8 October 2025
West Coast dairy farmer, Andrew Wiffen signed up to AgriZeroNZ’s Farmer Focus Group for a couple of reasons. One is the industry good and the other is personal.
This article is from Ravensdown’s 2025 Integrated Report.
Andrew Wiffen
“I thought I could offer some viewpoints around what’s practical on farm because you can have great science, but if it’s not easy to use, farmers won’t adopt it,” he says.
Andrew, a 2017 Young Farmer of the Year finalist, also saw a chance to “get ahead of the game” when it came to knowledge about emerging technologies that could be relevant to his farm and his 220-strong herd.
He is now one of 12 farmers, a diverse group representing different regions, farming systems, livestock types, ages, genders, and experience. The group was formed expressly to ensure the farmer-voice was represented during research and development programmes.
Whilst Andrew acknowledges some farmers may see research into emissions mitigation tools as unnecessary, he challenges that view.
“There’s a fair bit of talk about the methane cycle. But regardless of where you think the science is, we must meet market trends and demands, and we need to be doing our bit.
“AgriZeroNZ is also targeting solutions for the New Zealand market and our way of farming. That’s important because there is a lot of farming in the world that does not use grass-based systems. If we don’t co-invest in development, we run the risk of not being able to get access to products that work for us. Yes, there is a difficult balance with money going into research, but you must put it in as an industry good. We are part of funding better outcomes for our farms, the environment, and our end products in the market.”
Ravensdown is a founding partner of AgriZeroNZ, a world-first public-private partnership. Its ambition is to ensure all farmers have equitable access to solutions that reduce their biogenic methane and nitrous oxide emissions, supporting a 30% reduction by 2030 and ‘near zero’ by 2040. It invests to accelerate the development of tools and technology for New Zealand’s pasture-based farming systems.
Established in 2023, AgriZeroNZ is half owned by the New Zealand government and half owned by major agribusiness companies a2 Milk Company, ANZ, ANZCO Foods, ASB Bank, BNZ, Fonterra, Rabobank, Ravensdown, Silver Fern Farms and Synlait.
As at 31 March 2025, AgriZeroNZ had committed $60.7 million in funding for tools, technologies, research, and trials out of a total pool of $191 million available through to 2026.
Andrew Wiffen, Wiffen Dairying
Andrew owns Wiffen Dairying in Hokitika on the West Coast. His 220-strong herd supplies Westland Milk Products. He is also a member of the Livestock Improvement Corporation’s (LIC) shareholder reference group and has been since 2022.
He was Tasman Young Farmer of the Year in 2017 with the win a celebration of determination after Andrew had been runner-up in three previous years. He repeated the Tasman win in 2018.
Andrew and his family farm at Chesterfield, which is about 10 minutes’ drive north of Hokitika. They have an effective platform of 90ha and a runoff block of 55ha.
A cattle breeder as well as a dairy farmer, Andrew has contributed considerably to dairy industry genetics with four bulls sold to LIC. That’s quite an achievement.
They include Andrew’s best bull, Wiffen’s Centurion. With nearly 19,000 daughters on the ground, Centurion’s influence is already widespread and his legacy is set to grow further with give sons currently maturing.
