The Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture) graduate also became the People's Choice winner, taking out the online vote.

The beef farmer narrowly beat his brother-in-law Chris Pool, while fellow Lincoln alumnus Jonny Brown, a Bachelor of Commerce (Rural Valuation and Agricultural Management) graduate, finished third.

Tim took home over $20,000 in cash, training and development packages and options, a quad bike and a tractor.

He was overcome with emotion, exhausted, excited and relieved to have taken out the title.

"I've met a bunch of good people, learnt a whole lot and got a lot of growth out of it," he said. "It's just such good advocacy for the industry. I love this competition to bits."

The contest started on Thursday with a technical day before heading into the biggest day (practical) on Friday.

The same night, the seven Grand Finalists presented their speeches to a crowd of 350 at the FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year and AgriKidsNZ Awards Ceremony.

The next evening, they went head to head in a buzzer quiz in front of a crowd of 650.

Lincoln University is a proud sponsor of the event, supporting growing young ag talent by backing the FMG Young Farmer of the year, Junior Young Farmer and Agri-kids.

Laura Marston (Hawke's Bay), Katie Cameron (Wairarapa) and Nina Downer (Otago) have received media attention recently after each being named their region's top viticulturist. All three honed their skills with our Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology and will be heading to the competition finals in Marlborough on 30 August.  

After graduating from Lincoln, Laura secured a role as a Viticulture Cadet at Craggy Range. She told New Zealand Winegrower Magazine that pursuing a career in the grape-growing industry was a perfect option, due to her love of science and desire to work in the outdoors.

Asked to name the most interesting developments in viticulture, she cited the implementation of organic principles into vineyards.

We are future-proofing our vineyards by giving back to our land through techniques such as composting, eliminating herbicide and establishing cover cropping, she said.

It is also exciting to see 'soft pruning' being more widely adopted to maintain healthy sap flow and encourage vine longevity.

I am interested in the move towards using a less frequent irrigation to encourage the vines' roots to grow deeper and become more self-reliant.

In terms of the future of the industry in New Zealand, Laura said she expected producers to focus on creating higher quality wine using organic principles.

I think this will continue to grow a strong brand internationally.

Wairarapa winner Katie travelled overseas after graduating from Lincoln and accepted a scholarship to study for a Master of Viticulture and Oenology in France, then Italy. She now works as a Technical Assistant at Escarpment Winery.

Like Laura, she's always been passionate about plant science and working outdoors, so growing a career in viticulture was the perfect goal.

According to Katie's interview with New Zealand Winegrower, it was her first harvest at Escarpment in 2020 that cemented her love for Aotearoa's wine industry, especially the Wairarapa region.

Excited see the industry exploring improvements in sustainable grape growing, she has a particular interest in native cover crop species, vineyard mapping and technology.

Katie said she wanted to see New Zealand continue to focus on producing high quality wines with distinctive regional character that rival the very best wine growing countries.

Otago winner Nina works at Felton Road Wines, a position she has held for two years. She told the Otago Daily Times that she'd always wanted to become a viticulturist, having grown up on a farm in Wairarapa, where she developed a passion for soil, plants and working outdoors.  

During the practical component of the Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology, Nina had the opportunity to work at Dry River Wines in Martinborough, which allowed her to develop her skills while staying close to home.

She said she enjoyed the diversity of the job and being part of a small team, and made the move to Otago during the Covid harvest of 2020 to take on her role at Felton Road Wines.

Now in its 17^th year, the New Zealand Young Viticulturist of the Year Competition is based on six regional contests, culminating in a national final. It offers an opportunity for viticulturists aged 30 and under to upskill, grow their confidence and widen their networks.


Nina Downer



Laura Marston


Katie Cameron
 

The squad is in South Africa for the Rugby Championship, and Fletcher, a prop, will cover for injured front-rower Ofa Tu'ungafasi.

He said he missed All Blacks' manager Darren Shand's phone call to tell him of his selection, but when Shand sent a text, he "answered quicker than he had ever responded to a text before".

 "It was pretty surreal when he gave me the news. It's just an awesome moment and I can't really put any words together".

The Bachelor of Land and Property Management student has performed well for the Crusaders this year, and joins Lincoln alumni and former Sports Scholars Sam Whitelock, Scott Barrett, Jordie Barrett and Jack Goodhue in the squad.

Image: Fraser Newell scores for the Rams.

Minister of Agriculture, Damien O'Connor, presented awards to the top academic achievers in selected study programmes, with 25 food and fibre sector organisations sponsoring tables and a range of industry representatives on hand to meet prospective employees.

Two highly successful Lincoln graduates also attended to take part in a panel discussion about the challenges and opportunities in the sector.

The event, conceived by Lincoln University PhD student Laura Keenan, was more than 18 months in the making, having been postponed several times due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Grant Edwards said it was exciting to finally have the chance to recognise student achievement and partner with industry to facilitate meaningful connections.

"Lincoln's graduate employment rate is higher than that of any other university in the country, which reflects our commitment to producing work-ready graduates to help drive innovation in the food and fibre sectors.

"This event was a wonderful way to showcase potential career opportunities to our students and introduce employers to some of our best and brightest future industry leaders.

"We were also proud to acknowledge the academic success of our top performing students and hear from alumni whose Lincoln education has helped them to flourish in their chosen fields," he said.

The evening began with a networking hour, followed by messages from Professor Edwards and Minister O'Connor, and a Q&A session with Lincoln graduates, Kate Macdonald and Jake Jarman.

A fifth-generation farmer at Davaar Station, Kate completed her Bachelor of Agribusiness and Food Marketing at Lincoln in 2017 and has gone on to found Davaar & Co, a luxury farm-to-fashion brand.

The business uses crossbred sheep wool grown exclusively at Davaar Station to produce and manufacture woollen jerseys, with the entire production process completed in New Zealand. Sustainable and ethical practices are at the core of the brand, which Kate runs full time as its Creative Director.

Jake was born and bred in Taranaki on his family's dairy farm, completing his Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture) at Lincoln in 2018 and winning the FMG Young Farmer of the Year competition in 2021. He now works for ANZ, recently moving into an Agri Relationship Manager role after spending the past 18 months as an Agri Relationship Associate.

The duo answered pre-submitted questions from some of the student attendees and discussed their career paths, both saying their journeys were not linear or planned and neither had any idea five years ago that they would be where they are today.

Their advice to the students was to be open to opportunities, work hard to expand their networks and try different avenues in their pursuit of success.


Photo: panel discussion with alumni Jake Jarman and Kate Macdonald

The panel discussion was followed by a dinner, sponsored by Silver Fern Farms, which included a buffet of New Zealand's finest beef and lamb. Rossendale Wines provided sponsorship of the wine that was on offer during the evening.

The event ended with an awards ceremony to recognise the highest-achieving second and third-year students studying towards degrees in the food and fibre areas.

Bachelor of Agribusiness and Food Marketing student and Lincoln University Future Leader Scholar, Sasha van Beek, described the event as "fantastic". 

"Not only did we get a chance to celebrate the hard work of our friends and classmates, but we had a unique opportunity to talk in-depth with industry individuals we would never have met otherwise," she said. "The advice and insights they gave were amazing to hear.

"These conversations and networking opportunities have led to many of my friends and myself securing immersion experience days, where we will follow specific company employees around for a day and gain a better understanding of what their company is about."

The student award winners included:

• Kelly-Anne Bentley – Bachelor of Science (Food Science)
• Abbey Dowd – Bachelor of Agricultural Science
• Grace Moscrip – Bachelor of Agricultural Science
• Callum Jamie – Bachelor of Agriculture
• Maryanne Walker – Bachelor of Science
• Millie Rosa Young – Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology
• Kaitlin Watson – Sustained Excellence in Agricultural Science
• Ega Wibisono – Bachelor of Agribusiness and Food Marketing
• Mitchell Paul Cockburn – Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture)
• Lauren Jean Thomas – Bachelor of Land and Property Management
• Mikayla Lilian Cotter – Bachelor of Land and Property Management
• Luke Gilchrist – Overall High Achieving Student Award from the Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce

The new Centre for One Biosecurity Research, Analysis and Synthesis (COBRAS) will be the first of its kind in the world, and will consolidate myriad global efforts to predict and mitigate the impact of invasive weeds, animals and pathogens into a centralised hub at Lincoln University.

The COBRAS multi-disciplinary team comprises highly-respected researchers from the domains of animal, environmental and plant health, Mātauraka Māori, economics and climate change, and is led by Distinguished Professor Philip Hulme, one of New Zealand's leading biosecurity scientists.

COBRAS will also work closely with relevant Ministries, industry, regional councils and iwi, as well as international partners – for example the Australian Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis.

Professor Hulme said COBRAS had been established to answer a pressing need for a coordinated global response to address the growing biosecurity risks to animal, plant and environmental health.

The Sars-CoV-2 pandemic has highlighted the need to more effectively protect international and national borders against invasive species which can cause multiple impacts to people, plants and animals, with significant sociological, political and environmental implications.

We recognise that we need to act collectively and cooperatively to mitigate these impacts, yet strong and enduring sectoral silos persist, severely limiting our ability to mount an effective 'one biosecurity' holistic approach.

COBRAS will deliver that 'one biosecurity' response, and will at the same time establish Lincoln University as the international leader in land-based interdisciplinary biosecurity policy and research.

COBRAS will generate accelerated scientific discovery through synthesis, data access and collaboration, implementing an extensive series of question-led workshops to tackle emerging local and international biosecurity issues.

With teams of researchers and stakeholders from all over the world contributing to COBRAS, the centre will have a consequential and immediate impact on biosecurity science, said Professor Hulme.

We have already established links with new interdisciplinary centres in the USA and Chile that are addressing the interface between biosecurity and disease biology as well as biocultural diversity.

Longer term milestones will include establishing an international collaborative biosecurity research network, a corpus of interdisciplinary publications in high-profile journals and securing ongoing funding.

COBRAS hosted its first state-of-the-art synthesis workshop at Lincoln University on Monday 20 June, where the key focus for the participants was identifying research priorities across the New Zealand biosecurity system, and the extent to which current expertise meets those needs.

It is quite clear that the days of lone entomologists or pathologists beavering away in the lab are no longer sufficient to address the social and policy challenges of biosecurity, yet the opportunity to bring different disciplines and ideas to bear on these problems has been missing in New Zealand up until now, said Professor Hulme.

Lincoln University Centres of Excellence

The launch of the Centre for One Biosecurity Research, Analysis and Synthesis brings the number of Centres of Excellence hosted by Lincoln University to four.

The CoE – Designing Future Productive Landscapes seeks to explore all elements related to the future of agricultural development throughout the world, while considering the sociological context for an evolving world.

The CoE – Food for Future Consumers' vision is to be recognised as the international centre for research and ideas on all aspects of provenance associated with high value food products from Aotearoa New Zealand.

The CoE – Sustainable Tourism for Regions, Communities and Landscapes conducts research and work related to first-class sustainable tourism opportunities.

For media enquiries email media@lincoln.ac.nz or phone 03 325 3827.

They attended presentations on the wide range of programmes offered and had the chance to talk with academics, alumni and students to find out why Lincoln is such a great option for study in 2023.

Tours of the campus and accommodation proved especially popular, with 53 conducted throughout the day.

You can apply now to study at Lincoln, and if you missed Hui Whakatuwhera Open Day you can book a personal advisory session, as well as a campus tour here, to make sure you grow your opportunities with us.

Image: Cameron and Jade Lepper talk with Lincoln University Professor Hamish Gow.

But a diverse diet is a boon during the lambing process, leading to reduced oxidative stress and healthier, "happier" lambs.

That's according to new research from Lincoln University's Pastoral Livestock Production Lab, which explored whether offering dietary diversity to ewes in the final trimester of pregnancy would reduce oxidative stress for both the mother and offspring. 

A reduction in stress was indicated and ewes eating functionally diverse diets also birthed heavier lambs that had lower cortisol levels. The project is the first to detect maternal and foetal stress by examining the cortisol concentration and antioxidant levels of lamb's wool in utero. 

These findings suggest moving away from a typical monotonous menu for lambing ewes and instead peppering their diet with foods like chicory, plantain, red clover and lucerne, as well as other plants.

According to Livestock Production Professor Pablo Gregorini, whose former PhD student Konagh Garrett conducted the study, the hormonal and metabolic changes of pregnancy can increase nutritional demands and strain. Certain diets then exacerbate the issue, especially as animals transition from non-lactating to lactating.

"Maternal nutrition in late gestation also influences lamb birth weight and the stress experienced by lambs in utero," he said.

"Our findings have significant implications, as farmers can enhance animal wellbeing using simple dietary measures and adding further value to New Zealand pasture-based animal products, because the animals would be 'happy' from the get-go.

"It's clear that feeding lambing ewes a wider variety of foods will enhance both animal welfare and production."



Photo: Livestock Production Professor Pablo Gregorini. 

N-Vision NZ, led by farmer owned nutrient co-operative Ravensdown and co-funded by the Government's Sustainable Food and Fibres Future (SFFF) initiative, aims to help farmers reduce nitrogen loss.

One of the projects in the $22 million seven-year initiative, led by Lincoln University researchers Dr Hossein Alizadeh, Professor John Hampton and Dr Wadia Kandula, will harness the power of humble natural strains of soil fungi to increase the efficiency of nitrogen use by plants.

Ravensdown General Manager of Innovation and Strategy Mike Manning explains: The Lincoln University researchers have discovered natural strains of fungi that reduce the activity of specific microbes, which are involved with nitrogen cycling and losses. These nitrogen losses can occur as nitrate leaching through the soil which has potential detrimental effect on waterways, and as nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas emission. 

Although it occurs naturally in pastural soils at a relatively low level, the fungi can be applied to soil as either a prill or seed coating. Doing so increases the level of the fungi and therefore alters the nitrogen cycle to reduce nitrogen losses. Research to date indicates this has a strong potential to mitigate both greenhouse gas emissions and reduce nitrogen loss to waterways, he said.


 

N-Vision NZ includes two other research projects that aim to reduce the environmental impact of New Zealand's grazed pasture systems: one that will develop an accurate gauge of the nitrogen already in the soil and, therefore enabling farmers to apply more precise quantities of nitrogen fertiliser for optimum plant growth; and another that will research nitrification inhibitors, which have the potential to significantly lower nitrous oxide emissions and nitrogen leaching from grazed pasture systems. 

N-Vision NZ will apply leading edge science and technology to create tools that farmers can use on farm. Importantly farmers will have options to maintain profitability while minimising the environmental impact of their land use. SFFF is contributing $7.3 million to N-Vision, while Ravensdown's contribution is $11 million in cash, plus in-kind funding. Lincoln University and Plant & Food Research are research partners for N-Vision.

For media enquiries email media@lincoln.ac.nz or phone 03 325 3827.

They are working on artificial intelligence techniques to help identify the quality of wine without touching a drop, helping the wine industry to automate a time-consuming and costly process.

The recent paper, A machine learning application in wine quality prediction, published in Machine Learning with Applications (an Elsevier journal), showed that by generating synthetic data, the researchers identified important attributes which increased the accuracy of a machine learning model.

This helps their progress towards developing a machine learning-based web application that wine researchers and wine growers can use to predict wine quality based on the important chemical and physio-chemical compounds, giving them the capability to tune various variable quantities.

The research utilised 18 Pinot noir wine samples with 54 different characteristics (seven physiochemical and 47 chemical features), and they generated 1381 data samples.

Co-author Professor Don Kulasiri, head of Lincoln's Centre for Advanced Computational Solutions (C-fACS), said the generation of synthetic data played a crucial role in the study, as there was limited raw data.

It is almost impossible to train and test machine learning models using such a small sample space.

The findings were compared using four distinct feature selection approaches. Important attributes that were shown to be relevant in at least three were utilised to predict wine quality. Seven machine-learning algorithms were trained and tested, one showing 100% accuracy.

The paper stated wine quality was one of the most significant issues in the wine industry.

It also said Pinot noir cultivation was more complex than that of other grape types due to its particular soil needs and demand for a chilly environment.

Pinot noir has the earliest bud break and harvest dates, which means winemakers must be extra cautious since their vines are more susceptible to spring frosts.

With the complexity involved, the tool is currently being developed to include the viticulture variables as well, which would be a valuable asset for growers.








 

They are working on artificial intelligence techniques to help identify the quality of wine without touching a drop, helping the wine industry to automate a time-consuming and costly process.

The recent paper, A machine learning application in wine quality prediction, published in Machine Learning with Applications (an Elsevier journal), showed that by generating synthetic data, the researchers identified important attributes which increased the accuracy of a machine learning model.

This helps their progress towards developing a machine learning-based web application that wine researchers and wine growers can use to predict wine quality based on the important chemical and physio-chemical compounds, giving them the capability to tune various variable quantities.

The research utilised 18 Pinot noir wine samples with 54 different characteristics (seven physiochemical and 47 chemical features), and they generated 1381 data samples.

Co-author Professor Don Kulasiri, head of Lincoln's Centre for Advanced Computational Solutions (C-fACS), said the generation of synthetic data played a crucial role in the study, as there was limited raw data.

It is almost impossible to train and test machine learning models using such a small sample space.

The findings were compared using four distinct feature selection approaches. Important attributes that were shown to be relevant in at least three were utilised to predict wine quality. Seven machine-learning algorithms were trained and tested, one showing 100% accuracy.

The paper stated wine quality was one of the most significant issues in the wine industry.

It also said Pinot noir cultivation was more complex than that of other grape types due to its particular soil needs and demand for a chilly environment.

Pinot noir has the earliest bud break and harvest dates, which means winemakers must be extra cautious since their vines are more susceptible to spring frosts.

With the complexity involved, the tool is currently being developed to include the viticulture variables as well, which would be a valuable asset for growers.