Just a couple of months away from 2024, Ag students looking for financial support in their studies Align Farms is offering a scholarship - but get in quick - applications close this weekend!
The head of Environment & Innovation for Align Claire Buchanan told REX host Dominic George this is their second year offering this scholarship opportunity.
"Last year was the first time," she said.
"It's open to any University student in their undergraduate studies and we will fund a full year of studies."
The scholarship is available for any year of study, as long as the student is studying in some area of agriculture.
"It doesn't have to be specifically Ag, it could be a business degree or an environmental degree that is focused in the agriculture sector."
One of the values at Align is to be a multi-generational business, which Buchanan explained is important for their business to encourage and support young Kiwis to get into the agriculture industry.
To apply for the scholarship head to alignfarms.co.nz, fill out the application form and submit a CV required. Applications close on Sunday 1st of October.
Part of Buchanan's role at Align Farms is collecting and publishing data from a unique regenerative agriculture trial they are currently conducting.
Buchanan detailed the ongoing trial, which sees a comparison between conventional and regenerative systems.
"We basically split the farm in half and have a conventional system on one side and the regenerative system on the other, and we're trying to compare as many metrics as possible," she explained.
One of the most significant takeaways from this trial so far has been the impressive pasture growth, even with reduced synthetic fertiliser use.
"The first season, well, we were transitioning to the half-regenerative for a few seasons before so I think, we went three seasons without putting any synthetic nitrogen on.
"We were really blown away by the pasture production we were getting with no synthetic fertiliser.
"The last two seasons we have trialled low rates of nitrogen, less than ten units for the whole season and still getting quite impressive pasture growth so that has been a cool learning experience for us."
More information about the study and Align Farms is available on their website or social media channels.
Listen to the full chat between Claire Buchanan and Dominic George above.
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