyskilled and technical jobs and can be well paid. When students and others learn this they are quite surprised and you can see their interest grows.”

The increased use of technology, regulatory requirements and compliance means farmers are now looking for experts in these fields to support their businesses. As a result, this has created greater demand for businesses to upskill their employees.

Massey has worked in partnership with industry and government for more than 10 years to create professional development courses to meet this growing demand. More than 4300 people in total have graduated from these courses, which are run through the Farmed Landscapes Research Centre (FLRC), part of the School of Agriculture and Environment. The courses are tailored to the needs of science, industry, policy and regulatory bodies concerned with primary production.

“We hear people saying they do not want to necessarily do a full undergraduate degree, so these professional development courses allow them to upskill and are mostly available online so can be completed from anywhere. Many people do these while working full-time,” he says.

He says farming has naturally become more complex in terms of what farmers need to do on a day-to-day basis.

“We have always needed clever people on farms and more and more we are needing skilled people to navigate different farming practices, as well as regulation and technology,” he says.

“Most farmers can’t be across all of this, and so they need to work with teams of people who can be.”

Donaghy says the industry’s demand for more workers is not going away any time soon.

“Massey, along with other universities, is supplying hundreds of graduates but what we are hearing from government, industry bodies and businesses is that they need thousands.” n

The number of students enrolled in agricultural programmes at Massey University is at an all-time high.

Upskilling vital for farmers

Dairy Training manager Cath Blake understands the demands of farming having owned a farm business and tutored farmers. Her dairy farming background and experience means she knows what skills farmers need and at which stages of their dairy farming journey.

“Learning needs to be at the right times so knowledge is fresh and able to be used practically in the farm business,” Blake says.

One course which provides the right skills at the right time is Progression Management.

“We’ve identified that assistant managers, and managers sometimes lack the basic skills that, on a busy farm, some bosses simply don’t have time to teach,” she says. Progression Management course is about upskilling managers in their current roles, getting up to speed with computers, tools and technologies and kickstarting financial management skills.

Blake also understands that to get some farmers to engage in courses, you need short courses held at suitable times (like between milkings) and they must be practical and enjoyable.

“Many of our short courses are three part-days and about enabling farmers to make good decisions. For some courses we offer both an online and in-person option,” she says.

Business by the Numbers is one short course for both new and experienced financial planners. Farmers learn about farm budgets and can look at their own numbers to investigate future options for big-picture goals, like self-employment, or growing their sharemilking or farming business. If farmers understand their numbers, they can have confident conversations with their bank or accountant and business partners too.

“It’s also important that we offer practical tools and techniques, and that we keep class sizes small so farmers are comfortable,” she says.

Writing a business plan might sound daunting, but Dairy Training’s short course Write a Business Plan steps farmers through the process. At the end of the short course farmers walk away with a five-year Business Plan having clarified what they want to get out of farming and what they need to do to get there.

Dairy Training specialises in short courses, workshops and full programmes for formal qualifications like the Diploma in Agribusiness Management.

February and March 2022 courses:

Business by the Numbers: In-person (three part-days) or online (7x two-hour sessions)

Write a Business Plan: Inperson (3 part-days) or online (7x two-hour sessions)

Progression Management: South Waikato, 9x four-hour workshops between March 1 to June 28.

Visit dairytraining.co.nz for more information and register now.

DairyNZ offers a range of events for farmers, including discussion groups, field days, business progression courses and other training events. You can keep up-to-date with the latest events online at dairynz.co.nz/events n