Word of the day

Precocity – the state of being or tendency to be precocious; exceptionally early or premature development; manifesting or characterised by development, aptitude, or interests considered advanced for a given age.

Friday’s answers

Andrei gets my thanks for posing Thursday’s questions.

Should he have stumped us all he can claim a virtual batch of ginger crunch by leaving the answers below.

Rural round-up

Bug hunt stepped up with new test – Richard Rennie:

Antibiotic resistance of bacteria in the human population has been touted as one of the biggest risks to health in coming years, with the planet facing what the World Health Organisation describes as a “race against time” to develop new antibiotics. However, resistance in New Zealand’s farm production animal population remains low, and a new initiative will help paint a clear picture on where resistance risks really lie, and how to manage them. Richard Rennie reports.

The Dairy Antibiogram test is the result of a joint venture between Bayer and Morrinsville-based production animal research company, Cognosco. . . 

Town Talk: hello we need to connect  – Amy Williams:

Sometimes, when I’m serving dinner, I remind my children where their meat comes from.

My seven-year-old acts horrified, my five-year-old looks twice at her dinner and my three-year-old just doesn’t believe it.

The reality of living in the city means most of us don’t really have to think about where our food comes from.

There’s no arguing the rural-urban divide exists and researchers around the world have been pointing at this gulf between country producers and city consumers for years, often with a sense of dismay. . . 

Waikato Inc approach urged to tackle water issues  – Sudesh Kissun:

New Waikato Federated Farmers president Andrew McGiven is pushing for a united front to tackle water issues confronting the region.

The Te Aroha dairy farmer says Feds aims to get the best outcome for the rural sector under the Waikato Regional Council’s Healthy Rivers/Wai Ora proposed plan change 1. The council aims to improve water quality in the Waikato and Waipa river catchments.

Waikato Feds has at least 2000 members in dairy, sheep and beef, horticulture and forestry.

McGiven says he wants a “Waikato Inc” approach so that small rural towns reliant on agriculture also get to have their say.  . .

Every lamb counts on intensive Ida Valley farm  – Rob Tipa:

On a small Otago farm, every blade of grass counts, every stock unit has to produce a return and every lamb that survives is a bonus. Rob Tipa meets the winners of a special award for flock performance in the NZ Ewe Hogget competition.

The Ida Valley is famous for its weather extremes, from hoar frosts and sub-zero temperatures in winter to intense heat and parched landscapes in summer.

On a relatively small holding of just 182ha, the Evans family runs a surprisingly intensive operation for this region.

They winter 671 mixed-age coopworth ewes and 234 ewe hoggets and are finishing 219 rising one-year-old friesian-hereford and friesian-murray grey cross calves they buy in at four days old. Last season their cattle all sold at 18 months at an average carcassweight of 245kg. . .

What’s your future in dairying aged 20-0dd – Brent Love:

Brent Love, director farm enterprise at KPMG, explains how to make it in dairy for 20-somethings.

So you’ve got yourself here. Well done. With a bit of luck you’ve worked hard at secondary school, and may even have advanced to tertiary study or got started on some Primary ITO development.

You may have found out, through early mornings and time in a cowshed, that dairy farming is your future. Congratulations, you will do well. Many have been before you, but to be fair to you they haven’t actually been where you stand today. . .

Preventing burn-out during calving – Dana Carver:

Calving is one of the busiest times of year on farm, but it’s one of my favourites. The calves are the future of our herd and it’s exciting to see them arrive, grow and thrive.

We spend a lot of time and money to have a healthy herd, and every year they’re a bit healthier, the herd a bit closer to what we’re trying to achieve and that’s exciting.

But it’s also full-on. Hopefully you and your team managed to take a break at the end of the last season so you were able to start the new season recharged.

However, that break can quickly seem like a distant memory as the thick of calving sets in. Sustaining energy levels over the calving season is essential and there are some simple things you can do to achieve this. . .

Quote of the day

We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure. –  Karl Popper who was born on this day in 1902.

July 28 in history

1364  Battle of Cascina.

1540 Thomas Cromwell was executed at the order of Henry VIII on charges of treason.

1540  Henry VIII married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

1609 Bermuda was first settled by survivors of the English ship Sea Venture en route to Virginia.

1794 Maximilien Robespierre was executed by guillotine.

1809 Peninsular War: Battle of Talavera: Sir Arthur Wellesley’s British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeated a French force under Joseph Bonaparte.

1821  José de San Martín declared the independence of Peru from Spain.

1844 Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet, was born (d. 1889).

1864  American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church: Confederate troops made a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.

1865  Welsh settlers arrived at Chubut in Argentina.

1866 Beatrix Potter, English author, was born (d. 1943).

1868  The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was passed, establishing African-American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.

1879 Lucy Burns, American suffragist, was born (d. 1966)

1893 The third massive suffrage petition was presented to Parliament in three years, this one was signed by nearly 32,000 women − almost a quarter of the entire adult European female population of New Zealand.

1901 Rudy Vallee, American entertainer, was born (d. 1986).

1902 Karl Popper, Austrian-born philosopher, was born (d. 1994).

1907 Earl Tupper, American inventor (tupperware) was born(d. 1983).

1909 Malcolm Lowry, English novelist, was born (d. 1957).

1914 World War I: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia after Serbia rejects the conditions of an ultimatum sent by Austria on July 23 following the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand.

1929 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States, was born (d. 1994).

1935 First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

1936 Garfield Sobers, Barbadian West Indies cricketer, was born.

1942   Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issued Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into the Soviet Union. Under the order all those who retreated or otherwise left their positions without orders to do so were to be immediately executed.

1943 : Operation Gomorrah: The British bombed Hamburg causing a firestorm that killed 42,000 German civilians.

1943   Richard Wright, English musician, was born (Pink Floyd) (d. 2008).

1945 Jim Davis, American cartoonist, was born.

1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.

1948 Gerald Casale, American musician and director (founding member of Devo), was born.

1948 The Metropolitan Police Flying Squad foiled a bullion robbery in the “Battle of London Airport”.

1949 Peter Doyle, Australian singer (The New Seekers), was born (d. 2001).

1955 The Union Mundial pro Interlingua was founded at the first Interlingua congress in Tours, France.

1957 Heavy rain and a mudslide in  Isahaya,  western Kyūshū, Japan, killed 992.

1965  – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

1973  Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: 600,000 people attended a rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.

1976  The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattened Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.

1996  Kennewick Man, the remains of a prehistoric man, was discovered near Kennewick, Washington.

2001 Australian Ian Thorpe became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single World Championships.

2002  Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, were rescued after 77 hours underground.

2005 The Provisional Irish Republican Army called an end to its thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.

2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army called an end to its thirty-year-long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.

2008  – The historic Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare burned down for the second time in 80 years.

2010 – Airblue Flight 202 crashed into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, Pakistan, killing all 152 people aboard. It was the deadliest aviation accident in Pakistan history and the first involving an Airbus A321.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia