Chief Executive, Dr Scott Champion, says the Strategic Plan defines the way in which M&WNZ will do business through to 2014 ¨To see whats new, what has been retained and where the organisation is putting more or less emphasis over time. We started by looking at the issues facing the industry, considering how the industry needs to respond, and then looking at what role we can play in that response.

Farmers wanted better communication about the tools and practices that will help them be profitable on a sustainable basis. We've implemented organisational changes which have seen a shift of staff from Wellington to the regions and there will be an increased focus on extension work, with a dedicated extension team now operating in the regions.

Getting more farmers using the tools like Land Environment Plans, Wormwise, genetic information from Sheep Improvement Ltd and forage planning tools like ForageMaster and FeedSmart, will provide significant gains for the sector. We know farmers using these practices feature amongst the top performers in our industry.Tapping into what high performing farmers are doing and extending that information across the industry is a key plank of the plan.

Meat & Wool New Zealand is looking at a new initiative for the demonstration farms that would feature scientists demonstrating leading-edge science to farmers and working with them to develop and refine its application in real-world situations. This differs from the well-known and well established Monitor Farm programme which has farmers working with farmers to adopt new technologies.