Farmer who contracted Covid-19 urges public to get vaccinated – Maja Burry:
Some farmers impacted by one of last year’s high-profile Covid-19 clusters are encouraging people to get vaccinated, no matter where they live in the country.
As the global pandemic was being declared in March last year, around 400 delegates from around the world were attending the World Hereford conference in Queenstown.
There were 39 people identified in the cluster, including Roxburgh farmer Robyn Pannett. She became very sick and is still feeling the impact of the virus – even today.
“I still have a really distorted sense of taste and smell. At the same time, my immunity is not where it was. And I am a bit more fatigued. So it has had an ongoing effect.” . .
Hopes of relocation to NZ dashed– Neal Wallace:
Raynardt van der Merwe and his family will board a plane in November and head back to South Africa, their dream of relocating to NZ eroded by the Government’s uncertain immigration policy.
A taxidermist and hunting guide based in Hawea, Central Otago, van der Merwe has been working in partnership with Glen Dene Hunting and Fishing since December 2019.
“I was reasonably confident I had a good opportunity by relocating to NZ and in fact getting a work visa and working towards residency.”
Even though he has an essential skills visa, the lack of certainty about the path to residency, meant they could not plan for a future. . .
Discovery brings replaceable closer to irreplaceable – Richard Rennie:
Making formula milk more like Mum’s could provide a means to not only improve its nutritional profile, but also prove to be a valuable formula additive in an industry with a global value of US$60 billion a year. Richard Rennie spoke to AgResearch scientists developing a component that makes infant powder almost as good as the real thing.
Working in the area of infant nutrition and formulation, AgResearch scientist Dr Caroline Thum points out much of infant formula production requires processors to take out some of milk’s best components, and then try to add them back in for the final product.
Typically, infant milk processing has bovine fatty acids replaced with non-bovine fatty acids to try and replicate the fat’s ratio, and resemblance to human fatty acids as close as possible.
That usually involves adding vegetable oils as the fat source. . .
New tech helping meat industry mitigate skills shortage :
New retail automation technology introduced by one of the country’s largest beef and lamb suppliers is helping to increase efficiency within its growing domestic business.
PrimeXConnect, an automated transaction platform designed for the meat supply chain, was first piloted by ANZCO Foods in the New Zealand market in 2019 as they sought new ways to help manage the unique nature of the domestic business model.
The system is designed to replace the traditional email and phone call based offer-and-order model that has been favoured by generations of Kiwi butchers.
The platform allows ANZCO Foods customers to place orders from the shop floor at any time from their computer, laptop or phone. The automated process then ensures that the confirmed orders are routed to the company’s distribution centres for delivery. . .
Tatua annual results for the year ended 31 July 2021:
The Tatua Board of Directors and Executive met on 30 September 2021 to consider the financial results for the 2020/21 financial year and decide on the final pay-out to our supplying shareholders.
The lingering uncertainty related to Covid-19 and the ongoing global shipping disruption continued to create challenges through the year. However, we acknowledge that many businesses and individuals have faced greater hardships, and that we are fortunate to have been able to continue to operate as we have.
We are pleased to report that the business has had a good year, achieving Group income of $395 million and earnings available for pay-out of $162 million.
Our earnings equate to $10.43 per kilogram of qualifying milksolids, before retentions for reinvestment and taxation. This is an improvement on the previous year earnings of $9.96 per kilogram of milksolids, and is a record for Tatua. . .
Farm boost with new agricultural visa signed off – Andrew Brown:
Farmers could soon have access to more workers from overseas, following the creation of a new agriculture visa.
The new visa type, which came into effect from Thursday, will allow for the entry and temporary stay in Australia of workers across primary industries.
While the final numbers of how many workers would be able to enter the country on the visa are yet to be confirmed, the first workers are expected to arrive from late 2021.
Entry to the country will be subject to quarantine arrangements and agreements with partner nations. . .
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