Word of the day

Perdurable – enduring continuously; imperishable; long lasting; extremely durable, permanent.

Take as required

Laughter Club: Heals you Naturally, Protects you from Infections!!! Directions for Use: Stand in an open place, throw your arms up towards to sky and LAUGH FOR NO REASON.

As prescribed by Laughter Yoga

Rural round-up

Rabbit rise may bring 1080 response – Gerald Piddock:

Environment Canterbury’s annual count shows that rabbit numbers are on the rise in the Mackenzie Basin and Omarama.

The regional council monitors rabbit trends every year and the latest draft analysis showed a noticeable increase of rabbits in the Mackenzie Basin, eastern Mackenzie around Haldon Rd and in Omarama.

ECan’s biosecurity team leader, Brent Glentworth, expected there would be some large 1080 operations this summer, particularly on the eastern side of the Mackenzie, as land owners battle to keep rabbit numbers down. . .

UK biofuels influence NZ wheats:

European, notably UK, breeding programmes, growers at PGW’s agronomy group field day last week heard.

 Europe is normally a regular exporter of wheat, but three massive biofuel plants have created an extra 2mt of demand for wheat, preferably high starch soft milling types that maximise ethanol yield, Limagrain’s UK director of sales and New Zealand coordinator, Alastair Moore (pictured), explained.

“We’re seeing quite a drive to the soft wheat end and a lot of the new varieties recommended [in the UK] were in that category.” . .

Insecticide removal would hit crops hard – Gerald Piddock:

Seed and cereal farmers face a major risk to their productivity and profitability from the removal of organophosphate insecticides from the market.

Current control practices used by farmers, particularly during crop establishment rely heavily on organophosphates which are currently the subject of a review and re-regulation by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).

Organophosphate insecticides are used by farmers to control grass grub, one of the country’s most destructive plant pests. . .

Van der Heyden works till end:

OUTGOING FONTERRA chairman Henry van der Heyden will be using the next five months as a director to help execute the co-op’s strategy refresh.

Van der Heyden is defending his decision to stay on the board after relinquishing the chairmanship to John Wilson. He says the decision has been taken in the interest of the co-op. Some shareholders have questioned the decision.
Van der Heyden says he has always done what is right for Fonterra. . .

Kirkwood takes vote for council – Gerald Piddock:

Oamaru dairy farmer Greg Kirkwood is the new Fonterra Shareholders councillor for ward 32 in Southern Canterbury.

Mr Kirkwood was elected to the council ahead of Geraldine dairy farmer Ad Hendriks.

He takes over from Desiree Reid, who retired from the position by rotation.

Mr Kirkwood said he put his name forward for the Shareholders Council because he wanted to get involved more in the co-operative.

Raw milk health risks under review:

Since the 1950s, New Zealand’s commercial milk supply has been pasteurised – treated with heat to kill bacteria – and most of us have swallowed the official position, that untreated milk is potentially dangerous to drink.

But there’s a growing trend of consumers wanting their food in a natural state, and that includes milk. They say raw milk is not only safe, it’s better for you, and a major study is underway to see if they’re right.

Most of us buy our milk pasteurised and from a dairy or supermarket fridge. But for mums like Angela Jones that’s changing. She’s one of thousands of townies making a regular trek to a trusted farmer to buy raw milk at the farm gate. . .

Free range but not organic

Organic farmers reckon the British countryside could be restored by cattle herds grazing like the bison of the American plains.

Graham Harvey, a farmer who used to advise the BBC on agricultural storylines in The Archers, said the countryside is being destroyed by industrial scale farms that concentrate on monoculture fields of wheat and animals in massive sheds.

Organic matter in soils has been reduced by continuous use of fertilisers and pesticides.

Instead he said that more of Britain could return to grazing animals as this returns fertility to grassland and retains the countryside.

He suggested a US method ‘mob grazing’, based on how wild bison graze the American plains, is the best way to ensure productivity.

Using electric fences, farmers split their pastures into a large number of small paddocks. Putting their cattle into each paddock in turn, they graze it off quickly before moving the herd to the next. . .

That sounds like rotational grazing which is common practice in New Zealand.

Free-range is the norm for sheep, beef, dairy and deer here.

But farms don’t have to be organic to look after the soil and they’re better if they’re not organic if you want improved productivity.

Hat tip: Tim Worstall.

News holiday

“Where does the news go during the holidays?” he asked.

“It must go where the news makers aren’t, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy the break,” she replied.

January 7 in history

1558 – France took Calais, the last continental possession of England.

1610 – Galileo Galilei observed the four largest moons of Jupiter for the first time.

1782 The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opened.

1785 Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travelled from Dover, to Calais, in a gas balloon.

1827 Sir Sandford Fleming, Canadian engineer; introduced Universal Standard Time, was born (d. 1915).

1835 HMS Beagle dropped anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.

1894 W.K. Dickson received a patent for motion picture film.

1895 – Sir Hudson Fysh, Australian aviator and co-founder of QANTAS, was born  (d. 1974).

1904 The distress signal “CQD” was established but replaced two years later by “SOS“.

1912 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist, was born (d. 1988).

1925 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist , was born  (d. 1995).

1927 The first transatlantic telephone call was made – from New York to London.

1931 Australian Guy Menzies completed the first Trans-Tasman flight when he flew from Sydneyand crash-landed in a swamp at Harihari on the West Coast.

1943 Sir Richard Armstrong, British conductor, was born.

1948  Kenny Loggins, American singer, was born.

1951 Helen Worth, British actress, was born.

1953 President Harry Truman announced that the United States had developed the hydrogen bomb.

1954 Georgetown-IBM experiment: the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, was held in New York at the head office of IBM.

1960 The Polaris missile was test launched.

1968  Surveyor 7, the final spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifted off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.

1980 President Jimmy Carter authorised legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

1984 Brunei became the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

1993 The Fourth Republic of Ghana was inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as President.

1999The impeachment of President Bill Clinton started.

2010 – – Muslim gunmen in Egypt opened fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians leaving church after celebrating a midnight Christmas mass, killing eight of them as well as one Muslim bystander.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.