Kirsty Verhoek

Kirsty Verhoek (née Hammond) joined DairyNZ in 2022. She has a background in ruminant nutrition and methane emissions, and more recently has expanded her areas of interest to include animal welfare and cow comfort (in particular, mitigating thermal stress).

Kirsty attended Massey University where she completed a Bachelor in Animal Sciences with Honours. She also holds a PhD in Animal Sciences, focussed on methane emissions in ruminants. After conducting research and lecturing at Reading University in the UK, her passion for agriculture drew her back home to New Zealand, where she started work as a researcher at AgResearch.

Kirsty was inspired by her overseas experience. “It was an amazing opportunity to learn from and work alongside experts in the field and it widened my perspectives,” she says. “I was able to make connections and broaden my learning. I can now use that network and knowledge here.”

Alongside her academic and research roles, Kirsty and her husband Nic operate a 750-cow sharemilking operation and a 120-ha lease block rearing beef and grazing dairy heifers.

Kirsty has contributed to projects both nationally and internationally that aim at enhancing ruminant production efficiency and sustainability. She has a passion for working in facilitating cross-sector solutions, alongside farmers and with her peers working towards a shared goal.

In the future, her aim is to continue to publish research that has been through a robust research process so it can be used by other researchers to continue moving science forward and help farmers to make solid decisions on farm.