Ruakura Campus
The history of research in the Ruakura area dates back to 1886, when the Government acquired 137 acres (55 hectares), and the use of the land as a training and research centre was formalised in 1888 with the Waikato Agricultural College Model Farm Act.
Ruakura as an entity began in 1901 when the land was amalgamated with 690 acres (280 hectares) purchased from Isaac Coates, and other land, at a total cost of £6,300, to form an area of 914 acres (370 hectares) and named ‘Ruakura Experimental Station’. The first recorded experiment was an assessment of superphosphate and hay, comparing top-dressed and non-top-dressed areas. As a snapshot in time, in 1946 Ruakura carried 2,000 sheep, 400 dairy cattle, 100 beef cattle, and 200 pigs.
In 1912 Ruakura became New Zealand's first farm school with an intake of 12 'cadets' and by 1925 this had grown to 40. Initially, cadets were not paid for their first three months of training, followed by five shillings per week for the rest of their first year, only slightly below the average for North Island farm labourers of six-eight shillings per week. During the early years of the Depression the number of students had fallen by half and the future of Ruakura was uncertain. It was Percy Smallfield, the Superintendent who recognised the value of Ruakura and in 1936 lobbied the Department of Agriculture to reorganise and extend the facilities and work undertaken.
Smallfield was assisted by the facial eczema outbreak of 1937-1938. The outbreak led to the formation of the Animal Research Division, and on 4 July 1938 the Minister of Agriculture, W. Lee Martin allocated £17,000 to Ruakura for research into the disease. When DSIR was disbanded in 1992, Government research departments were formed into ten Crown Research Institutes (CRI) (later to be reduced to eight). The Ruakura campus was transferred to AgResearch Limited.
The campus continued to grow and by the early 2000’s over 400 staff worked for AgResearch. The ‘greater Ruakura’ site had become a science hub, with the development of an incubator for start-up and small-scale IT businesses (Waikato Innovation Park), freeze-dryer, and multiple small tenants sharing the campus.
Location[1]
Physical address​:
AgResearch Limited
Ruakura Research Centre
10 Bisley Road
Hamilton 3214
Tel +64-7-856 2836
Fax +64-7-838 5012
Postal address:
AgResearch Limited
Ruakura Research Centre
Private Bag 3123
Hamilton 3240