Farming kit teaches kids about dairy industry

School children learning about dairy farming with a Farming Kit language mat.

A teaching resource about farming aimed at children learning from home has been praised by Federated Farmers.

DairyNZ worked with New Zealand company School Kit to develop the learning resource about dairying and copies of it have been distributed to around 3000 families with children aged 5 to 7 as part of the support for distance learning during COVID-19.

"It's brilliant to see our industry body and the government figure out a way to get this material into the hands of these kids, at such a critical time," Federated Farmers dairy chair Chris Lewis said.

The farming kit is already used in classrooms by hundreds of schools. Now 3000 kits will go directly to families, for free.

"We know not many city school children ever get to visit a farm, so a resource like this will be good encouragement for them, and for their families, to learn more about New Zealand's farming industry, and maybe even plan to visit a farm one day."

The farming kit is available to all teachers and parents online. The teacher's guide and support materials can be downloaded from the DairyNZ Schools website.

"This is all part of the DairyNZ education programme that dairy farmers pay for with their levy funding. It's great to see the Ministry of Education getting behind an industry initiative like this," Lewis said.