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CLIENT NEWS: The hunt’s on for the country’s best bull calves

CRV Ambreed is on the market for New Zealand’s very best bull calves that will produce the next generation of high performing dairy cows.  With calving now underway, CRV Ambreed Breeding Manager Aaron Parker says it’s time for farmers to get in touch with the herd improvement company if they have a top-notch bull calf hit the paddock. “Year-on-year we’re carefully building a portfolio of genetics to suit a broad range of environments, conditions and farming systems to ensure New Ze...

CLIENT NEWS: Recommended location announced for Waikato Regional Theatre

The recommended location for the new Waikato Regional Theatre has been announced as the Hamilton Hotel site on Victoria St, Hamilton, and the community’s feedback on this is being sought. The privately-owned site currently has a range of restaurants and bars and is bordered by Embassy Park (with the Riff Raff statue) on one side and Sapper Moore-Jones Place (formerly Marlborough Pl) on the other, and runs down to the river. A new theatre development would look to restore the facade of the old ...

CLIENT NEWS: Housing issues impacting on family violence victims – Waikato Women’s Refuge

A shortage of rental housing in Hamilton is impacting on the ability of Waikato Women’s Refuge to continue helping victims of family violence. Waikato Women’s Refuge Co-Founder and CEO Ruahine Albert QSM says the impact of a tight rental market in Hamilton is now being felt. Ms Albert says so many people are trying to rent houses in Hamilton that women and children who are ready to move on from the refuge safe houses and set up home are unable to do so. She estimates it’s affecting at lea...

CLIENT NEWS: Innovative feed tracking tool boosting dairy production

Latest results show dairy farmers using an innovative online milk monitoring and prediction tool are achieving 9.15% more production than the average Fonterra farmer this season1. To the end of April, 82 per cent of GrainCorp clients actively using Tracker™ were up 7.48 per cent on production compared to the same time last year.  The average across all clients was an increase of 4.89 per cent. The results come off the back of another previously successful season where Tracker™,...

HMC News: A communications dictionary

The world of public relations is a world of words. To make things a bit easier, we've sorted through a few commonly used acronyms, words and terms used by PR or communications people so the next time you stumble across them you don’t have to pretend you know they mean. APR– This is the internationally-recognised Accreditation in Public Relations (APR).  Half of HMC’s team has this accreditation, which takes around six months of study including passing written and oral exams to achieve...

HMC NEWS: You’ve got issues – sort it!

A lot of organisations are fortunate enough to avoid crises.  But, when it comes to issues no organisation is immune.  Every single organisation has issues.  However, every organisation does not have a robust system in place to manage communications around issues. Before we get into issues management and what every organisation should be doing within this discipline, let’s first look at the difference between a crisis and an issue.  Because I think a lot of organisations er...

HMC NEWS: Communications health check event | Wed 26 July

You're invited to a communications health check – we recommend this is best performed with a glass of wine in hand and nibbles on the side. As winter sets in, we often find ourselves looking for ways to boost our health and wellness to stave off winter bugs. At HMC we also believe winter is a great time to do your communications health check. That's because when you're 'comms fit' you can keep all those nasty bugs - or PR pitfalls - at bay. If you're ready to get your organisation's commu...

HMC NEWS: PR - Something wicked this way comes?

Every day, calculating, evil PR professionals sit at a their antique oak desks in leather swivel chairs, rubbing their hands together in glee as they think about the millions they're making from twisting truths and perpetuating lies. They think, "This is so much fun! Look at ALL THE MONEY WE MAKE FROM YOU, you silly, silly publics." It's no secret PR professionals feel like they're getting the short end of the stick right now. It's because we are. And one comment in Karl du Fresne's 19 June ar...

CLIENT NEWS: Les Misérables back on stage after 16 years

The well-known sounds of I Dreamed a Dream and One Day More will soon resound in Hamilton after a 16-year-long silence. Come June, Hamilton's Operatic Society will present Les Misérables (Les Mis), arguably the world's most loved musical of all time, at Clarence St Theatre. Hamilton Operatic Society chairperson Fiona Bradley said, prior to now, Les Mis hasn't been performed in New Zealand for many years due to restricted rights while the movie was in cinemas. "These have since lifted, ...

CLIENT NEWS: KCE wins Safeguard NZ Workplace Health and Safety Award

Local electricity generator and retailer, King Country Energy (KCE), has won best health and safety initiative in the small business category at the prestigious 2017 Safeguard New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards. KCE's winning health and safety initiative centred on keeping the company's team of meter readers safe using a detailed, four-pronged safety approach. This is the first year KCE has entered these awards, and CEO Rob Foster said that to be announced as winner is an outstand...

CLIENT NEWS: Change your thinking - Louise Thompson’s advice for dairy women

How you approach life is everything. Those are the words of life coach Louise Thompson, one of the headline acts at this year's Dairy Women's Network conference, DWN17 Connect, in Queenstown, 11-12 May. Thompson is a no-nonsense life coach, wellbeing writer and speaker with an easy-to-digest ethos: how you think is how you live. She says no matter how busy, stressful and full your life is, the way in which you think and approach your thoughts is at the heart of true wellbeing. She'll share...

CLIENT NEWS: CRV Ambreed announces a new collaboration for BVD and Johne’s Disease

CRV Ambreed has appointed a new laboratory to enable New Zealand dairy farmers to gain access to further information about BVD and Johne's Disease from their herd testing. The herd improvement company has announced an exclusive arrangement with Disease Research Ltd, part of the University of Otago. From June 2017, New Zealand farmers will get their normal herd test information on Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) and Johne's Disease (JD) but are now able to directly take that a step further with Di...

HMC News: Keep ‘em outta the bushes

As a communications professional – and American citizen - I've been intrigued and sometimes gobsmacked as I watch the White House communications team perform their duties. Like many of you, I continually catch myself shaking my head and promising to focus on something other than US politics while being unable to wean myself off CNN. With my public relations hat on, I'm not so much watching The Don as watching to see how his team cleans up behind him. The month of May was a doozy for the ...

HMC News: 5 steps every leader should follow to initially respond to a crisis

Rule #1: be sympathetic United Airlines chief executive, Oscar Munoz, spoke at a conference yesterday in Mexico and told attendees that one lesson he learned from last month's passenger dragging fiasco is that he "should have been more apologetic at first." 1 If there is one key lesson leaders can learn from watching the United Airlines crisis unfold, it is the lesson Mr Munoz discovered the hard way: respond quickly with sympathy as your first step. By not apologising quickly, United Air...

CLIENT NEWS: Waikato Innovation Park seeks investor to bring $180 million growth vision to life

Waikato Innovation Park, a unique business park that leverages collaboration in the agribusiness industry, is seeking an investor for its property arm to grow the Park to the next level. The Park, which sits on 17 hectares of land in Hamilton, opened in 2004 with the aim of clustering businesses to help drive economic growth. It is now worth about $25 million, has four buildings including a spray dryer, and is home to 46 tenants who have more than 1600 staff between them (including 562 working ...

CLIENT NEWS: Impressive line-up for Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year 2017

Three of New Zealand's emerging dairy industry leaders are finalists in the sixth annual Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year. They are Claire Nicholson from Bay of Plenty, Jessie Chan-Dorman from Canterbury and Jolene Germann from Southland. Claire Nicholson (Ngāti Ruanui) is a Director of Paraninihi Ki Waitotara (PKW) and Chief Executive of Sirona Animal Health, Jessie Chan-Dorman is a Fonterra Shareholders Councillor and a Director of the Ashburton Trading Society, and Jolene Germann is...

CLIENT NEWS: CRV Ambreed announces “best bull team yet” for facial eczema tolerance

Herd improvement company CRV Ambreed has announced what it says is its best bull team ever to breed facial eczema-tolerant cows. New Zealand endured one of the worst facial eczema (FE) seasons in years in 2016 when spore counts ballooned in the North Island and parts of the South Island to the highest in a decade, and many herds had a large number of cows with clinical facial eczema. CRV Ambreed says that caused a tripling of orders for straws of semen from bulls with genetics for a tolerance ...

CLIENT NEWS: Rugged, rural fellas wanted for 2017 Fieldays Rural Bachelor of the Year

Are you a gallant rural gent who is more at home behind the wheel of a tractor than in the backseat of an UBER? Then you might just have what it takes to be the New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays' Rural Bachelor of the Year. Eight finalists will be selected for the popular competition, which takes place during Fieldays at Mystery Creek Events Centre from 14 to 17 June. The Rural Bachelor competition is now in its seventh year and entries close at the end of March. Finalists have their ...

CLIENT NEWS: NZ’s Dairy Solutionz launches heat-tolerant breed in US

New Zealand's Dairy Solutionz has launched its KiwipoleTM breed at the Tulare World Ag Expo event in California, in partnership with STGenetics. Slick Pathos, Slick Eros and his brother Slick Himeros are believed to be the world's first homozygous slick dairy type bulls available for export semen sales. The bulls will transmit the heat tolerance associated with the "slick gene" to all of their daughters. This slick gene allows Taurus cattle to perform in hot and humid conditions, with maintaine...

CLIENT NEWS: $1.6 million study to validate new diabetes prevention programme

The New Zealand Health Research Council (NZHRC) has injected $1.6 million into a research project to study an innovative self-management programme for people with pre-diabetes and diabetes. The programme, known as BetaMe, was developed by software company Melon Health. Pinnacle Midlands Health Network collaborated with Melon Health to pilot the programme in the Waikato in 2015. Ultimately, BetaMe was designed to equip people with pre-diabetes with the tools, support, education and confiden...

CLIENT NEWS: More than $6000 available to local community groups this March

Local electricity retailer, King Country Energy has announced it has more than $6000 worth of funding available for community groups within its operating area this month. The funding is part of the $20,000 that KCE makes available every year via it's Heartland Community Fund. The fund was established in 2014 and takes applications from community groups in March, July and November every year. KCE community relations manager Helen Peacock is this month encouraging applications from groups ...

CLIENT NEWS: Waikato businesses report strong growth and finances, despite dairy downturn

Despite the downturn in the dairy industry, businesses based at Waikato Innovation Park have reported strong growth and financial results. In the Park's annual tenant survey results released earlier this month, the gross turnover of all Park tenants in 2016 was more than $427 million, up 42 per cent from $300M in 2015. This reflects an upward annual trend with $188M reported in 2014 and $155M in 2013. "Businesses based at Waikato Innovation Park make a significant contribution to the reg...

HMC News: Is ethical PR possible?

By Monica Helbano, PR student and HMC Intern Can public relations really be practiced ethically? Having studied public relations alongside opinionated students for the past three years, I've heard quite a mixed bag of thoughts. The world of PR has evolved considerably in the past 200 years. Unfortunately, PR has a tainted past. In the 1800s, public relations' main purpose was to manipulate behaviour through one-way communication. Spin was rampant, and accuracy and credibility weren't high on ...

CLIENT NEWS: CRV Ambreed’s 2016 Lincoln scholar

Lincoln University's Georgina Lyndsay is CRV Ambreed's Lincoln University Scholarship winner for 2016. Georgina, from Dipton in Southland, is a fourth year Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Honours) student. CRV Ambreed research and development manager Phil Beatson said Georgina stood out among a high calibre group of scholarship applicants. "Georgina is an outstanding student who is very good academically and has a very wide range of interests," he said. Georgina was thrilled to rece...

CLIENT NEWS: CRV Ambreed hosts American Forage & Grassland Council

CRV Ambreed has shown members of the American Forage & Grassland Council how to get the best out of dairy cow genetics in a hybrid farming system on a client's Waikato farm. CRV Ambreed Global Product Manager Grazing Peter van Elzakker hosted 22 council members, led by University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Associate Professor Dennis Hancock, on client John Pouls' dairy farm north of Te Awamutu. Forage extension specialist Professor Hancock met Mr van Elza...