Bogglish – to be uncertain or doubtful about something; to be a wee bit skittish.
Rural round-up
16/12/2013Knowledge key to future of station in high country – Ruth Grundy:
For Balmoral Station owner Andrew Simpson knowledge is key to making the best decisions for the future.
”If you don’t have answers you can’t plan your future”You have to know as much as you can, to understand things, to be able to make clever decisions.”
Over the years the Simpsons have welcomed scientists and researchers of all persuasions on to the unique property.
Balmoral was home to the oldest agricultural trial site in the country, forestry crown research institute Scion had been conducting trials on the property for the past 20 years and this included New Zealand’s biggest dryland forestry trial, he said. . .
NZ velvet highly rated by Chinese – Allison Rudd,:
Deer velvet – still fuzzy and fresh from being cut – is spread on the table for judging at the New Zealand Velvet and Trophy Antler Competition at Invercargill’s Ascot Park Hotel.
Chinese scholar Quankai Wang, who is attending his third competition, likes what he sees. He pulls banknotes from his pocket and offers to buy a specimen, much to the amusement of competition officials.
”New Zealand deer velvet is number one. It is the best quality,” Prof Wang says. . .
Country inspires musical output – Sally Rae;
Craig Adams has always loved music.
Years ago, while working in a wool store, the guitar used to come out and there would be a sing-along. But while people told him he had a good voice, Mr Adams (41) never had any training.
Fast forward to now and music has gone from being ”a bit of a lark” to being semi-professional, including the recent release of his debut album Country High. . .
Swarms keep beekeepers on their toes:
Beekeepers in the North Island are scratching their heads – and ducking for cover – due to the exceptionally high rate of swarming going on.
Swarming is one of the ways bees reproduce – with the queen bee leaving the hive – along with about half of the bees to establish a new colony, before a new queen bee emerges in the hive.
Plant & Food Research bee scientist Mark Goodwin said swarms were annoying for beekeepers as they lost half their bees and honey production dropped but the environmental conditions this year had been perfect for it. . .
All Health Care Is Local, Part 1: Uganda – Eric Silfen,MD:
The late Tip O’Neill, former speaker of the U.S. House, coined the phrase “all politics is local,” by which he meant that politicians become successful by addressing the everyday concerns of the voters who elected them to office. In the same way, I believe that many of the “global” healthcare challenges we face can best be addressed by developing affordable, accessible and cost-effective solutions that satisfy patients’ needs. Simple solutions can offer dramatic results, and local implementation means solutions are in tune with cultural preferences and economic realities. In other words, when it comes to improving people’s lives, all healthcare is local.
Nowhere are opportunities to deliver simple, and locally relevant, solutions more evident than in sub-Saharan Africa, in a country like Uganda. Here, the non-governmental organization Imaging the World (ITW) is working to offer affordable, accessible and quality maternal medical services through a revolutionary concept that integrates technology, training and the community. ITW is making a significant impact on the lives of women and their families in rural villages where women have limited access to healthcare throughout their entire lives. . . .
Homebound: Despite their absence, rural women impress through work:
The work of indigenous women artisans went on display at an exhibition titled, ‘Stitching and Chai’ here on Saturday promoting the richness and splendour embedded in the heritage of the four provinces of Pakistan.
The exhibition was organised by USAID’s Entrepreneurs Project at the Centre for Arts, Culture and Dialogue, Kuch Khaas as a part of its project to implement cluster-based Value Chain approach through local organisations, private sector, government agencies and other relevant actors for capacity building. . .
Boosting beef without borrowing:
Stocking rate’s been lifted from 8.5SU/ha in 2011 to 9.7SU/ha. That’s despite initial concerns that stock weren’t getting enough to grow properly as it was in 2011.
“I didn’t feel we were doing a good enough job of feeding the animals we had without adding on more,” Jane commented to the field day. . .
Three MIE candidates on two boards
16/12/2013Three Meat Industry excellence group candidates have won election on to the Alliance Group and Silver Fern Farms’ boards.
MEAT INDUSTRY EXCELLENCE (MIE) endorsed candidates Dan Jex-Blake of Gisborne and Richard Young of Gore have been elected to the board of SFF.
The results of the election which closed on Friday (December 13) were: Richard Young, 36,155,094;
Dan Jex-Blake, 25,511,166, David Shaw, 19,435,482.
This follows Alliance shareholders also voting for a change last week with Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) group-backed candidate Don Morrison, Gore, elected by a narrow margin.
The Silver Fern voter turnout was 26.76% of eligible voters, up from 16.70% in the previous election in 2010. . .
Voter turnout was also higher in the Alliance election.
Approximately forty-nine percent (48.83%) of eligible votes were exercised in the directors’ election.
Alliance Group Chairman Murray Taggart said that the forty-nine per cent turnout for the directors’ election was significantly improved over recent years and reflected the interest in the issue. . . .
In 2012 the turnout for the directors election was 25% compared with 42% in 2011 and 30% in 2010. . .
There is discontent in the industry and a mood for change but there are no easy answers.
Jason Miller, who lost his seat on the Alliance board to Morrison, was elected by the Meat Industry Action Group with a mandate for change in 2007.
Little has changed since then.
Peter O’Toole: 2.8.32 – 14.12.13
16/12/2013Irish actor Peter O’Toole has died.
O’Toole began his acting career as an exciting young talent on the British stage and his Hamlet in 1955 at the Bristol Old Vic, was critically acclaimed.
He hit international stardom when Sir David cast him as British adventurer T E Lawrence, the British World War I soldier and scholar who led an Arab rebellion against the Turks.
Playwright Noel Coward once said that if O’Toole had been any prettier, they would have had to call the film “Florence of Arabia”.
Lawrence of Arabia earned him the first of eight Oscar nominations, with his second coming for 1964’s Becket, in which he played King Henry II to Richard Burton’s Thomas Becket. . .
O’Toole played Henry again in 1968 in The Lion in Winter, for which he received his third Oscar nod, opposite Katharine Hepburn.
His five other nominations were for Goodbye, Mr Chips in 1968, The Ruling Class in 1971, 1980’s The Stunt Man, My Favorite Year [1982] and finally for Venus in 2006. . . .
It’s about integrity not politics
16/12/2013Len Brown says he’s staying.
. . . And while he conceded there were a significant number of people who did not support him, he insisted: “The overwhelming sentiment, no matter what they think of me, is ‘for goodness sake get on with the job’.”
A Herald poll contradicts this:
Should Len Brown remain mayor of Auckland?
9750–9800 votes: Yes 28% No 72%
Holistic farming needed to meet world food demand
16/12/2013A holistic approach to farming is required to introduce sustainability into the food and agriculture (F&A) equation, a new report from Rabobank concludes.
Fundamentally, this would entail a shift in farmers’ focus away from yield maximisation and towards input optimisation. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution and technological innovations tailored towards the specific issues within a farming category are pivotal to improving best practices, and impact the way farm input companies view their business models.
“Without a holistic approach towards feeding the world, the global agriculture industry’s capacity to keep up with demand will be stretched at the expense of the environment”, states Rabobank analyst, Dirk Jan Kennes. “A strategy that includes resolving structural resource imbalances, optimising F&A supply chain efficiency and reducing waste within the global F&A complex would ease the pressure on agricultural yield improvement and would help align the interests of the different stakeholders”.
Rabobank has identified the over-application of fertilisers and inefficient water usage as critical to a step change shift in farmers’ perception of best practice. Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of global water demand and technologies to optimise irrigation systems will be key to future water conservation. Similarly, an integrated approach is needed to optimise farm inputs to enable farmers to apply at the right time, place and rate; subsequently reducing the environmental impact and initial cost. Technological innovations in both areas are being developed as higher farm input prices incentivise farm input companies to spend more on research and development (R&D).
Every year, an estimated 1 billion tonnes of produce is wasted along global F&A supply chains. In addition to reducing waste, it is crucial that all links in the supply chain work together to solve the food supply problem. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Rabobank has identified four different farming groups – agro-enterprises, family farms, smallholders and agricultural adventurers – which each require a unique approach to improving best practices. Such methods include:
• Soil conditioning for those farms which operate with less crop rotation
• High-tech innovations including accurate soil-water sensors and GPS technology for variable planting density
• Research, education and farming recommendations through less intensive ICT-services
• Land transformation and infrastructure through collaborations of funders, agronomic consultants and contract farmers
“The ability to gather a broad set of data on climatic conditions, soil conditions and crop conditions transfers farming into more of a science”, continues Kennes. “Turning this data into farming practices requires intense cooperation between all partners in the agricultural production chain for which product form, application technology and farm operations need to be fully aligned”.
Good farmers have always taken a long-term view, regarding themselves as stewards of the land with a responsibility to pass it on to the next generation in as good, and preferably better, condition than they found it.
However, sometimes it’s only in hindsight that mistakes are recognised.
Ensuring there’s enough food to meet the increasing demand in a sustainable way requires good science and best practice in all links of the production and distribution chain.
December 16 in history
16/12/20131431 Henry VI of Englandwas crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
1485 Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England, was born (d. 1536).
1497 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
1653 Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1707 Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
1770 Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer was born (d. 1827).
1773 Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
1775 Jane Austen, English writer, was born (d. 1817).
1787 – Mary Russell Mitford, English writer, was born (d. 1855)
1790 King Léopold I of Belgium, was born (d. 1865).
1850 The Charlotte-Jane and the Randolph brought the first settlers to Lyttelton.
1882 Sir Jack Hobbs, English cricketer, was born (d. 1963).
1883 Max Linder, French pioneer of silent film, was born (d. 1925).
1888 King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, was born (d. 1934).
1893 Antonín Dvořák‘s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, “From The New World” was given its world première at Carnegie Hall.
1899 Sir Noel Coward, English playwright, actor and composer, was born (d. 1973).
1905 Piet Hein, Danish mathematician and inventor was born (d. 1996).
1905 A great rugby rivalry was born when a last-minute try to All Black Bob Deans was disallowed, handing the Welsh victory.
1907 The Great White Fleet (US Naval Battle fleet) began its circumnavigation of the world.
1915 – Turk Murphy, American trombonist, was born (d. 1987).
1917 Sir Arthur C. Clarke, English writer, was born (d. 2008).
1920 The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, in Gansu province killed an estimated 200,000.
1938 Adolf Hitler instituted the Cross of Honor of the German Mother.
1943 Tony Hicks, English guitarist (The Hollies), was born.
1944 The Battle of the Bulge began with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
1946 Benny Andersson, Swedish musician, singer and songwriter (ABBA), was born.
1947 Ben Cross, English actor, was born.
1947 William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain built the first practical point-contact transistor.
1949 Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, later knons as SAAB, was founded in Sweden.
1952 Joel Garner, Barbadian West Indies cricketer, was born.
1955 – Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este, was born.
1960 1960 New York air disaster: While approaching New York’s Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collided with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.
1971 Bangladesh War of Independence and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan army brings an end to both conflicts.
1971 – Independence Day of the State of Bahrain from British Protectorate Status.
1972 Angela Bloomfield, New Zealand actress, was born.
1991 Independence of The Republic of Kazakhstan.
1997 Dennō Senshi Porygonan episode of Pokémon, was aired in Japan, inducing seizures in hundreds of Japanese children.
2003 President George W. Bush signed the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 into law. The law established the United States’ first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail.
2009 – Avatar (2009 film) was released internationally. It became the first film to gross $2 billion and the highest grossing movie of all time.
2012 – 2012 Delhi gang rape – A 23 year old woman was viciously gang raped on a bus in Delhi.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.