A day in the life of a field of oats: the livestream you didn’t know you needed

Wednesday, 26 November 2025

There’s a livestream launch happening this morning. But, sadly for thrill-seekers, it won’t feature a rocket taking off, a baby being born, or the unpackaging of the latest Kim Kardashian shapewear.

At 5am reality TV will take on a new meaning for potentially dozens of viewers when 12 hours in the life of an oat from South Otago, growing in a field belonging to arable farmer Craig Whiteside, are broadcast.

Whiteside shies away from hyping the experience, but teases by saying some of the oats he recently planted are already poking out of the ground. Viewers will mainly be treated, let’s face it, to a view of an oatfield, and “if they’re lucky enough, they’ll see a bit of the management that goes on” - spraying and tending to the plants to “grow the healthiest crop we can,” he tells The Post.

“About April, when they’re harvested, is when the finale happens.”

Those involved in the livestream freely admit it’s a publicity stunt for local oat milk producer Boring Oat. But for Whiteside, who evolved his fourth generation family farm from dairy to crops about 25 years ago, there is a deeper drive to get the message about this less flashy type of farming out.

Arable farming comprises grain crops (wheat, barley, oats, and maize), specialist small seed and vegetable crops and forage brassicas - or things like kale, radish, turnip, and rape, grown for livestock feed. This sector generated around $340 million in export revenue in 2024. But it is mainly domestically-oriented, supplying about 35% of wheat for bread across the country, for example, with the rest imported.

Like other sectors of farming, costs have increased massively in the last few years but, unlike others, returns have not been as buoyant, leading some arable farmers to consider moving back into dairy farming.

The sector is “not performing like the others at the moment, probably due to flat commodity prices”, says Whiteside. “For example, machinery costs have gone up a lot - a tractor that would have cost $150,000 five or six years ago is about $400,000 now - and margins have not increased that much. We’re probably fortunate here we’ve got a bit of scale.”

Consumer is key

There are moves afoot to try and generate more preference for locally grown grains and other crops. This is particularly so in the North Island, where the majority of wheat used in bread is imported (Whiteside notes it is cheaper and easier to sell crops to the eastern seaboard of Australia than into the North Island). Federated Farmers and the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) have come up with a “New Zealand grown” label for consumers (bread), cereals and feedstock.

There are also plans to grow exports: “Our arable sector punches above its weight on the world stage,” says Whiteside, especially in seed multiplication, or the process of increasing the quantity of seed from a small amount to large commercial quantities through a series of generations.

Oats are admittedly a different story, because about 80% of what is consumed locally is grown and milled locally. Just last week, the biggest local miller, Dunedin’s Harraway & Sons, decided to extend its 150-year history in the southern city by investing $11 million to upgrade its facilities.

Boring Oat Milk founder Morgan Maw is behind efforts to support the arable sector, and says while milled oats for consumption is a sector remaining buoyant - in part because of the growth of oat milk - there is a need to ensure local oat, barley and wheat feedstock can flourish and keep locals in clover, rather than an over-reliance on imports.

“It’s also critical to our land use and soil health,” she says. “Given they’re a great companion crop for dairy farming and soak up a lot of nitrogen, and we have issues around intensification of livestock, by retaining these crops it means we have more diversity on the land.”

Boring

Boring Oat Milk, owned by beverage specialist Apollo Foods, is made in Hawke’s Bay and produces seven million bottles of the product annually. It is sold across the country’s supermarkets, and has recently been sold into Woolworths Australia, as well as exported to Vietnam in small quantities.

The business is profitable and generates revenues of around $17m a year, while employing 65 staff that work on both Boring and Apollo’s Picky juice brand, originally conceived as a way of extracting more value out of Hawke’s Bay’s billion dollar apple harvest.

Maw says Boring has stuck to its knitting.

“For us it really is all about the land and land use and sustainability. And the fact is, is that none of the other plant milks are grown in New Zealand or sustainably, so that means they’re a no-go for us.”

While the consumption of oat milk has levelled off after the heights of Covid, Maw is keen to keep interest high, and says the livestream offers consumers the chance to “celebrate the simplicity and the beauty of the humble oat”.

“There’s beauty to be found in the unhurried and mundane, and oats have been showing us this for thousands of years,” she says.

“While the world looks to Mars, we’re looking to the South Island, and all that oats give us.”