23 Nov 2012

Broader reach sought by dairy industry

12:39 pm on 23 November 2012

The dairy industry is looking to broaden its academic reach through a new postgraduate programme at the University of Auckland.

The joint graduate school in dairy research is a collaboration between the university and industry-bodies Dairy New Zealand, AgResearch and the Livestock Improvement Corporation.

The postgraduate course will cover fields such as dairy genetics, environmental science, technology, engineering and animal health and aims to have 50 Masters and PhD students on its role by 2015.

Dairy NZ chief executive Tim Mackle says the school will give the dairy industry greater access to academics from Auckland.

New Zealand recruits more than two-thirds of its agricultural scientists from abroad and Mr Mackle says the new joint graduate school should go some way to redressing this.

''But we really ned to start growing our own,'' he said.