How Future Farmers NZ is facilitating conversations to help shape the industry with Aimee Blake

In the second episode of RaboTalk Growing our Future’s new Succession 2050 series, host Blake Holgate speaks with Justin Van der Sluis, Global Head of RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness, to explore his contribution to Rabobank’s Succession 2050 Gearing up for New Zealand’s food and agri future white paper. Drawing on insights from Rabobank's global network of analysts, Justin outlines how international structural shifts directly affect export-dependent nations like New Zealand. Justin’s discussion focuses on the five challenges set to reshape global food and agriculture, from changing consumer demand and trade fragmentation to sustainability pressures and market volatility. The key takeaway: future success won't come from producing more, but from delivering trusted, high-value products that meet evolving consumer needs. A must-listen for farmers and growers looking to build resilient, future-focused businesses. Like what you’ve heard? Follow our podcast for more great content.

In this RaboTalk, Growing our Future episode, host Blake Holgate speaks with Steve Brown, Chief Executive of Headwaters and High Health Alliance, to explore how the breeding and supply programme behind Lumina Lamb connects on-farm decisions directly with top-tier international chefs. Steve outlines how a group of Southland and Central Otago producers established Headwaters in 2007 to solve a fundamental market problem: the lack of consistent eating quality in traditional lamb.

In the first episode of RaboTalk Growing our Future’s new Succession 2050 series, host Blake Holgate speaks with Ray Smith, Director General of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), to explore his contribution to Rabobank’s Succession 2050 Gearing up for New Zealand’s food and agri future white paper. Drawing on his extensive experience leading major public sector departments alongside a family background in agriculture, Ray provides a strategic perspective on how New Zealand’s primary sector is entering a new era of sustainable productivity. Ray discusses how New Zealand producers can leverage their natural advantages to capture growing global demand for high-value protein and nature-positive products. He outlines how unlocking productivity, investing in regional water storage, adopting emerging precision technologies, and maintaining rigorous biosecurity and farm assurance schemes will secure the sector’s long-term global competitiveness out to 2050.

In this fifth episode of RaboTalk’s Growing Our Future Catchment Catch-Up series, host Blake Holgate speaks with Mark Chrystall, a northern Rangitikei sheep and beef farmer and founding member and current Vice Chairman of the Rangitikei Rivers Catchment Collective (RRCC). Mark shares how the collective formed in 2017 to tackle localised riverbank feed-lotting issues and evolved into an expansive, data-driven entity. Today, the RRCC coordinates 125 monthly water testing sites and manages projects spanning sub-catchments across the Rangitīkei, Turakina, and Whangaehu rivers. The conversation explores how catchment collectives can build regional trust, transition from raw water testing to advanced ecological indices, and address emerging environmental challenges. Mark highlights how spatial mapping, collaborative university research, and unified pest control projects help hill-country farmers take ownership of their landscapes, protect local freshwater quality, and build resilient rural communities. Like what you’ve heard? Follow our podcast for more great content. Show Notes: Empowering Farmers Through Local Water Testing Rather than relying solely on regional council monitoring, the RRCC established 125 monthly water testing sites across its sub-catchments. Testing for nitrogen, phosphorus, E. coli, and turbidity provides producers with transparent, localised data. Placing these real-time results directly in front of landowners creates instant buy-in and inspires peer-driven environmental improvement. Uncovering Environmental Context via Science In the Waikākahi tributary, monthly testing revealed phosphate levels nearly 20 times higher than expected. Rather than assuming agricultural runoff was the cause, the collective partnered with Massey University and Horizons Regional Council on a three-year PhD project. Geologic analysis revealed the elevated phosphate stemmed from natural rock formations rather than farming practices, illustrating the power of raw data over assumptions. Moving Beyond Single-Metric Water Testing The collective has expanded its environmental monitoring to include Macro-invertebrate Community Index (MCI) testing and habitat assessments across 80 sites. By training local coordinators to evaluate stream life, silting, and aquatic plants alongside regional council teams, the RRCC creates a complete, long-term picture of freshwater health across hill-country catchments. Transitioning from Farm Plans to Integrated Catchment Plans Building on individual Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) maps, the collective is aggregating farm data into comprehensive digital catchment plans. Layering spatial data for winter grazing, biodiversity, slope, and critical source areas allows the group to move past a scattered approach and direct environmental funding straight to high-priority hotspots. Targeting Hotspots with Infrastructure and Pest Control The RRCC actively tackles non-traditional environmental risks across the region. Projects range from fencing and planting native vegetation below gully wool-sheds to capture nutrient runoff, to launching a multi-regional thermal drone survey to map wild deer populations. Quantifying pest damage on winter forage crops allows the collective to design coordinated, landscape-scale control strategies. Final Advice: Understand Your Footprint and Stay Connected Mark encourages farmers and community leaders to proactively understand their environmental footprint rather than waiting for regulatory mandates. Keeping local sub-catchment groups active, sharing spatial data, and gathering at the local hall for a cup of tea or a sausage sizzle creates the social cohesion needed to navigate future land management challenges together.

This RaboTalk Growing our Future’s episode explores one of the biggest questions facing New Zealand agriculture: how farmers and growers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while protecting profitability and long-term business resilience. Blake Holgate is joined by Lee Matheson, Managing Director at Perrin Ag and co-author of The Path to 2050 white paper, for a practical discussion on why Lee believes the sector cannot rely on future technology alone, and why he considers emissions planning needs to sit at the heart of farm strategy. In the podcast Lee talks about the importance of improving efficiency, understanding each farm’s emissions profile, making land-use decisions based on sound economics, and working collectively through peer groups, processors, industry bodies and policy settings. The Path to 2050 white paper can be accessed here. Like what you’ve heard? Follow our podcast for more great content.