First ban hopefully last

Today’s word of the day, avaunt meaning depart, begone, was chosen this morning and has proved to be appropriate.

Robert Guyton is one of very few whose comments I’ve ever edited, the only one whose comments were ever put on moderation and now the first I’ve banned.

I sympathised with those who called for that earlier but while he kept within the rules, however close he skated to the edge, I resisted.

Today he went too far in breaking name suppression.

I hope this will be the last person I ban.

I accept comments with a wide spectrum of views. I don’t want ones which abuse or are personal and I won’t accept any which break the law.

Word of the day

Avaunt – be gone; depart; go away.

Rural round-up

TPP Opportunity for Dairy Must Not Be Missed:

The Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ) has joined with national dairy organisations from Australia and the United States in appealing for their governments to progress a swift but successful conclusion to the TPP negotiations.

“We have a historic opportunity to remove distortions from the dairy market in the Asia-Pacific region. Our governments must grab hold of this.” Said DCANZ Chairman Malcolm Bailey.

“TPP outcomes must be ambitious, comprehensive and commercially meaningful for dairy along with other products. We understand that progress is being made in the negotiations but that it still falls short of the level of ambition needed. . .

Record beef returns offset impact of a dry season:

Drought and the ratio of sheep to cattle farmed are the two factors with the biggest impact on sheep and beef farmers’ incomes this season.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) today released its mid-season update. Six months ago, the organisation’s new season outlook predicted the average farm profit before tax would be around $110,800 for 2014-15. However, B+LNZ Economic Service Chief Economist Andrew Burtt says those predictions were based on the assumption that climatic conditions would be normal – and this season has proved to be far from normal in many areas.

“While the average farm profit before tax has been adjusted slightly downwards, to $109,400, North Island profits are expected to increase 19 per cent, to $117,100, while South Island profits are predicted to decrease 20 per cent, to $100,200. The difference can be accounted for by the ratio of sheep to cattle farmed in each island, with cattle making up greater numbers in the north. .

MIE launches red meat sector plan – Allan Barber:

Tuesday saw the launch of Meat Industry Excellence’s report Red Meat Sector – Pathways to Long Term Sustainability to a relatively small group of invited attendees in Wellington. The audience consisted of MIE farmer members, directors of Silver Fern Farms and AFFCO, MIA chairman Bill Falconer, ANZCO CEO Mark Clarkson, Rick Powdrell Federated Farmers’ Meat and Fibre chair, various industry analysts and commentators, and politicians including the Minister for Primary Industries, Shadow Spokesman and the Speaker.

Rod Oram was the MC with addresses from Alasdair Macleod, leader of the Red Meat Sector Strategy development four years ago, Ross Hyland, principal advisor to MIE, James Parsons, chairman of B+LNZ and MIE chairman John McCarthy.

Ross Hyland gave the most interesting talk, both stimulating and entertaining supported by several overheads to illustrate his key points. Fortunately he did not attempt to summarise the report, but focused on some key points which painted the picture of an industry suffering from declining profitability and livestock numbers. . .

Meat Industry cautious on new report:

Meat company reaction to a newly released report on restructuring the industry has been muted so far.

The study comes from the farmer-led Meat Industry Excellence group, which is pushing for a major revamp of the industry to improve its profitability and lift falling returns to farmers.

It advocates a fresh attempt being made to merge the two big co-operatives, Silver Fern Farms and the Alliance Group, and getting the two other big privately-owned companies, ANZCO and AFFCO, to agree to rationalisation measures as well.

Plant a tree for International Forest Day:

Associate Minister for Primary Industries Jo Goodhew marked United Nations International Day of Forests at the Methven A&P show today, by planting a maple tree with industry representatives.

“New Zealand is a proud producer of sustainable timber products,” Mrs Goodhew says. “Today is a reminder of the contribution New Zealand forests make to both the environment and the economy.”

Our forests cover one third of New Zealand, and remain our third largest export earner.

“Leading into the 2020s, there is the potential for a 40 per cent increase in log production. A challenge to industry is to move wood products out of the commodity basket and up the value chain,” Mrs Goodhew says. . .

21 March International Day of Forests:

Forests and trees sustain and protect us in invaluable ways. They provide the clean air that we breathe and the water that we drink. They host and safeguard the planet’s biodiversity and act as our natural defence against climate change. Life on earth is made possible and sustainable thanks to forests and trees. . .

 

Kiwifruit Industry Strategy Project on track for record turnout:

On the final day of voting, grower turnout for the Kiwifruit Industry Strategy Project (KISP) referendum has surpassed all expectations and is on track to be the largest voter turnout in the horticulture sector for almost two decades.

KISP Independent Chairman Neil Richardson notes, “Our initial expectations were based around the average turnout for similar referendums across different sectors being 40%, and the NZKGI Levy vote in 2011 reaching 43% of grower turnout.”

“With voter turnout by both production volume and grower numbers already exceeding 50% we are confident that this referendum turnout will be the most significant the entire horticulture industry has seen since the late 1990s,” says Mr Richardson. . .

Team-Focused Dairy Business Takes Top Title in Taranaki Ballance Farm Environment Awards:

Eltham dairy farmers Mark and Jacqui Muller and their manager Conrad Maeke are the Supreme Winners of the 2015 Taranaki Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA).

They received the award at a BFEA ceremony on March 19. Mark, Jacqui and Conrad also collected the LIC Dairy Farm Award, Hill Laboratories Harvest Award, Massey University Innovation Award and the PGG Wrightson Land and Life Award.

The Muller’s business, Gardiner Partnership, is based on 212ha of family land west of Eltham in the Mangatoki district. The operation milks up to 618 cows on a 167ha milking platform, achieving production well ahead of the district average. . .

 Cheese And Beer a Winning Combo for Home Crafted Cheese Maker:

Former corporate high-flyer John Morawski has found that cheese and beer make a winning combination.

The brewer turned cheese maker decided to make use of a discarded cheese-making kit he bought his fiancé. Less than three years later he has won the Curds & Whey Champion Home Crafted Cheese Award at the 2015 NZ Champions of Cheese Awards.

The Home Crafted category gives “hobbyist” cheese makers a chance to showcase their creations. To be eligible, cheese must not be made for retail distribution and the annual volume cannot exceed 100kgs. . .

 

Taranaki/Manawatu Young Farmers to be put to the test in ANZ Young Farmer Contest Regional Final:

The fifth ANZ Young Farmer Contest Grand Finalist will be determined next weekend, Saturday 28 March at the Taranaki/Manawatu Regional Final held in Palmerston North.

“This contest season is shaping up to be very exciting, every year the calibre of contestants continues to improve and impress,” says Terry Copeland, Chief Executive of New Zealand Young Farmers – organisers of the event.

The eight finalists are contending for a spot at the Grand Final in Taupo 2 – 4 July and their share of an impressive prize pack worth over $271,000 in products, services and scholarships from ANZ, FMG, Lincoln University, Silver Fern Farms, AGMARDT, Ravensdown, Honda, Husqvarna and Vodafone. . .

Saturday’s smiles

A dashing young fellow named Bee-Bee
Wished to wed a woman named Phoebe.
“But,” he said, “I must see
What the clerical fee
Be before Phoebe be Phoebe Bee-Bee

 

A student at college, Miss Breeze,
Weighed down by B.A.s and Lit.D’s,
Collapsed from the strain,
Said her doctor, “It’s plain
You are killing yourself — by degrees!”

 

 A painter, who lived in Great Britain,
Interrupted two girls with their knittin’
He said, with a sigh,
“That park bench–well I
Just painted it, right where you’re sittin.'”

 

There was a young woman named Kite,
Whose speed was much faster than light,
She set out one day,
In a relative way,
And returned on the previous night.

 

Said an envious, crudite ermine,
“There’s one thing I cannot determine;
When a dame wears my coat,
She’s a person of note;
When I wear it, I’m called a vermine!”

 

A man and his lady-love, Min,
Skated out where the ice was quite thin,
Had a quarrel, no doubt,
For I hear they fell out;
What a blessing they didn’t fall in.

 

As a beauty I am not a star,
There are others more handsome by far;
But my face — I don’t mind it,
For I am behind it;
It’s the people in front that I jar.

 

 

 

What did Hunua & Tauranga learn that Northland should know?

Winston Peters won the seat of Hunua in 1978 but lost it again in 1981.

He won Tauranga in 1984 and lost it again in 2008.

What did the people of Hunua and Tauranga learn that voters in Northland should know?

Saturday soapbox

Saturday’s soapbox is yours to use as you will – within the bounds of decency and absence of defamation. You’re welcome to look back or forward, discuss issues of the moment, to pontificate, ponder or point us to something of interest, to educate, elucidate or entertain, amuse, bemuse or simply muse, but please, not abuse.

It’s not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings – Anne Landers.

March 21 in history

717 Battle of Vincy between Charles Martel and Ragenfrid.

1188  Accession to the throne of Japan by Emperor Antoku.

1413 Henry V became King of England.

1556 Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake.

1788 A fire in New Orleans left most of the town in ruins.

1800  Pius VII was crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.

1801 The Battle of Alexandria was fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis in Egypt.

1804 Code Napoléon was adopted as French civil law.

1811 Nathaniel Woodard, English educationalist, was born  (d. 1891).

1821 First revolutionary act in Monastery of Agia Lavra, Kalavryta, Greek War of Independence.

1844 The Bahá’í calendar began.

1844 – The original date predicted by William Miller for the return of Christ.

1857  An earthquake in Tokyo  killed more than 100,000.

1863 George Owen Squier, American inventor and Major General in U.S. Signal Corp, was born (d. 1934).

1871 Otto von Bismarck was appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.

1871 – Journalist Henry Morton Stanley began his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

1904 Forrest Mars Sr., American sweet maker, was born  (d. 1999).

1905 Albert Einstein published his theory on special relativity.

1913 Over 360 were killed and 20,000 homes destroyed in the Great Dayton Flood in Ohio.

1918 The first phase of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, began.

1919 The Hungarian Soviet Republic was established becoming the first Communist government to be formed in Europe after the October Revolution in Russia.

1928 Charles Lindbergh was presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.

1933 Construction of Dachau, the first Nazi Germany concentration camp, was completed.

1935 Shah Reza Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran, which means ‘Land of the Aryans’.

1936 – Margaret Mahy, New Zealand author, was born (d 2012).

1937 18 people in Ponce, Puerto Rico were gunned down by a police squad acting under orders of US-appointed PR Governor, Blanton C. Winship.

1943 Vivian Stanshall, English musician, artist, actor, writer, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, was born.

1945  British troops liberated Mandalay, Burma.

1945 Operation Carthage – British planes bombed Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen but also hit a school; 125 civilians were killed.

1945 Rose Stone, American musician (Sly & the Family Stone), was born.

1946  Ray Dorset, English Musician (Mungo Jerry)

1946 Timothy Dalton, British actor, was born.

1950 Roger Hodgson, English musician, former member of Supertramp, was born.

1951 Russell Thompkins Jr, American singer (The Stylistics), was born.

1952  Alan Freed presented the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.

1960 Massacre in Sharpeville: Police opened fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.

1963 Alcatraz closed.

1964 Gigliola Cinquetti won the ninth Eurovision Song Contest for Italy singing “Non ho l’età” (“I’m not old enough”).

1965 NASA launched Ranger 9, the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes.

1965 – Martin Luther King Jr led 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

1968 Battle of Karameh in Jordan between Israeli Defense Forces and Fatah.

1970 The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.

1974  Rhys Darby, New Zealand comedian, was born.

1980  US President Jimmy Carter announced a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.

1980 – On the season finale of the soap opera Dallas, the infamous character J.R. Ewing was shot by an unseen assailant, leading to the catchphrase “Who Shot JR?”

1985 – Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen began his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.

1990 – Namibia regained its independence after 75 years of South African rule.

1999 Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.

2003 Race Relations Day was celebrated in New Zealand for the first time.

2006  Immigrant workers constructing the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, The United Arab Emirates and a new terminal of Dubai International Airport joined together and riot, causing $1M in damage.

2009  – Four police officers were shot and killed and a fifth was wounded in two shootings at Oakland, California.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia