Lynchet – a ridge or ledge formed along the downhill side of a plot by ploughing in ancient times; an earth terrace found on the side of a hill.
Rural round-up
22/08/2019600 farmers in big water project –
You could say it’s “ace” that more than 600 farmers and multiple agencies are working together to improve water quality in the Aparima catchment area in the deep south.
ACE – otherwise known as the Aparima Community Environment (ACE) project – is a farmer-led initiative in Southland aimed at over 600 farms spread over 207,000 hectares – with 81 per cent of that area developed. It has multi-agency participation with DairyNZ, Beef & Lamb and Environment Southland involved.
The ace thing about ACE, says DairyNZ’s strategy and investment leader for responsible dairying, Dr David Burger, is its enormous scale and the intent to support all land managers in good farming practice. It will also track what happens on every single farm in the six Aparima catchment groups – Pourakino, Lower Aparima, Orepuki, Mid Aparima, Upper Aparima and Waimatuku – and relate this to water quality downstream. . .
Federated Farmers hails court ruling as a win for Rotorua community:
The voices of farmers in Rotorua, led by Federated Farmers, have been instrumental in the Environment Court’s rejection of Land Use Capability (LUC) as a tool for nitrogen allocation.
Federated Farmers, along with the Lake Rotorua Primary Producers Collective, has been fighting a proposal by Rotorua Lakes Council, forestry and others seeking to allocate nitrogen discharges using LUC methodology. With evidence from member farmers in the catchment, as well as by engaging experts and consultants, Federated Farmers demonstrated the LUC proposal would fail farm businesses and their communities to the point of potential ruin, Feds environment spokesperson Chris Allen said.
“It would also have had a more uncertain environmental outcome than the original proposal by Bay of Plenty Regional Council in Plan Change 10,” he said.
“We’re pleased the Court comprehensively rejected the LUC proposal that would have required nitrogen discharge reductions of 80% by dairy farmers and 40% by drystock farmers. In contrast, the allocation for forestry would have increased six fold. This would have meant that most farmers would have had to lease back nitrogen (that had been transferred to forestry) in order to continue farming.” . .
Forget about another share trading review – Sudesh Kissun:
Former Fonterra director Nicola Shadbolt says the recent collapse of a few dairy cooperatives should be blamed on their strategy, not their co-op structure.
She says the collapse of Australia’s biggest dairy co-op Murray Goulburn and the demise of Westland Milk co-op on the West Coast is not about their structure.
“It is governance, it is strategy. I mean for every two co-ops that fail there are about a thousand corporates… nobody says of the corporates that it’s their business model. But with co-ops it’s always their business model that is blamed.”
Shadbolt, a fierce proponent of the cooperative model, is aware of moves by some farmers and a few directors to return capital structure to the table. . .
Is there a future for OZ Fonterra as Fonterra’s finances unravel – Keith Woodford:
Fonterra’s announcement that it expects a loss of around $600 million or more for the year ended 31 July 2019 has big ramifications for Oz Fonterra. With overseas-milk pools now lying outside the central focus of Fonterra’s new strategy, and with Fonterra seriously short of capital, the Australian-milk pool and associated processing assets look increasingly burdensome.
If Fonterra were to divest its Australian operations, then it would demonstrate that Fonterra really is retreating to be a New Zealand producer of New Zealand dairy ingredients. It would also reinforce the notion that consumer-branded products are now largely beyond its reach.
This strategic position is close to where Fonterra was in around 2006, when it decided that it was 50 years too late to take on the likes of Nestlé. It did have both Australian and Chilean operations at that time but they were smaller than now. It also took on an initial shareholding in Chinese San Lu at that time, but essentially Fonterra saw itself as a New Zealand-based co-operative. . .
Agriculture fears it will be milked by EU free trade deal – Mike Foley:
Australia risks trading away hundreds of millions of dollars in agricultural earnings if it doesn’t negotiate significant concessions from the European Union.
That’s according to industry groups Australian Dairy Farmers and the National Farmers’ Federation, which warned Trade Minister Simon Birmingham the EU will have to reduce its onerous tariffs and import barriers to make a free trade agreement (FTA).
“There would be no point in doing the deal for Australian farmers if we can’t see a realistic and positive outcome from this FTA,” NFF president Tony Mahar said. . .
Want to protect the planet? Eat more beef, not less – Patrick Holden:
If students and staff at Goldsmiths University really want to help the environment, they should end their ban on selling beef on campus. Far from being the bogeymen portrayed by environmental campaigners, sustainably farmed beef and dairy cattle are integral to maintaining our green and pleasant land, keeping our waterways free of chemicals and feeding our population in the most efficient manner possible.
Two thirds of UK farmland is under grass and in most cases cannot be used for other crops. The only responsible way to convert this into food is to feed it to cattle, which are capable of deriving 100 per cent of their nutrition from grass and therefore are more efficient on such land than chickens or pigs. Even on grassland where crops could be grown, ploughing it up to create arable farms would release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and require the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertiliser, all of which can devastate biodiversity.
Cattle farming does not just help to maintain grassland – it also works to improve the sustainability of existing cropland. . .
August 22 in history
22/08/2019565 St. Columba reported seeing a monster in Loch Ness.
1138 Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England.
1485 The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.
1559 Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, was arrested for heresy.
1642 Charles I called the English Parliament traitors. The English Civil Warbegan.
1654 Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam – the first known Jewish immigrant to America.
1770 James Cook‘s expedition landed on the east coast of Australia.
1780 James Cook‘s ship HMS Resolution returned to England after Cook was killed in Hawaii.
1791 Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue.
1798 French troops landed in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo to aid Wolfe Tone’s United Irishmen’s Irish Rebellion.
1827 José de La Mar became President of Peru.
1831 Nat Turner’s slave rebellion commenced leading to the deaths of more than 50 whites and several hundred African Americans who are killed in retaliation for the uprising.
1849 The first air raid in history. Austria launched pilotless balloons against the Italian city of Venice.
1851 The first America’s Cup was won by the yacht America.
1862 Claude Debussy, French composer, was born (d. 1918).
1864 Twelve nations signed the First Geneva Convention. The Red Crosswas formed.
1875 The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia was ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
1893 Dorothy Parker, American writer, was born (d. 1967).
1901 Cadillac Motor Company was founded.
1902 Theodore Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile.
1909 Julius J. Epstein, American screenwriter, was born (d. 2000).
1915 James Hillier, Co-inventor of the electron microscope, was born (d. 2007).
1922 Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army was shot dead during an Anti-Treaty ambush at Béal na mBláth, County Cork, during the Irish Civil War.
1925 Honor Blackman, English actress, was born.
1926 Gold was discovered in Johannesburg.
1932 The BBC first experimented with television broadcasting.
1934 Bill Woodfull of Australia became the only cricket captain to twice regain The Ashes.
1934 – Norman Schwarzkopf, U.S. general, was born.
1934 – Sir Donald McIntyre, English bass-baritone, was born.
1935 E. Annie Proulx, American author, was born.
1939 Valerie Harper, American actress, was born.
1941 World War II: German troops reached Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad.
1942 World War II: Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy.
1944 World War II: Romania wascaptured by the Soviet Union.
1949 Queen Charlotte earthquake: Canada’s largest earthquake since 1700.
1950 Althea Gibson became the first black competitor in international tennis.
1952 The penal colony on Devil’s Island was permanently closed.
1961 Roland Orzabal, British musician (Tears for Fears), was born.
1962 An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle failed.
196 The NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered cargo ship, completed its maiden voyage.
1963 Joe Walker in an X-15 test plane reached an altitude of 106 km (66 mi).
1968 Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogotá – the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
1969 New Zealand’s first Young Farmer of the Year contest was won by Gary Frazer.
1972 Rhodesia was expelled by the IOC for its racist policies.
1973 Howie Dorough, American singer (Backstreet Boys), was born.
1978 The Frente Sandinista de Liberacion – FSLN – occupied national palace in Nicaragua.
1989 The first ring of Neptune was discovered.
1996 Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into law, representing major shift in US welfare policy
2003 Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building.
2004 The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, were stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo.
2007 – The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sent out a record 57 million e-mails in one day.
2012 – Ethnic clashes over grazing rights for cattle in Kenya’s Tana River District resulted in more than 52 deaths.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia