NZ Dairy Launches Rosie To Educate Public
NEW ZEALAND - Rosie, the dairy industry’s cowbassador and the face of New Zealand’s 4.4 million cows, was officially launched at the National Agricultural Fieldays at Mystery Creek.
16 June 2011
2 minute read
Rosie is a three-year-old Friesian-Jersey cross who leaves her farm to discover what makes the New Zealand industry one of the best in the world. At Fieldays she’ll be accompanied by her VIB (Very Important Bovine) protection squad.
Her cowbassador office is located at the Go Dairy stand (site PC41) in the main pavilion at Mystery Creek. She, and the VIB protection squad, will be there on the hour between 10am and 3pm every day of Fieldays. As well as being home to Rosie’s office, the stand tells the story of grass to glass – how grass gets turned into milk – and has a bank of iPads where people watch moo-vies of her on her website www.godairy.co.nz, as well as sign up to follow Rosie on her travels. Giveaways include Rosie tattoos, stickers and a Rosie cowbot, which is a cardboard version of her.
DairyNZ CEO Dr Tim Mackle says the aim of the Rosie project is to increase people’s awareness and understanding of the dairy industry. It is designed to show the best of dairy farming to the public, and to help them understand the vital role dairy farming plays in the lives of all New Zealanders.
“This is about explaining the good things about the dairy industry, and also ensuring children can learn that their milk comes from cows, as opposed to the supermarket,” he says.
Rosie is also a feature on a new primary school education website which is being launched in July. It contains curriculum-related teaching units, digital texts, and digital learning objects, all of which use dairying as a context for learning. The first phase is for Curriculum Level 1 and 2, with material for Curriculum Levels 3-7 being developed as well.
TheCattleSite News Desk
