Conal Harkin holds a Bachelor's Degree from University College Dublin and a Master's Degree from Lincoln University both in Agricultural Science with research focused on measuring milk response rates and profitability from concentrate feeding of dairy cows in New Zealand dairy systems.

Conal is a highly experienced technical dairy business consultant with over a decade of consultancy experience across the South Island from System 1 to System 5+ specializing in developing feeding and grazing strategies to maximize profitability.

Trained in using Farmax software Conal has extensive experience in farm system modelling and was contracted by DairyNZ as part of the Waimea Community Catchment Project in 2025.

Conal is a longstanding member of the New Zealand Association of Ruminant Nutrition.