He spent 40 years teaching diploma and degree courses and postgraduate students. He is widely regarded throughout the dairy industry both nationally and internationally. In 1999 he became the inaugural Professor of Dairy Production Systems at Massey University.
Imparting that wisdom and knowledge to his students was a great passion especially in farming systems, in which understanding of soils, pastures, animals and farm management have to be combined.
In an earlier interview with Dairy Farmer Holmes recalled teaching Agricultural Production papers in the third year of the agriculture degree, when staff were kept on their toes, and said “We did not always agree with each other but we all learnt a lot from these arguments and debates about the science and practices of farming systems.”
He developed the Massey rising plate pasture meter in collaboration with Bob McLenaghan, which then led to studies on pasture yields before and after grazing and amounts of pasture to be offered per cow daily as well as the effects of grazing management on future pasture quality.
Also during this time, in collaboration with Ian Hook of Herd Improvement (now LIC), he initiated studies into somatic cell counts (SCC) in milk from the vat or from individual cows as an indirect measure of mastitis in a cow or herd. They proved SCC as a useful measurement for farmers.
In 1990 Holmes became interested in once-a-day (OAD) milking when working with Lionel Harding and his family who had been milking OAD for about five years near Putorino.
In 1991 he compared cows milked OAD with cows milked twice a day – the first such study in New Zealand.
Though he retired from Massey in 2007 he continued working with dairy farmers focusing on OAD milking and grazing systems.
In 2010 he was made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit for services to agriculture. He was awarded the Sir Arthur Ward Award in 1997, the McMeekan Memorial Award in 2004 and life membership of the NZ Society of Animal Production, the Ray Brougham Trophy, in 2007 by the NZ Grassland Trust and got a Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Dairy Excellence Awards in 2009.
In recognition of his outstanding service to the dairy industry during his 40 years of research and teaching the trustees of the Westpac Taranaki Agricultural Research Station (now the Dairy Trust Taranaki, DTT), established the Colin Holmes Dairy Scholarships to encourage postgraduate research that will benefit the dairy industry. DairyNZ has co-funded the scholarships from 2017.
Two scholarships of $20,000 each are normally awarded annually as funds permit and take the form of both a stipend and a contribution towards research costs, with the proportion used for stipend and research costs determined depending on the circumstances of the project involved.
The scholarships are awarded for one year and recipients are encouraged to reapply in subsequent years. Scholarships are not awarded in those years where there are no suitable applicants.
Applicants must be enrolled at postgraduate level in studies on farm production topics beneficial to the dairy industry and where the research component of the course will occupy the full year (masters and doctoral programmes).
Applications are initially considered by the Applied Academic Programmes Scholarships Committee, which recommends a shortlist to DTT and DairyNZ.
Applications for the Colin Holmes Dairy Scholarship close March 10.
