A Waikato chicken farmer has been named the country's top poultry graduate by the Agriculture Industry Training Organisation.
Francie Collings has been running a chicken meat or broiler farm in Waikato with her husband Trevor, for the past seven years.
Ms Collings says she tried her hand at poultry farming after discovering being semi-retired wasn't keeping her busy enough.
She took up formal training in poultry husbandry to learn more about how to expand their business, which has increased in capacity from 50,000 to 140,000 birds.
Ms Collings says consumers' appetites for chicken has increased significantly over the past decade
