Why freshwater report can be an ‘own goal’ for NZ – Jacqueline Rowarth :
There is more to the Our Freshwater 2023 report than alarming headlines suggest, Dr Jacqueline Rowarth writes.
Each year the EU launches a bathing water report for the previous season with a press release.
In June 2022 the headline read Zero Pollution: Large number of Europe’s bathing waters meet highest quality standards.
The text reported that in 2021 almost 85 per cent of Europe’s bathing water sites met the European Union’s most stringent “excellent” water quality standards. , ,
Three years of meat, milk and meals from Meat the Need :
Meat the Need has been feeding hungry Kiwis for three years now, providing millions of nutritious protein-based meals to families.
The charity began in early 2020 with the support of its founding partner, Silver Fern Farms.
First piloted in Canterbury, Meat the Need accepted donations of livestock from farmers. The meat was processed and packaged by Silver Fern Farms and sent to food banks in the region.
“From there, it took off. We had an overwhelming response from farmers in other regions who also wanted to donate livestock,” co-founder Wayne Langford said. . .
Prickly pine problem in iconic landscape – Jill Herron :
Getting the right tree in the right place is no mean feat in Central Otago and some believe those needing to plant pines should do it somewhere else
Nor’westers scatter pine seed across Central Otago’s rugged terrain and millions of dollars are spent removing the resulting wilding trees.
Pines are losing favour in other parts of the South Island too because of environmental concerns.
Yet huge demand for conifer seedlings is outstripping supply. . .
Contest is really a talent quest – Matthew Herbert :
The 2019 FMG Young Farmer of the Year grand final was the most tech and innovation-driven contest to date. The gruelling three-day event in Hawke’s Bay tested competitors’ fencing and machinery skills but also challenged their tech-savviness, critical business thinking and asked how they would market food and innovate for the future.
The focus on technology and agri-business skills has some farmers asking what’s happened to slugging it out with more traditional farming tasks and why contestants spend so much time on technical modules in a farming competition.
For people asking these questions I think it’s important to think about why the contest still exists and what it’s trying to achieve in 2019 and beyond.
Young Farmers membership is becoming increasingly diverse with clubs no longer being just on-farm workers but also agronomists, genetics experts, rural bankers, agricultural contractors and many other professions that make farming possible. . .
Stock trading: Why NZ farmers import and export animals – Tom Kitchin :
New Zealand’s agricultural sector has an image to uphold – internationally, our farmers and livestock have a top-class reputation.
“The advantage we have is we maintain a very good disease-free status in our livestock,” Lincoln University professor of animal breeding and genetics Jon Hickford tells The Detail.
“Our sheep and our cows don’t have diseases seen commonly elsewhere in the world. That places a premium on our livestock.”
He says the basis of the livestock trade these days is genetics – to improve breeding, both within New Zealand and offshore. . .
$70m West Coast investment to secure Westland as global dairy leader :
A major investment by West Coast dairy company Westland Milk Products will secure the company as one of the world’s leading producers of highly prized bioactive ingredients.
The $NZ70 million investment to construct a new lactoferrin plant at Westland’s Hokitika facility was announced today by Westland’s resident director, Zhiqiang Li, and company CEO Richard Wyeth.
The investment, supported by Westland’s parent company, the Yili Group, the fifth largest dairy company in the world, will more than treble production capacity of the multifunctional protein at Hokitika.
The plant upgrade follows a $40m investment which doubled consumer butter production at Hokitika, increasing global sales of the prize-winning product upon . . .