Annual Report 2010/2011

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Introduction

AgResearch Limited is New Zealand's largest Crown Research Institute (CRI) by revenue. As an independent, Crown-owned research and development company with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Science and Innovation as shareholders, AgResearch is owned by the people of New Zealand and works for the benefit of New Zealand.

AgResearch‟s mission is to help New Zealand lead the world in creating sustainable wealth in the pastoral sector through the application of leading-edge knowledge and technology. To achieve its mission, AgResearch has focused research, development and knowledge transfer on the following five major areas of opportunity and need in support of New Zealand‟s pastoral sector:

• Help create the future dairy industry
• Help create the future meat industries
• Help create the future textiles and biomaterials industries
• Help achieve a pest- and disease-free New Zealand
• Enable capacity for change in agriculture and its future communities
  

AgResearch‟s vision is to be an outstanding research and development institute. To achieve this vision AgResearch will:

• Achieve and continuously improve scientific and technological excellence
• Be the leading developer and supplier of innovative solutions for our customers
• Be a favoured employer of staff and provide an outstanding work environment
• Meet high standards of ethical, social and environmental responsibility
• Be financially sustainable in the long-term
  

During the 2011 financial year AgResearch comprised three Science Groups, the Business Group and business units that dealt with corporate governance and provided corporate services. The Business Group‟s main driver was to forge key partnerships with industry partners to maximise the synergies that exist between AgResearch as a science provider and companies active in the market place. AgResearch has over 850 staff who are largely based on four main campuses. The Corporate Office is based at the Ruakura campus in Hamilton.

Agriculture & Environment Science Group

The aims of the Agriculture & Environment Group were to:

• Develop profitable and environmentally sustainable agricultural production systems, through research into farm systems, animal production, management practices and system design, including considering the integration of new technologies into specific production systems.
• Develop new and improved animal health therapies, including treatments for control of internal parasites in grazing livestock, vaccines for infectious diseases, with considerable focus on tuberculosis and Johne‟s Disease, and antibiotic alternatives. Identify land uses that will achieve sustainable growth in the pastoral sector within the constraints of national and international protocols. This includes the soil-plant processes and animal interaction.
• Develop diagnostic tests to enable animal selection and management for disease control.
• Develop management solutions for nutrient, pathogen and gaseous emissions to ensure healthy ecosystems, both at a farm and catchment (district) level.
• Formulate mitigation strategies for greenhouse gases produced by ruminants.
• Apply social research around bioethics, change behaviour and relationship alignment to develop plans and processes that initiate, support and prepare people for change, such as adoption of leading-edge technologies, policy and compliance.
• Formulate scientifically-proven codes of practice, that are acceptable to consumers, to ensure the welfare of farmed animals. Understand weed and pest population dynamics and their relationship with their host, enabling solutions for management or control of invasive weeds and pest to be developed, including technologies which enhance biosecurity.
• Explore the potential of microbes as biocontrol agents against pests, including the use of biopolymer technology as a delivery vehicle.

Applied Biotechnologies Science Group

The aims of the Applied Biotechnologies Group were to:

• Discover and understand genes in plants and endophytes, providing a strong base to leverage off new product opportunities.
• Discover and characterise the clover and ryegrass genomes.
• Develop improved ryegrasses, clovers and endophyte products, including plants for environmental management.
• Identify key genes responsible for superior productivity of elite livestock, allowing breeders and industry to screen for superior animals and use them preferentially in breeding programmes and supply chains.
• Develop genomic technologies such as transgenics and cloning, offering potential for step changes in genetic improvement (as versus incremental improvements by traditional methods of animal selection and breeding).
• Determine the underlying mechanisms of muscle growth and wasting and applying this knowledge to livestock production.
• Apply understanding of reproduction to generate novel solutions for enhancing livestock fertility.
• Develop and manage bioinformatics tools to facilitate this research.
• Develop mathematical models to aid scientific understanding and business decision-making in complex systems within genomics, physiology, ecology, agro-ecosystems and agribusiness value chains.
• Extract, identify and characterise valuable bioactives from deer antler velvet.

Food & Textiles Science Group

The aims of the Food & Textiles Group were to:

• Apply an understanding of ruminant nutrition to develop nutritional guidelines and solutions for improved productivity.
• Formulate mitigation strategies for greenhouse gases produced by ruminants.
• Develop higher value agri-foods (derived from meat and milk) with a focus on safety, quality, human health and performance.
• Develop smart measurement tools for agri-food attributes, diagnostic testing, traceability and biosecurity.
• Provide product and process development, and evaluation services, in the fields of fibre, textiles and related consumer and industrial products.
• Develop bio-based products and services including medical and health applications.

Statement of Core Purpose

As a consequence of the February 2010 CRI Taskforce recommendations which called for government to provide a clear, explicit, and enduring strategic role for each CRI, during this year AgResearch‟s Statement of Core Purpose (SCP) was defined to be: “to enhance the value, productivity and profitability of New Zealand‟s pastoral, agri-food and agri-technology sector value chains to contribute to economic growth and beneficial environmental and social outcomes for New Zealand.”

Statement of Corporate Intent

Following on from the finalisation of AgResearch SCP, the Statement of Corporate Intent for the 2011/12 year has determined the following Sector Outcome Goals:

On 1 July 2011 the Science Groups were realigned to the Sector Outcome Goals.

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