Ben began working with DairyNZ in 2021 as an economist, when he received a scholarship to support the completion of his post graduate studies.

Much of his work has involved contributing to DairyNZ’s industry publications, including the annual DairyNZ Economic Survey and the first DairyNZ-led publication of New Zealand Dairy Statistics.  His research work involves investigating the possible economic impacts of making changes to the farm system, such as introducing new pastures, and the international costs of dairy production.

Ben has a broad skill set, ranging from business case modelling to carrying out research and communicating the latest findings to farmers. He has also been involved in introducing the statistical programming language R and lecturing on the topic at the University of Waikato.

Ben enjoys the diversity of his work at DairyNZ. “I can be thinking about a very specific and technical problem,” he says, “or about how we are communicating our latest findings to farmers. I enjoy how many different things we do each week.”

Ben has a Bachelor of Business in Economics and Finance from Massey University, and a Master of Management (Economics) from the University of Waikato. Although he started his career in property economics, he was inspired to shift to agriculture, and the dairy industry, by a desire to make a positive impact in the sector.

In the future, Ben is looking forward to continuing to spend more time with farmers and building on his farm systems knowledge to improve outcomes for farmers.