Allotriophagy – a depraved appetite; desire for improper food; craving for strange foods.
Rural round-up
14/08/2015Support extended for drought-affected South Island:
Support for the drought-affected eastern South Island has been extended with an extra $100,000 for Rural Support Trusts and the medium scale event officially extended to February next year, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has announced today.
Mr Guy met with local farmers in the Hurunui district today and says North Canterbury is the worst affected region with little rainfall all year, despite being well into winter.
“North Canterbury, Southern Marlborough and parts of South Canterbury and Otago continue to experience very dry conditions. Pasture growth is well behind normal for this time of year and with lambing and calving starting, the situation remains serious for some,” says Mr Guy. . .
Low stress the key to success at Whangara – Kate Taylor:
Robbie and Kristin Kirkpatrick’s eyes light up when they talk about the opportunities they have been given at Whangara Angus since 2009.
The business is owned by Patrick Lane but is still officially Lane Bros after Patrick’s father and uncle who bought the first part of the farm in 1929. Whangara Angus was formed in 1966.
Robbie started working as a shepherd at the station, north of Gisborne, six years ago and is now managing the 1800ha property. . .
Mushroom battle faces more delays – Patrick O’Sullivan:
Te Mata Mushroom Company has accused Hawke’s Bay Regional Council of keeping it in the dark.
The council is prosecuting Te Mata for six allegedly smelly discharges between March and April.
The 48-year-old Havelock North company has been the subject of regular complaints from a nearby new housing development about the odour it produces when making compost. . .
Rebuild of US beef cow herd will hit NZ:
New Zealand’s beef prices could fall as the United States rebuilds up its beef herds.
A new Rabobank report suggests the US is well on its way to rebuilding its herds as it recovers from a drought which has lasted since 2011.
It is expected to reduce the demand and record prices for New Zealand beef in this country’s biggest market.
The report – Beef cow repopulation, the case for diversification – showed the US beef industry expected to grow by 3,000,000 head of cattle in the next three to five years. . . .
New technology for sustainable snapper fishing:
The New Zealand seafood industry makes a serious commitment to the sustainability of our fisheries through significant investments in world-leading technologies, Chief Executive Tim Pankhurst says.
He was commenting on today’s announcement that fishing companies Aotearoa Fisheries, Sanford and Leigh Fish are stepping up their efforts to bring greater transparency into the inshore fleet. The companies are some of the first to commit to fitting vessel monitoring systems (VMS) on all vessels within their fleets that are part of the snapper fishery operating on the east coast of the North Island from the far north to the bottom of the Bay of Plenty. . .
Winning a category award in the East Coast Ballance Farm Environment Awards was a nice little pat on the back for viticulturist Steve Wheeler and his employer, Mission Estate Winery.
Steve manages 33ha of vines for Mission Estate, one of New Zealand’s oldest and most well-known wine producers.
Based near Napier and owned by Marist Holdings Ltd, the winery prides itself on “delivering excellent wine to consumers in a way that enables the natural environment, the businesses and the communities involved to thrive”.
“Mission Estate has being doing some great work in the sustainability field,” Steve says, “so entering the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA) was an excellent way to showcase this work and to encourage others to do the same.” . .
Friday’s answers
14/08/2015Thursday’s questions were:
- Who said: Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.?
2. Who had a sign saying TRESPASSERS W outside his home and what was the W short for?
3. It’s domicile in French, abitazione in Italian, hogar in Spanish and kāinga in Maori, what is it in English?
4. What does Lang may yer lum reek mean, literally, not figuratively?
5. What makes your house a home?
Points for answers:
Grant got two, a nearly (reek can be smell but lum is chimney not house).
Gravedodger got three and the apology for distraction.
J Bloggs got four.
Answers follow the break:
DIRA’s had its day
14/08/2015Some good news on dairying:
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy today certified that in the 2014/15 season independent dairy processors collected 22 percent of all milksolids in the South Island.
Under the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA), the Minister is required to certify when this threshold is reached. It triggers expiry of the pro-competition DIRA provisions in the South Island by no later than 31 May 2018, unless there is legislative change before then.
“While Fonterra continues to collect more milk every season, it is encouraging to see new processors enter the market and create competitive pressure,” says Mr Guy.
“Independent processors also collected 9 percent of all milksolids in the North Island. This indicates there is increasing competition in the New Zealand dairy industry.”
Monitoring of the amount collected by independent processors is required under DIRA, which allowed for the merger of our largest dairy co-operatives to form Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited in 2001.
DIRA also contains provisions to promote the efficient operation of dairy markets in New Zealand through contestability in the farm gate and factory gate markets. These provisions are intended to expire when there is sufficient competition.
“While the percentage of milksolids collected by independent processors is one indicator of competition, it is not definitive. For this reason the Commerce Commission has been tasked with providing a report on the state of competition in the New Zealand dairy industry.
“The Commerce Commission’s report, as well as policy advice from the Ministry for Primary Industries, will help to inform my decisions as Minister and will inform the Government as it considers the results of this review.
“The Government will need to consider next year whether to promote changes to legislation to extend the duration of the pro-competition provisions, or provide a transition pathway to deregulation, or a combination of both.” . .
Information about the process, including the terms of reference for the report, key dates, and how submissions can be made, are available on the Commerce Commission website: http://www.comcom.govt.nz/regulated-industries/dairy-industry/report-on-the-state-of-competition-in-the-new-zealand-dairy-industry/
The final report is due on 29 February 2016 to the Ministers of Primary Industries and Commerce and Consumer Affairs. The Government will respond shortly thereafter by giving public notice of the Government’s policy intent.
The sooner these provisions in the DIRA go the better for Fonterra and the industry.
Under the provisions farmers can sell their shares, supply another company then go back to Fonterra which has to take them back.
DIRA has also encouraged dairying in distant areas which might not have happened had Fonterra not had to take the milk produced.
It’s had its day and competition is alive and well in the industry, at least in part not in spite of Fonterra but because of it.
No matter what the hurdles someone will see an opportunity and seize it.
Bit isn’t always better as suppliers to Tatua which is forecasting a $6 payout this season know.
Those wanting the meat industry to follow the Fonterra model should take note that the market will find a way even with legislation.
They should also note that if legislation is the answer to a business’s formation or growth you’ve almost certainly asked the wrong question.
Hypocrisy and sabotage would give Hobson’s choice
14/08/2015Labour went into last year’s election supporting the planned two-stage flag referendum process and promising to enact it should it become government.
Just a few month’s later the statesman like promise has been supplanted by childish posturing out of pique:
Labour’s Trevor Mallard said he opposed the process and believed it was not time to change the flag.
Mr Mallard said he would be ranking highest the worst possible alternative flag and ranking lowest the best possible one as his protest against it.
It is hypocritical to say it’s not the time now when his party was fully supportive of the process last year.
And this isn’t just a protest, it’s an attempt to sabotage the process which allows us all to choose a new flag, or not.
He won’t do that by just voting perversely himself but by milking the opportunity for publicity by encouraging others to do it too.
Everyone who doesn’t want a fourth flag, or is open to change but doesn’t like the option we’ll be left with, will have the opportunity to vote for the current flag, which is our third, in the second referendum.
Given the number who don’t want change for genuine reasons and those who will oppose the change out of political pique, the chances are we’ll be stuck with the status quo anyway.
But Mallard isn’t prepared to leave people to choose or not, he’s going to do his best to give us Hobson’s choice.
Quote of the day
14/08/2015All the effort pays off. You can’t focus on love and not become more loving. Work on compassion and you’ll become more compassionate. The same goes for forgiveness and trust and all the other great things that make being a human a big love affair. Practice doesn’t make you perfect, but it surely brings you closer to the beautiful person you were born to be. And that’s worth the effort. – Scott Stabile
August 14 in history
14/08/20151183 Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan took the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and fled to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan.
1385 – Portuguese Crisis of 1383–1385: Battle of Aljubarrota – Portuguese forces commanded by King João I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeated the Castilian army of King Juan I.
1598 Nine Years War: Battle of the Yellow Ford – Irish forces under Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeated an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.
1842 Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ended.
1846 The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite struck near in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
1867 John Galsworthy, English novelist and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born (d. 1933).
1880 Construction of Cologne Cathedral was completed.
1885 Japan’s first patent was issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
1888 A recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan’s The Lost Chord, one of the first recordings of music ever made, was played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison’s phonograph in London.
1891 Petitions organised by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) seeking women’s suffrage and signed by a total of 9000 women were presented to New Zealand’s Parliament.
1893 France introduced motor vehicle registration.
1900 A joint European-Japanese-United States force (Eight-Nation Alliance) occupied Beijing, in a campaign to end the Boxer Rebellion.
1901 The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
1908 The first beauty contest was held in Folkestone.
1912 U.S. Marines invaded Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government.
1921 Tannu Tuva, later Tuvinian People’s Republic was established as a completely independent country.
1933 Loggers caused a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon – the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn.
1935 United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired.
1936 Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.
1937 Chinese Air Force Day: The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when 6 Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers were shot down by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force.
1941 David Crosby, American musician, was born.
1941 Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
1945 Steve Martin, American actor and comedian, was born.
1945 Japan accepted the Allied terms of surrender and the Emperor recorded the Imperial Rescript on Surrender.
1946 Susan Saint James, American actress, was born.
1947 Pakistan and India gained Independence from the British Indian Empire and joined the British Commonwealth.
1948 Don Bradman, widely regarded as the best cricket batsman in history, makes a duck in his final Test innings.
1950 Gary Larson, American cartoonist (The Far Side), was born.
1967 UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declared participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
1969 British troops were deployed in Northern Ireland.
1972 An East German Ilyushin Il-62 crashed during takeoff from East Berlin, killing 156.
1980 Lech Wałęsa led strikes at the Gdańsk shipyards.
1987 All the children held at Kia Lama, a rural property on Lake Eildon, Australia, run by the Santiniketan Park Association, were released after a police raid.
1994 Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as “Carlos the Jackal“, was captured.
2003 Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
2006 Chencholai bombing – 61 Tamil girls were killed in Sri Lankan Airforce bombing.
2007 Kahtaniya bombings killed at least 400 people.
2010 – 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games, first ever Youth Olympics, officially started in Singapore.
2013 – Egypt declared a state of emergency as security forces killed hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia