Word of the day

Swatchel – to beat with a stick; a small metal instrument held in the mouth of a Punch and Judy puppeteer, used to produce the characteristic shrill voice of Mr Punch; a device to change the voice to make it more raspy, used in Punch and Judy performances; a drink made of water, vinegar, ginger and molasses or honey.

Sowell says

The road to Utopia has repeatedly turned out to be the road to hell, in countries around the world.

— Thomas Sowell Wisdom (@TheThomasSowell) March 26, 2024

Rural roundup

The fury of Europe’s farmers – Fraser Myers :

Europe’s farmers are rising up – and the elites are terrified. In France, farmers recently staged a four-day ‘siege of Paris’, blocking major roads around the French capital. In January, thousands of tractors descended on Berlin in Germany, lining the streets leading up to the Brandenburg Gate. In Brussels, farmers have gathered from all over Europe to demonstrate against the EU and pelt the European Parliament with eggs. In the Netherlands, tractors have caused the longest traffic jam in the nation’s history, as part of a years-long battle between farmers and the government. This farmers’ revolt is now truly Europe-wide. From Portugal to Poland, from Ireland to Italy, almost every EU country has been rocked by protests. So what is driving this populist uprising? What do the farmers want?

Farmers in each country have their own specific grievances, of course. But there is a common root to their anger. What connects them is the European Union’s green agenda, which has been imposed on agriculture from on-high. It has made farmers’ lives a misery, sacrificing their livelihoods at the altar of climate alarmism. Bureaucrats who have no idea how farmers work and live, have essentially been condemning farms – many of them run by families for generations – to oblivion, all at the stroke of the regulator’s pen. And farmers are simply not putting up with it anymore. . . 

ORC piling more regulations on farmers – Feds – Sudesh Kissun :

Federated Farmers claims that the Otago Regional Council is charging ahead unnecessarily with piling more regulation on rural communities.

It says ORC councillors voted 7-5 yesterday to move forward with notifying its controversial draft Land and Water Plan on October 31.

It’s a poor decision that will result in even more regulation being piled onto Otago farmers in the coming months, Federated Farmers environment spokesman Colin Hurst says.

“The last thing farmers struggling through high interest rates, low payouts and drought conditions want to be waking up to is news that more red tape is likely on the way later this year.” . . .

2 paddocks done this evening, one more to go, then, I think, only 2 more for the season! pic.twitter.com/zo92SdhlgV

— Ben Dooley 🧢 (@BenDooley8) April 2, 2024

Cutting all that dam red tape :

Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says.

“The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track.

“Dam safety regulations imposed by the previous government are set to come into force on 13 May 2024, requiring dams over a certain height to have a Potential Impact Classification.

“Feedback from farmers and growers is that these new regulations will add an unreasonable amount of compliance costs for the low risk posed by small dams that are used in farms across New Zealand for water storage. . . 

Silver Fern Farms annual results 2023: results reflect challenging market conditions  :

Silver Fern Farms Co-operative and its investment, Silver Fern Farms Limited, have today released their Annual Results for the 2023 year.

Silver Fern Farms Limited has posted a $24.4 million loss after tax, with revenue decreasing $497 million on the previous year to $2.78 billion. Silver Fern Farms Co-operative has posted a $10.7 million loss after tax.

Silver Fern Farms Co-operative Chair, Rob Hewett says the financial results reflect a year of challenging market conditions which have impacted the whole supply chain.

“Depressed consumer confidence across our key markets has put pressure on our customers, the Operating Company, and ultimately, returns for our farmer suppliers,” he says. . .

Forward thinking sees farming family win award :

Simon and Josi Beamish and Hugo & Pip Beamish of Awapai have been announced as the regional supreme winners at the East Coast Ballance Farm Environment Awards in Gisborne this week.

Awapai, which is in the WhanaWhana Valley, west of Hastings, is a 2,100ha (1,625ha effective) slice off the family’s original 7,910ha property.

The grazing and finishing farm runs about 5,500 breeding ewes, 3,700 trade lambs, 850 beef cattle, 300 bulls and 300 Wagyu beef cattle. All animals are finished on-farm except for the Wagyu.

The judges say they were impressed with the use of innovation, technology and modern ideas, all implemented within the framework of a well-established and enduring family business. . . 

pic.twitter.com/N2K9nZz0hk

— James Rebanks (@herdyshepherd1) March 31, 2024

A shepherd’s sermon on the eternal joys of spring – James Rebanks :

There was a calf born in the bottom meadow this morning. I went to check last night and the mother was lying purposefully beneath some bushes. And at 6am this morning the same ground was muddier, as if the cow had lain on her side half the night thrashing and turning around, but she was now standing proudly with a strong bull calf nuzzling her udder.

The calf was black with a bright white stripe round his midriff, and he was shining in wet curls from all the licking his doting mother had done. He was creating a foamy lather round a teat, and every few seconds would get a bit overexcited and stumble forwards and have to reset his balance.

I love spring — all that new life and promise appearing when you have almost stopped believing. Winter is struggle, a time of hunger, the time in nature when things are tested to destruction, a trial. Six months of barren hillsides makes you long to see the grass begin to green.

Spring is a new chapter full of hope. In the next few days we will begin lambing, and there will soon be 400 little black Herdwick lambs running about the fields. . . 

Time to put ass out of its misery

Reports here, here, here and here suggest that if any reporters were working in Wanaka at the weekend they were at Warbirds over Wanaka, not in town.

All reports say  two supermarkets stayed open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday in contravention of the Easter Trading law which prohibits most retailers in most places from opening on those days.

What the reports don’t say, which points to no reporters being there,  is that most other shops in the town were also open on those days, as they have been for several years.

The law applies only to bars and licensed cafes – which can sell alcohol only if customers also buy food – and most  retailers, any other business can choose to open. It exempts some retailers including dairies and fuel stations; and it allows all shops in some places deemed to be tourist destinations, to open on Easter Sunday, which isn’t a statutory holiday. Included in that exemption are Taupo and Queenstown, but not neighbouring Rotorua and Wanaka.

It is difficult to see why both of these aren’t recognised as tourist destinations when their neighbours are, especially Wanaka this year when 10s of thousands of people were there for Warbirds over Wanaka.

This law is inconsistent which makes it bad law.

One argument for prohibiting shops to open is that Good Friday and Easter Sunday are holy days, but if opening a shop on those days desecrates their holiness when people can choose to patronises it or not, wouldn’t holding an air show or operating other businesses do the same?

People would have been  able to buy whatever was on sale at the airport, in service stations, tourist shops and dairies but not buy exactly the same things in other  shops unless they popped over the hill to Queenstown where all shops were allowed to open on Sunday.

Governments can’t make a day holy, that’s up to individuals, their faith and how they practise it.

National’s former Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean tried, and failed, to change the law with a private members’ bill a few years ago. Act MP  Chris Baillie’s similar bill failed last year too. Another Act MP Cameron Luxton is trying again with another member’s bill.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon supports a change but says it’s not a priority.

At least for now, improvements to the law will depend on the member’s bill being drawn.

Even then it’s a conscience issue so there’s no guarantee it would pass, but the current law is an ass and it’s time to put it out of its misery.