Craige MacKenzie

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Position: Industry

Craige and wife Roz operate Greenvale Pastures Ltd, a 200 hectare arable cropping property near Methven, NZ. They are also partners in Three Springs Dairies Ltd, a neighbouring 320 ha dairy farm milking 1150 cows. The couple are showcased on the sustainable farming website “Good Farm Stories”, launched in 2009 by the Green Party.

Craige has been farming since 1984 and has developed a keen interest in sustainable farming practices and innovative solutions for New Zealand agriculture. He is a member of the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) Strategic Research Committee and board member for Southern Precision Agriculture Association (SPAA); and he is a recent recipient of a Ballance Farm Environmental Award for Nutrient and Irrigation Management and runner-up  in the 2010 Lincoln University Foundation Farmer of the Year Awards recognising Innovation in Farming. At these awards, Craige was also presented with the AGMARDT innovation award for his work on the Smart-N fertiliser application system. In 2010 he was also awarded the Farming Award from the New Zealand Grassland Trust for his "Adoption and promotion of technology and good pastoral management practices in dairying".
In 2008 Craige was awarded a New Zealand Nuffield Farming Scholarship, publishing a paper on “Understanding the Carbon Footprint in Farming Systems”.
Craige is involved in research programmes with various organisations including Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry – Sustainable Farming Fund (MAF-SFF), Environment Canterbury (ECan), National Institute for Water and Atmosphere (NIWA), Dairy NZ, AgResearch and the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR).