Katie Sievwright

After studying and gaining experience overseas, Katie joined DairyNZ in 2022. She now balances her role with contract milking and PhD studies.

“I have a real mix of practical, theoretical, and office-based work in my day-to-day life,” says Katie. “As well as my DairyNZ job, I’m contract milking with my husband Jacob, so there’s plenty of practical work to be done outside of work hours. I’m also working on my PhD in enteric methane emissions in dairy cows.”

After finishing her Bachelor of Science degree, Katie worked in Ireland at Teagasc Moorepark as a research technician, managing dairy methane trials. Her Master of Science led to her PhD study through Massey University and Teagasc. Meanwhile, her day job sees her linking together DairyNZ projects to make them relevant to our farm systems.

“I help support the regional teams to deliver valuable content through DairyBase and other tools,” explains Katie. “Most of my DairyNZ job is office based. I do a bit of DairyBase analysis, lead the farm systems review project, and help develop content for events. I also get on-farm with farmers, to present results and research.”

It’s all about bringing together what DairyNZ does, into simplified, easily understandable messaging.

“If farmers can understand best practices well, our industry will only improve. They’re faced with challenges every day on-farm, so it’s important that farmers have people and organisations like DairyNZ to support them and to push the sector to be fit for the future.”

Helping farmers better understand their business and supporting them to increase profitability and sustainability on-farm is what drives Katie. She’s a proud DairyNZ Solutions and Development team member, working together to get the best outcomes for farmers.

“We help to create/develop the tools and resources that are used by many farmers to improve on-farm decision-making and profitability. Our team also makes sure we bring researchers and farmers together, as that supports a more practical implementation on-farm of the latest science in action.”

• Find out more about DairyNZ’s other specialist team members.
• Check out our research team and our regional teams.