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8.2% of Waikato employees work in farming and horticulture

Microsoft Copilot for farm offices in the Waikato

Dairy is still a pillar of the Waikato economy, and the office work around it already lives in spreadsheets, email and short meetings. Microsoft 365 Copilot is aimed at that desk, not at the milking plant.

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Employees in farming and horticulture
18,014Waikato, February 2025
Share of Waikato employees
8.2%7 of 16 regions
Share across New Zealand
4.8%all regions, February 2025
Location quotient
1.71×more concentrated than nationally

Farming and horticulture in Waikato

A DairyNZ report counts 6,500 dairy farming jobs and 4,100 processing jobs in the region, 10,600 in all. LIC's head office is at Newstead, Zealong grows organic tea nearby, and Halter runs collar trials on a research farm close to Morrinsville. The people who will feel Copilot first are the managers, herd administrators and office staff who already open Outlook, Excel, Word and Teams.

Start with a small group that handles supplier mail, board packs and staff notes. Copilot in those apps can draft and summarise. It cannot replace the farm adviser, and it should not be given the only copy of a compliance file.

Paid employees in farming and horticulture went from 17,794 in February 2020 to 18,014 in February 2025 (+1.2%).

Share of paid employees in farming and horticulture, by region

Share of employees in farming and horticulture by region, Waikato highlighted
RegionChartShareNZ×
Tasman 20.7% 4.8% 4.3×
Gisborne 19.6% 4.8% 4.1×
Marlborough 16.1% 4.8% 3.3×
Southland 15.0% 4.8% 3.1×
Hawke's Bay 13.2% 4.8% 2.7×
Bay of Plenty 8.6% 4.8% 1.8×
Waikato (this page) 8.2% 4.8% 1.7×
Otago 7.9% 4.8% 1.6×
Manawatū-Whanganui 7.6% 4.8% 1.6×
Taranaki 7.2% 4.8% 1.5×
West Coast 7.2% 4.8% 1.5×
Northland 6.8% 4.8% 1.4×
Canterbury 5.0% 4.8% 1.0×
Nelson 4.9% 4.8% 1.0×
Wellington 1.1% 4.8% 0.2×
Auckland 0.7% 4.8% 0.1×

Paid employees at business locations in the region, February 2025. The tick marks the national share. × is the regional share divided by the national share.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Local context

  • Pastoral farming and exotic forestry are the region's main productive land uses, so a lot of local business still turns on paddocks, sheds and log supply.1
  • Dairy contributes 7.8 per cent of Waikato GDP directly, and it underpins more than half of the region's export earnings.2
  • LIC's MINDA page already lists collar and milking systems, including Halter and Gallagher Animal Performance, that can pass animal events across so the same record is not typed twice.3
  • DairyNZ says a DairyBase link can prefill up to 30 per cent of the physical herd information the benchmarking service asks for.4

Organisations are named for local context only. No relationship with them is implied.

Towns in Waikato

Each town page has its own figures and local brief.

Or see Microsoft Copilot training across Waikato.

Where Copilot helps farming and horticulture teams

  • Season tables in Excel

    Export milk solids, labour hours or pick totals into a workbook on OneDrive. Ask Copilot in Excel what changed against the previous season, then open the rows it used before the number goes into a bank or board pack.

    • Farm managers and office administrators
    • Copilot in Excel

  • Supplier mail in Outlook

    A long thread about feed, fertiliser or a contractor invoice can be summarised in Outlook, with the open questions listed. The reply stays in the person's own words after they check dates and amounts.

    • Owners and farm administrators
    • Copilot in Outlook

  • Shed and contractor meetings

    When a discussion is held in Teams, the recap can list decisions and who does what before the next milking or the next harvest day. People who were in the paddock can read it later without a second meeting.

    • Supervisors and contract managers
    • Teams meeting recap

  • A first draft in Word

    Keep the current farm procedure or staff note in SharePoint. Copilot in Word can draft an update from that file and a short change note. The manager still signs off. The old file stays the approved copy until then.

    • Compliance and people leads
    • Copilot in Word

  • An answers agent for seasonal staff

    A Copilot Studio agent over the approved induction pack can point new staff to the rosters, the safety steps and where a form lives. It should link back to the file, and a person should test the answers before the crew arrives.

    • Team leaders and office managers
    • Copilot Studio agent

From a herd export to a checked note

  1. Save the week's herd or labour export as an Excel table in the farm's SharePoint or OneDrive.
  2. Ask Copilot in Excel for the outliers and the change on last week, and tick each figure against the sheet.
  3. Ask Copilot in Word for a short note from the checked table, then edit the wording.
  4. Post the note in the Teams channel with the workbook linked, so the next person can see the source.

Courses

  1. 1Introductory

    Microsoft Copilot foundations

    A first hands-on session on Copilot Chat and Copilot in Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

  2. 2Advanced

    Copilot Studio agents and advanced Excel

    Build and test a Copilot Studio agent for one internal process, and go further with Copilot in Excel.

Farming and horticulture in other regions

Other industries in Waikato

See Microsoft Copilot for farming, horticulture and forestry across New Zealand, or all training in Waikato.

Farming and horticulture in Waikato: questions

Do milkers and pickers need a Copilot licence?

Not at the start. The licence pays off for people who live in Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel: the farm office, the herd administrator, the grower manager. Floor and shed staff can keep using the existing apps until a pilot shows a clear job for them.

Can Copilot read MINDA or the collar system?

Not by itself. Copilot in Excel works on the workbook you give it. A live link to herd software is a separate IT job. Many farms already move events between MINDA and a collar or milking system, which is the better place to remove double entry.

Where do you run the training?

At the business, anywhere in the Waikato, or live in Teams with the same exercises. The length is agreed before anyone is booked.

What should we bring?

A herd or labour export with names removed, one supplier thread, and a procedure that needs a rewrite. The exercises use those files so people practise on their own work.

Is this a Microsoft course?

No. TheColab runs independent training. Microsoft has not accredited or endorsed these sessions.

Train your farming and horticulture team in Waikato

  1. ScopeHeadcount, sites, Microsoft 365 plan and licences, and the teams you want to start with.
  2. PlanWe propose a course, a pilot group and a format, and agree the files and meetings to use.
  3. TrainOn-site or over Teams, in Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams, with your own work.
  • In person
  • Remote
  • Half-day workshop
  • Full-day workshop
  • Team rollout

Independent training by TheColab. Not affiliated with Microsoft.

Enquire

Tell us about your team in Waikato. We reply by email with a suggested course and format.

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Sources

Written 4 October 2026. Employment figures come from Stats NZ Business Demography Statistics.