This years innovative event combined Grasslands and New Zealand Association of Resource Management (NZARM) in a joint conference, providing the opportunity for production and sustainability issues to share a single forum. The conference theme was 'Northland is the Future, See it Here First.' and took place at the Copthorne Hotel and Resort, Waitangi, Bay of Islands from November 3- 5.

A project managed by NZ Landcare Trust Regional Coordinator Helen Moodie was featured in a presentation by an AgResearch Social Researcher highlighting the problems associated with increased adverse weather events and identified strategies that farmers can adopt to increase farm resilience. Further details about the presentation entitled 'Increasing on-farm resilience to adverse weather events: a Northland case study', authors T.D. White, H.G. Moodie, T.A. Payne, M.E. Wedderburn and N. Botha is available from the Grasslands website

The event was very well supported with attendees benefitting from the mixed forum. This combined approach is very much in keeping with NZ Landcare Trust's perspective; a productive farm can also be sustainable.

Planning for next years event is already underway with details available  from the Grasslands website.