Crop biotech 3.0: a farmer’s perspective – Craige Mackenzie:
Here in New Zealand, we did not participate in the GE Gene Revolution. Farmers like me see an advantage in making sure that we do not miss the next one.
You’ve seen the statistics. Farmers around the world have planted and harvested billions of acres of genetically engineered crops. Not long ago, we used to talk about GMOs and conventional crops as if they belonged in different categories. Increasingly—and especially in North and South America—GMOs are the new conventional. They’ve become an ordinary part of agriculture.
Some nations, of course have resisted the use of GMOs, starting with members of the European Union. New Zealand has taken its own wait-and-see approach, turning it into a sort of permanent delay. The science on GMOs safety to human health and our environment may be settled but my country has wanted to preserve its clean-green image in food production, in the belief that this gives us a competitive advantage as we market ourselves to the world. . .
Eradicating cattle disease M. bovis in New Zealand may be costly, even impossible, but we must try – Riachard Laven:
In May this year, the New Zealand government decided that it would attempt to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis, a bacterial disease that affects cattle.
A phased eradication means that an additional 126,000 livestock will need to be culled, at an estimated cost of NZ$886 million.
Here’s what we know, what we don’t know and what’s at stake.
How do we know this is a new incursion?
M. bovis causes mastitis and arthritis in adult cattle and pneumonia in calves. It is found around the world, but New Zealand was one of the last disease-free countriesuntil the detection of infected cows on a dairy farm in July 2017. . .
Career path judged correctly – Sally Rae:
Brooke Flett never intended a career in farming.
But now, settled on the family dairy farm at Scotts Gap in Southland, it was “working out all right”.
“Most of the time, I love it,” she laughed.
Miss Flett (26), who is chairwoman of Thornbury Young Farmers Club, was recently named Young Farmers national stock-judging champion.
She grew up on the farm and boarded at Southland Girls’ High School before studying at Victoria University for a bachelor of arts in education.
But it “never really clicked” and she did not pursue a career in that area. .
Farm sales and prices ease on year June but horticulture farms shine – Rebecca Howard:
(BusinessDesk) – Farm sales fell 7 percent on the year in the three months to June and the median price per hectare was down 16.3 percent although horticulture farm prices continued to push higher, according to the Real Estate Institute.
Overall, 427 farms were sold in the three months ended June 30 from 459 farms in the same period a year earlier. Some 1,480 farms were sold in the year to June, down 17 percent on the year. . .
Software to keep containment’s out:
Fertiliser co-op Ballance will commercially launch a new farm environment planning tool, MitAgator, by spring.
Developed by Ballance and AgResearch, MitAgator measures the loss of four main farm contaminants — nitrogen, phosphorous, sediment and E. coli.
New Zealand-wide trials are pointing to a launch by late September. . .
Deer velvet looking good in Asia
Long-term prospects for NZ velvet in the major Asian markets are looking positive says Deer Industry NZ (DINZ) Asia manager Rhys Griffiths.
“There has been an explosion in consumer demand for consumer-ready velvet-based products in Korea. Ten years ago this product category didn’t even exist,” he says.
“In the past six months, 23 new velvet-based healthy food products have been launched in Korea; the majority of them using NZ velvet. . .
Importers snap up cheap U.S. soybeans as China stops buying – Karl Plume:
China’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. soybeans, threatened for weeks and enacted Friday, have driven down prices and triggered a wave of bargain shopping by importers in other countries stocking up on cheap U.S. supplies, according to a Reuters analysis of government data.
Chinese buyers have so far this year accounted for just 17 percent of all advanced purchases of the fall U.S. soybean harvest – down from an average of 60 percent over the past decade, the analysis found. They are instead loading up on Brazilian soybeans, which now sell at a premium of up to $1.50 a bushel as U.S. soybean futures have fallen 17 percent over six weeks to about $8.50, their lowest level in nearly a decade. . .
The rise of soil carbon cowboys – Peter Byck:
Ranching is a rare occupation. Rarer still are the ranchers pioneering new ways to graze cattle, transforming their ranches and farms into vibrant ecosystems, producing black ink for their bank accounts and giving their incredibly robust animals a great life (with the exception of one bad day).
These new grazing methods have many names — mob grazing, managed intensive grazing, holistic management. Our group of scientists and ranchers call it Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) Grazing. . .
Homepaddock 
“The rise of soil carbon cowboys”
A very interesting concept. Farmers in New Zealand have been practicing this sort of grazing regime for decades. Very few animals here are finished in feedlots, most cattle and sheep are finished on pasture or specialty crops grown and fed off in situ.
With the supposed “Carbon” problem here, government is encouraging the planting of trees to become the carbon sink, but will not acknowledge that pasture plants will turn CO2 into soil carbon. The incentive to plant trees is that the stored carbon units can be sold off each year to some polluter, and while our Govt says agriculture omits about 49% of our green house gasses they wont acknowledge that agriculture is in fact neutral as these gasses are returned to the soil under a biological system.
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