June 14, 2026 • 5 mins
One of New Zealand's leading primary sector academics talks about Innovation and AI at Fieldays.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here is another person whose company I enjoyed at Field
Days as always, Doctor Jacquelin Rowiths did a wonderful job
adjudicating the big Rural industry leader's debate on Wednesday night
at Claudland's. We might come back to that one, Jacqueline,
But like me, you're a veteran of Field Days. What
did you make of it?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Really good but constrained optimism because all the figures are
looking as though they're going in the right direction with
things like the innovation, the schedules and the milk payout.
But constraint because of the uncertainty in terms of the
super El Nino and what it will really mean for
(00:40):
your individual farm, and of course political or constrained about
the politics in terms of we've got regional counsels saying
different things about farming and they might or might not
be merged, and the government is making all sorts of
good statements. In fact, all the parties are making good statements,
but what actually happens has yet to be seen. So
(01:02):
constrained optimism, but good news in terms of people wanting
our products and all the fears about famented, you know,
precision fermentation, and then veganism and then oh no, the
weight loss drugs, none of them have knocked off the
desire for proper good protein food and the best protein
(01:23):
comes from animals.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well to the contrary, Jack Well, and I don't want
to correct you here, but the weight loss drugs are
great news for New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, well that's what I said. It's sorry, contrary to
the bad news that they were going to mean, we
did our products that aren't needed anymore. Actually they needed more.
So all the naysayers that said that that fermentation or
veganism or then the weight loss strugs will mean we
didn't have markets. Our markets are fine and we can
see that in the schedules and the milk prices.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Well, I'm doing good stuff. Okay, I misheard, rather than
you misspoke and quoting the Great Man himself fake news.
We're getting news as we go to air that we've
got a deal. It looks like are supposedly going to
be signed in Switzerland on Friday. Look sentiment alone, this
is going to make a huge difference because but everything
(02:15):
has an oil component to it and a fertilizer component
to it. So this is good news for New Zealand.
Let's hope they can see the thing through.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Absolutely we agree, and so we're all watching and listening
and trying to work out what actually is going to
be the truth. But yes, nobody wants this war, so
even Mann people don't want the war. Let's get back
on track. Yep.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Okay, Now you've written once again a wonderful column for us.
You do it fortnightly on our website, The Country dot
co dot nz. And one of the things you've talked
about is innovation and AI and you've tied that into
Field Days and here's I'm just going to read one
of your week sentences here and I thought this was
a good one. Some of the development showcased at Field
Days with a brainchild of somebody growing up on a
(03:00):
farm undertaking tertiary education and an allied subject engineering, mechanics, computing,
and no finer example of that than Craig Peggott and Holter.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Right, So thinking about what might make the difference and
then being able to examine the unintended consequences because they
know actually things that work on farm and discuss what
might happen with other rural professionals or farmers or scientists.
And that was always my concern. Something that seems like
a really good thing. Best since life spread actually has
(03:35):
unintended consequences that we didn't think about. And quite often
that's because the person operating them on or the person
inventing them didn't actually really understand what it would do
on farm. So there are all sorts of implications with
the new technologies that we're using.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Plus we're getting more and more agribusiness into more and
more secondary schools in particular.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yes, yes, and that's great, And so students, the final
year students bringing their inventions along and talking to the
judges about what it's going to do on farm. It's
just utterly delightful and we want more of that, but
people who understand how it will work on farm as well.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I just want to pack up on another comment you
made about AI artificial intelligence. You talked about check, GPT
and co pilot, all these artificial intelligence tools that are
right at our fingertips. You're questioning some.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Of them with sixty percent of the information coming through
being incorrect, and people not knowing enough about the questions
they've asked to understand that actually they've been given a
poor key as an answer. Yes, I'm pretty worried absolutely unworried.
So the importance of developing the questions, the astute questioning
(04:49):
part of that actually comes from knowing what you're talking about.
So it is a big issue, and you know, I
love teaching, but gosh, it must be difficult marketing stuff.
At the moment. You need to be able to know
enough about what you're talking about to think that can't
be right when the answer comes from AI or chat GPT.
And that's my concern. How do we enable students going
(05:14):
through the education system to understand that they still need
to know a lot about the facts, the realities of
what they're thinking for the future, in order to be
able to ground truth the information that comes from these
new tools.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Doctor Jaquelin row with there. You can read all about
it on our website The Country, dot co, dot and Z.
I'm and I'm glad, Jacqueline you've thought out from a
very chilly Thursday morning at Field Days. I'll catch you
in a couple of eggs
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Lovely Thames, Demy
Here is another person whose company I enjoyed at Field
Days as always, Doctor Jacquelin Rowiths did a wonderful job
adjudicating the big Rural industry leader's debate on Wednesday night
at Claudland's. We might come back to that one, Jacqueline,
But like me, you're a veteran of Field Days. What
did you make of it?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Really good but constrained optimism because all the figures are
looking as though they're going in the right direction with
things like the innovation, the schedules and the milk payout.
But constraint because of the uncertainty in terms of the
super El Nino and what it will really mean for
(00:40):
your individual farm, and of course political or constrained about
the politics in terms of we've got regional counsels saying
different things about farming and they might or might not
be merged, and the government is making all sorts of
good statements. In fact, all the parties are making good statements,
but what actually happens has yet to be seen. So
(01:02):
constrained optimism, but good news in terms of people wanting
our products and all the fears about famented, you know,
precision fermentation, and then veganism and then oh no, the
weight loss drugs, none of them have knocked off the
desire for proper good protein food and the best protein
(01:23):
comes from animals.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well to the contrary, Jack Well, and I don't want
to correct you here, but the weight loss drugs are
great news for New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, well that's what I said. It's sorry, contrary to
the bad news that they were going to mean, we
did our products that aren't needed anymore. Actually they needed more.
So all the naysayers that said that that fermentation or
veganism or then the weight loss strugs will mean we
didn't have markets. Our markets are fine and we can
see that in the schedules and the milk prices.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Well, I'm doing good stuff. Okay, I misheard, rather than
you misspoke and quoting the Great Man himself fake news.
We're getting news as we go to air that we've
got a deal. It looks like are supposedly going to
be signed in Switzerland on Friday. Look sentiment alone, this
is going to make a huge difference because but everything
(02:15):
has an oil component to it and a fertilizer component
to it. So this is good news for New Zealand.
Let's hope they can see the thing through.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Absolutely we agree, and so we're all watching and listening
and trying to work out what actually is going to
be the truth. But yes, nobody wants this war, so
even Mann people don't want the war. Let's get back
on track. Yep.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Okay, Now you've written once again a wonderful column for us.
You do it fortnightly on our website, The Country dot
co dot nz. And one of the things you've talked
about is innovation and AI and you've tied that into
Field Days and here's I'm just going to read one
of your week sentences here and I thought this was
a good one. Some of the development showcased at Field
Days with a brainchild of somebody growing up on a
(03:00):
farm undertaking tertiary education and an allied subject engineering, mechanics, computing,
and no finer example of that than Craig Peggott and Holter.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Right, So thinking about what might make the difference and
then being able to examine the unintended consequences because they
know actually things that work on farm and discuss what
might happen with other rural professionals or farmers or scientists.
And that was always my concern. Something that seems like
a really good thing. Best since life spread actually has
(03:35):
unintended consequences that we didn't think about. And quite often
that's because the person operating them on or the person
inventing them didn't actually really understand what it would do
on farm. So there are all sorts of implications with
the new technologies that we're using.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Plus we're getting more and more agribusiness into more and
more secondary schools in particular.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yes, yes, and that's great, And so students, the final
year students bringing their inventions along and talking to the
judges about what it's going to do on farm. It's
just utterly delightful and we want more of that, but
people who understand how it will work on farm as well.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I just want to pack up on another comment you
made about AI artificial intelligence. You talked about check, GPT
and co pilot, all these artificial intelligence tools that are
right at our fingertips. You're questioning some.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Of them with sixty percent of the information coming through
being incorrect, and people not knowing enough about the questions
they've asked to understand that actually they've been given a
poor key as an answer. Yes, I'm pretty worried absolutely unworried.
So the importance of developing the questions, the astute questioning
(04:49):
part of that actually comes from knowing what you're talking about.
So it is a big issue, and you know, I
love teaching, but gosh, it must be difficult marketing stuff.
At the moment. You need to be able to know
enough about what you're talking about to think that can't
be right when the answer comes from AI or chat GPT.
And that's my concern. How do we enable students going
(05:14):
through the education system to understand that they still need
to know a lot about the facts, the realities of
what they're thinking for the future, in order to be
able to ground truth the information that comes from these
new tools.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Doctor Jaquelin row with there. You can read all about
it on our website The Country, dot co, dot and Z.
I'm and I'm glad, Jacqueline you've thought out from a
very chilly Thursday morning at Field Days. I'll catch you
in a couple of eggs
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Lovely Thames, Demy
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