Farms Plan

This is a text-only version of the Farms Plan document. It's also available in PDF format.

Download the Lincoln University Farms Plan 2024 to 2028 [PDF 130 KB] 

Strategic goals

Goal 1

Perform excellent research, education, and demonstration on farms in areas of food production, environment, and sustainability, whilst financially profitable.

Goal 2

Facilitate student activities from all LU Faculties, whereby our farms become the heart of the University.

What we will do 

• Focus on three core activities: Research, Education, and Demonstration (including Community Engagement).
• Provide LU students with a strong academic foundation and student experience through improved engagement and facilitation of students with LU Farms.
• Maintain a commercial return from farms appropriate to a farm portfolio that is directed toward research, education and demonstration.
• Share farming resources with research partners, businesses,schools, and other universities.
• Respond to land-based sector challenges by adapting or developing farm activities and leading demonstration of these.
• Use our farm resources to improve messaging of the role that Lincoln University plays in value creation or the land-based sectors.

How we will do it

• Facilitate resourcing for education,collaborative research projects, policy-orientated research for which integrity and independence are pre-requisites and in which we will embrace Te Taiao approach.
• Embrace technical support for post-graduate students who conduct research on Lincoln University Farms. Contribute to public and industry debate on land-based sector issues through demonstration and development of farms that examine decadal transitions in land use.
• Make knowledge from our farms more accessible to industry, communities and school children.
• Partner with external farms to extend the reach and impact of LU teaching and research on the Agriculture, Food and Fibre sectors.
• Nurture a culture of student-learning on farms, through facilitating the development of living laboratories involving students, communities, and industry.

Priorities 2024 to 2028

• Farms will be used as sites to develop solutions to national sustainability challenges faced by the land-based sector in keeping with the LU Sustainability Plan.
• Implementation of partnership for future farming systems supporting diversity of land use.
• Review, prioritise and invest in technical support (staff, facilities and equipment to support) sustainability research on farm.
• Transfer of relevant system and technology developments to teaching, research and farms including facilitating access to relevant data for stakeholders.
• Develop science-based sustainability targets including an Emissions Reductions Plan for LU Farms.
• Develop opportunities in horticulture and agrivoltaics.
• Used advanced demonstration models to demonstrate future approaches to dairy farming implemented on LUDF and Owl Farm.
• Implement a portfolio of work for the Farms Education Facilitators to develop linkages between LU Farms, schools, school farms and the University.
• Implement activation plans for Ashley Dene Dry and Mt Grand for education and research purposes. Identify common issues that challenge these farming systems to which research and education could offer mitigations.

KPIs 2024 to 2028 

1. Active utilisation of farms for commercial research partnerships (>30% of the land area)
2. Active utilisation of farms for postgraduate research (PhD, masters, honours).
3. Active utilisation of farms for undergraduate courses (at least 15 AGLS/MGMT courses, and one new course per year)
4. Active school/school children interaction with farms (at least 30 classes or visits hosted)
5. Emissions reduction occur in line with agreed reduction plan and compliance to relevant Government and District/Regional Council legislation and guidelines.