A Methven local has been awarded a top honour by Lincoln University.

Dr Robyn Dynes joined a long list of agricultural legends when she received the Bledisloe medal at the graduation ceremony in May.

The medal is awarded by the university to former students who’ve made a positive impact in their field.

Dynes received it for her farm-focussed approach to science, which she’s applied through the decades in the arable, red meat and dairy sectors.

“It's about being a translator,” she said.

“We believe science has to inform decisions and policy.”

Dynes went to Mount Hutt College, then called Methven High School, as a teenager and showed promise even then, taking on the role of Head Girl.

She left for Lincoln university to study agricultural science.

After graduating, she had a short foray into feed manufacturing with a pig and poultry company, but decided it wasn’t a long term career for her.

So in the 90s, it was back to Lincoln to complete a PhD on parasites in sheep.

Considering the financial state of New Zealand when she finished university a second time, she opted for an international experience, moving to Australia to work for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

That was when the power dynamics of agriculture really began to shift.

“The urban population was driving the future of how we farmed in a way that it hadn’t previously.

“Global consumers mattered, and the environment was important.

“I was understanding that the world was changing.”

Since then, she’s moved back to the South Island to study farm systems with AgResearch, running farmer workshops on productivity and environmental impacts.

“My role at AgResearch has been about being a connector, and a knowledge broker - taking knowledge from the science community out to farmers, and bringing farming knowledge back again.”

Her proudest achievement so far is leading a National Science Challenge – Our Land and Water programme, “Whitiwhiti Ora,” which developed a model that maps the change in landuse throughout different regions.

She said it’s been used to map the changing of sowing dates for arable in the South Island as the years go on.

“I’m so proud of that, it was a very diverse group of scientists.”

Dynes said farmers and scientists almost “speak different languages”.

“Like many careers associated with agriculture, more and more of our colleagues do not come from a farming background.

“I get them to explore how their science may be great, but it’s one thing in an entire farm system.

“[I] try and bring the right knowledge at the right time.”

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