Collegian Jade Luxton (Harington 2020–2022) has been recognised as one of New Zealand’s emerging leaders in the primary sector, winning the Women in Agribusiness Rising Stars Award at the E Tipu Food and Fibre Summit in Christchurch during May.

The award celebrates young women making a significant impact through leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship in New Zealand’s food and fibre industries.

For Jade, the recognition marks another milestone in a journey that began while she was a student at St Paul’s Collegiate School.

In 2022, Jade and fellow students Ben Allen (Fitchett 2018-2022) and Olivia Calder (Harington 2020-2022) won the school’s Crocodile Pit competition with Sterineedle, an innovative concept designed to improve livestock care and efficiency for farmers.

Today, Sterineedle is nearing commercial launch, with around 20 deer, sheep and beef farms across New Zealand trialling the device.

The innovation is a specially designed holster for livestock vaccination guns that sterilises needles between uses through an attached sterilising gel reservoir. Jade first created the prototype using a 3D printer while still at school after identifying a major challenge faced by deer farmers during velvetting.

“During that agribusiness course, a deer farmer shared the frustrations of constantly having to change needles when giving the animals anaesthetic during velvetting,” Jade said.

“When I looked further into this problem, I found that needles could actually be sterilised, and that’s kind of how we started with the holster idea.”

The device was originally developed for the deer industry, where every needle used during velvetting must be sterilised to meet food-grade requirements. Constantly changing needles is both time-consuming and inefficient, particularly across large herds.

Jade estimates Sterineedle can save farmers around 30 seconds per animal, adding up to more than two hours saved across a herd of 300 deer.

“We wanted that ability to give farmers kind of like a third hand to put the vaccination gun in between animals as well,” she said.

While initially focused on deer farming, Jade believes the product also has strong potential within the sheep and beef sectors by helping reduce bacterial spread and abscesses caused by contaminated needles.

Jade has continued refining the product, developing close to 100 iterations while studying a Bachelor of Industrial Design at university. Jade further explains, “We also have quite an exciting new trial in Australia with JBS Foods Australia”. JBS is one of the country's largest meat and food processing companies. 

She credits both her grandparents’ farming background and the opportunities provided through St Paul’s agribusiness programme for sparking her passion for agricultural innovation.

“I just love being able to use my skills to create tools to help other people,” she said.

Jade hopes to bring Sterineedle to market ahead of the next velvetting season.

Visitors at Fieldays can find Jade in the Innovation Tent and would love to connect.