The Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme had been on Natasha Cave’s radar for several years before she applied for a Beef + Lamb New Zealand Leadership Advancement Scholarship last year.
The Te Kuiti beef farmer, B+LNZ Mid Northern North Island Farmer Councillor, member of B+LNZ’s Environmental Reference Group, Catchment Group coordinator and mother-of-four had been putting the programme in the too-hard basket while her youngest child was still at home, but a friend had pointed out that it would never be the right time –“ you’ve just got to go for it”.
With her youngest child having started school, Natasha applied for and won a B+LNZ Leadership Advancement Scholarship and elected to enter the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.
Natasha is now half through the six-month Programme and had just spent a week in Wellington when B+LNZ caught up with her.
“It was really eye-opening and insightful and while it was very busy with long days, it was a great experience.”
As part of the Programme, participants complete a research project on a topic of interest and Natasha is looking at the “Potential for wearables on beef cows to transform hill country farming.”
She says she and her husband Alan were early adopters of the technology, being one of the first hill country beef farmers in the country to put Halter collars on their breeding cows.
Natasha said there really wasn’t information available when they were looking at how wearables could benefit their business, but they knew that if they could improve their grazing management, the benefits would be significant.
She and Alan had been through succession and some very economically tough years and knew they needed to make some big changes in their business to drive productivity and profitability and build resilience.
“We are representative of so many hill country farmers and know, as an industry, we need to make some big step changes otherwise we will continue to see this on-going mass exodus of livestock off hill country.”
Natasha believes that it is technologies such as wearables that could offer the step-change hill country farming needs to underpin its future.
As part of her study, Natasha is very keen to hear from hill country beef farmers, gather their thoughts on wearable technologies and understand the barriers to adoption. She has put together a 10-minute survey which can be accessed here: Wearables on Beef Survey.
B+LNZ will report on Natasha’s findings once the study is complete.
Applications open for 2026 B+LNZ Rural Leadership Advancement Scholarships
Applications are now open for one of six 2026 B+LNZ Rural Leadership Advancement Scholarships. The Scholarship include $4000 towards a place on any Rural Leaders programme which includes the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme and Nuffield Scholarship, amongst others. It is open to any livestock farmer wanting to advance his or her leadership skills and have an impact on the sector.
As well as the opportunity to develop leadership skills, the Scholarships allow farmers to grow their networks and connect with industry leaders and influencers.
Applications close on 20 October.
For more information click here Rural Leadership Advancement Scholarship.