The coalition Government intends to improve freshwater farm plans so that they are more cost-effective and practical for farmers, Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay have announced.
“A fit-for-purpose freshwater farm plan system will enable farmers and growers to find the right solutions for their farm and catchment,” Mr Hoggard says.
“Farmers faced an avalanche of regulation under the last Government, including its national Freshwater Farm Plans system.
“Using property and catchment specific farm plans makes sense because they can be used to identify environmental risks and plan practical on-farm actions to manage those risks. . .
New Zealand has an unbalanced economy and desperately needs more exports. Kiwifruit is one of the few industries with potential to help fill the gap. ***
New Zealand’s economy is in trouble. It is not just inflation and the cost of living. It is something much more fundamental.
New Zealand has for a long time imported more than it exports. MPI data show that 80 percent of the exports come from food and fibre industries. There is no easy solution to the problem of too many imports and too few exports.
We also have a problem that New Zealand is running big deficits on international services payments. This means that the income we receive from tourists, overseas students and interest payments from overseas, is considerably less than what we currently pay out for international services. The big-ticket service expenditure items are our own international holidays, plus interest and dividend payments to overseas investors for all those previous investments they have made.
The overall foreign-exchange balance on trade in the combined categories of goods and services is called the current-account balance. If we earn more than what we spend then there is a surplus. If we earn less than what we earn there is a current-account deficit. . .
Overseas consumers have a strong interest in improving their wellbeing through eating red meat, newly published research shows; highlighting opportunities to achieve a premium for products with proven health benefits.
Crown research institute AgResearch partnered with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) to survey attitudes among red meat eaters in Australia and the United States towards physical and mental wellness related to consumption of red meat.
The United States and Australia both play crucial roles in the domestic and global red meat market, serving as major producers and exporters of red meat, and having substantial red meat consumption per capita.
When asked, more than 90 per cent of survey participants across the two countries indicated interest in purchasing red meat to improve their wellness status, while about 85 per cent indicated their willingness to pay more for red meat for potential wellness benefits. . .
Rain has fallen, but more is needed for those in the driest parts of New Zealand. Some regions still have a “late summer/early autumn” look to them despite the rain that has fallen so far this month.
El Niño has officially gone now – but autumn’s usual westerly driven weather means many may not notice an immediate change, and we’re still seeing eastern parts and northern parts of both main islands leaning drier.
Soil moisture deficit maps show the eastern half of Northland, the eastern side of Auckland, the Hauraki Plains, Coromandel Peninsula, much of Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, East Cape, Hawke’s Bay, eastern Manawatū, southern coastal Taranaki to Whanganui, Wairarapa, southern inland parts of Marlborough, and a decent chunk of Canterbury are all “thirsty”.
Some of these places are much drier than normal right now and need at least 100mm of rain (preferably not in one day!) to change things. . .
NZ Post is changing its delivery days for newspapers and parcels in rural areas of New Zealand. From 29 June 2024, there will no longer be newspaper and parcel deliveries to rural addresses on Saturdays due to commercial viability, but Monday to Friday deliveries will continue as usual.
NZ Post Chief Operating Officer Brendon Main says Saturday services to rural areas are not commercially viable.
“Today, the items delivered by NZ Post rural delivery partners on Saturday are limited to subscription newspapers, as well as some parcels. We deliver very low volumes of items on these days, and it costs us more to deliver on Saturdays than we earn from the products we deliver.”
“From 29 June 2024, NZ Post will no longer deliver newspapers and parcels on Saturdays in the majority of rural New Zealand, with the exception of 17 rural delivery runs that will be phased out by June 2025. These 17 delivery runs are in Canterbury and Waikato and are being kept in place to give our business customers more time to put alternative arrangements in place for their customers.” . .
Please don’t block roads or gateways as farmers need to access fields to keep lambs alive.
And if you ignore polite requests and good sense, they might have to take urgent action like they do up in Cumbria 😄😂
April is an exciting time of year because it means we are getting really close to Christmas.
Putting out the mānuka tinsel and anatine baubles is very much a part of my autumn, in anticipation of the joy of Christmas come the first weekend of May.
My children think it is mad, but one day they will realise that my April mirrors their December.
The start of the month is about preparation, getting the tree up and dusting off the lights, or sighting the gun again after it being in the safe for the best part of 12 months. . .
For the last twelve months I have been sitting on the sidelines, watching and listening to ongoing debates, but too distracted by my own battle with pancreatic cancer to play an active part. That battle goes on, but right now I have found the energy to step up again.
There are lots of issues I would like to discuss, but I have decided to start with carbon farming, where big decisions are needed right now.
Although this is my first post for a year, I did step out during that year on two occasions with oral presentations about carbon farming, one to Hurunui Landcare Group back in June while on a short break from chemo, and again in late August to the Carbon Forestry Conference in Rotorua. In both presentations I said that carbon farming regulations were a mess, and we needed to do better.
The starting point is to acknowledge why carbon farming will be increasingly important in New Zealand. The key reason is that New Zealand has agreed at the United Nations as part of the Paris Agreement that we will, by 2050, reach zero net emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases. . .
The big dairy co-op Fonterra had some Christmas cheer to offer its farmers this week, increasing its forecast farmgate milk price and earnings guidance for the year after what it calls a strong start to the year.
The forecast midpoint for the 2023/24 season is up 25cs to $7.50 per kgMS, with the forecast range moving from $6.50-$8.00 per kgMS to $7.00-$8.00 per kgMS.
Some of the co-op’s suppliers may think the forecast could have been lifted still further because demand from China is said to be improving but the co-op believes a cautious approach is in order at this point in the season.
Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell says the revised forecast reflects recent strengthening in demand for reference commodity products from key importing regions, including improvement in demand from China during the first quarter. . .
"Agriculture/farming is perceived to be one of the most satisfying sectors to work in but comes in fourth as one of the hardest places to work" 👇https://t.co/6NwOl0knJq
New Zealand’s dairy industry, the mainstay of the country’s export trade, has been under pressure from rising costs. Down on the farm, this has been hitting hard.
But there was more positive news this week, first from the latest Fonterra GDT auction where prices rose, and then from a report that demand from China for dairy imports will continue to expand over the next decade.
At the latest auction, the GDT price index lifted 1.6% with the average price rising to $US3,323. The quantity sold reached 29,550(M/T). Whole Milk Powder, which is the product influencing the payout to NZ farmers, rose 2.1% to $US3,104.
Of the other products sold, cheddar had the biggest increase, rising 9.7% to $US3,986. Butter moved up marginally (0.7%) to $U$4,936 and skim milk powder lifted 1.2% to $US2,671. . .
Fire and Emergency is reminding people bailing hay this season to take their time, to make sure the job is done right.
National Wildfire Manager Tim Mitchell says currently conditions are challenging for hay making.
“The frequent rain and overcast conditions we are seeing in many areas of the country is making it difficult to get good drying between cutting and bailing of hay,” says Tim Mitchell.
“If hay is too moist when bailed there is heightened risk the haystack could spontaneously combust. . .
More than 400 heifers and cows in two southern beef herds are wearing new electronic ear tags to monitor their behaviour as part of a trial. Shawn McAvinue talks to Fossil Creek Angus Stud co-owners Blair and Jane Smith about being part of the trial and its potential to uncover production efficiencies, including the best time to put a bull out.
A new trial on beef herds on southern farms will hopefully shed light on when heifers are being rebred for their second calf, North Otago beef breeders Blair and Jane Smith say.
CowManager wearable cow-monitoring systems were being trialled on two southern beef herds as part of Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s programme, Informing New Zealand Beef.
CowManager electronic ear tags had been attached to 160 yearling heifers and 70 2-year-old cows on the Smith’s Fossil Creek Angus Stud near Five Forks in North Otago and 126 yearling heifers and 54 2-year-old cows on Pāmu’s Kepler Farm near Manapouri, Western Southland, which hosts the Beef + Lamb Genetics Beef Progeny Test. . .
Appointing an Australian minister for food and establishing a food council are some of the ways the nation could improve food security, the Australian Parliament’s agriculture committee has found.
A year-long inquiry released its findings this week, after examining ways to strengthen and safeguard Australia’s food security, focusing on production, supply chains, and key inputs as well as climate change, biosecurity, and food insecurity.
Committee chair, Meryl Swanson, said it was the most substantial inquiry into Australia’s food systems in a decade.
“We talked to farmers, food tech people who are involved in science and soil [and many more fields], and we’ve come up with 35 very solid recommendations to address food security in our country,” she said. . .
The new Government have set out a clear and credible plan to get farming back on track and restore farmer confidence, says Federated Farmers President Wayne Langford.
“The last six years have been incredibly challenging for farmers and rural communities with a lot of impractical and expensive regulation. Farmer confidence is at record lows,” Langford says.
In the lead up to the election Federated Farmers released a rural roadmap with 12 policy priorities for the next Government that return some positivity to farming and get things back on track.
“The politicians have clearly sat up and taken notice, because the new Government have comprehensively adopted those policy priorities as their own. . .
“That wage requirement is simply untenable for the mostly entry-level farm assistant migrant staff needed to plug dairy workforce gaps,” Federated Farmers dairy chair Richard McIntyre says.
The result is that farmers who can’t find New Zealanders to fill roles in a tight domestic labour market, and who are desperate to relieve pressure on already over-stretched existing staff, are forced to pay way over the odds for the entry-level migrant worker.
This undermines the financial viability of the business in a climate of high input costs and lower milk payouts, McIntyre says. . .
Honest Wolf, a company producing wool-based luggage and accessories, has won the NZI Rural Women NZ Business Supreme Award.
It’s the first time the top award has been given to the winner of the Emerging Business category.
Hunterville-based Sophie and Sam Hurley started Honest Wolf in 2020 as a way to combat declining wool prices.
“This year we have seen the businesses that were created or were forced to pivot and evolve during the 2020 lockdown period really coming into their own now,” national president Gill Naylor said. . .
Zespri has released its November forecast for the 2023/24 season, with Green, Organic Green and RubyRed per tray returns forecast at record levels, and Zespri SunGold varieties well up on last season.
Green is a particular standout, with the latest forecast Green per tray returns at a record level of $9.00. This compares to last season’s final Orchard Gate Return (OGR) of $5.78 per tray. For Zespri Organic Green, the forecast per tray is at $12.00, up from last season’s final OGR of $8.68.
For Zespri RubyRed, the OGR per tray is forecast at $26.10, above last season’s final OGR of $22.27. Forecast SunGold Kiwifruit returns are at $12.35, well above last season’s final OGR of $9.97, and forecast returns for Organic SunGold are also up at $14.15. The November forecast returns are up across all categories on the August forecast mainly due to improved fruit quality this season.
Zespri CEO Dan Mathieson says the results reflect the strong and growing demand for Zespri Kiwifruit, as well as the huge effort the industry has put into improving fruit quality this year. . .
An innovative tourism business located in Katikati, the Avocado Capital of New Zealand, is breaking new ground by offering tours of a working avocado orchard, the first-of-its-kind in New Zealand.
Co-founded by Tim Rosamond and Michele Ricou, Avocado Tours offers visitors a unique opportunity to step into the world of avocados and discover the journey from tree to toast.
With avocado consumption on the rise and the increasing popularity of this delicious and nutritious fruit, Avocado Tours NZ aims to provide an informative and enjoyable experience for avocado enthusiasts and curious travellers alike. The guided tours offer a firsthand look at the workings of a fully operational avocado orchard.
“Our goal is to introduce visitors to the fascinating world of avocados and showcase the beauty and wonder of an avocado orchard,” says co-founder Tim. “We want to provide an educational and unforgettable experience that will leave our guests with a deeper appreciation for this incredible fruit.” . .
Sheep and dogs. My young bloke contract musters and has an eye for good photos. pic.twitter.com/f1sYxes9O9
An historic agreement was signed today between a pioneering innovator in seaweed, and Crown Research Institute AgResearch.
AgResearch signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Paeroa-based AgriSea with the promise of benefit for the primary sector and prosperous agribusinesses and communities.
Guests included Coromandel MP Scott Simpson, who reflected on his own farming grandparents’ time when milking sheds were built next to streams for easy effluent disposal, and farmers “farmed with a matchbox”.
“That didn’t make them bad people or bad farmers, that was just the commonly accepted practice of the day,” Simpson said. “We’ve learnt a lot along the way, and some of the things we used to do, we wouldn’t dream of doing today. . .
Teams and individuals whose talents and toil help New Zealand’s farmers, foresters and fishers thrive, and what they produce foot it in intensely competitive international marketplaces, were honoured at the 2023 Primary Industries New Zealand Awards tonight.
The awards evening is a highlight of the fifth annual PINZ Summit, with winners from 65 nominations across nine award categories announced at Tākina, Wellington’s new Convention and Exhibition Centre.
A mark of the fact that science and research so often underpins solutions to gnarly environmental, climate and production challenges is that AgResearch personnel took out three of the coveted trophies.
The Science & Research Award went to the AgResearch Endophyte Discovery Team for their world-leading development and commercialisation of strains of ryegrass with improved insect protection and plant persistence, coupled with fewer adverse effects on animal health. . .
It’s the crack of dawn just after the roar and three hunters and their dogs are sidling along a ridge on the edge of a forest.
Mist cloaks the valley below and in the distance is the sacred maunga, Hikurangi.
Lisa, Matt and 16-year-old Sam are stalking deer on Puketoro Station, one of Tairāwhiti’s landmark sheep and beef stations on the edge of the Raukumara Range.
They’re there not only for the thrill of the hunt but also to stock the region’s food banks which are under heavy demand in the cyclone-ravaged region. . .
While the government scrambles to develop methane-mitigating tools for farmers, the private sector is drumming up its own solutions.
New Zealand researchers are working to develop methane inhibitors and vaccines for cows, sheep and deer to reduce agricultural emissions.
It comes as the government announced at Fieldays a joint industry investment of $17.7 million to go towards the construction of a new purpose-built greenhouse gas testing facility.
But American animal health multinational Alltech is already years into its New Zealand study of how a cow’s diet impacts its methane output – with its yeast culture feed products being tested on 60 artificial cows in an Auckland laboratory. . .
A little known law of demand in economics explains why countries export their best produce
Once you see it, you see it everywhere.
Married couples who’ve left the kids at home with a sitter go out to nicer restaurants than childless couples who have the same income.
If you’re travelling abroad and looking across the wine aisle, there’s a lot less price difference between top-tier and mid-tier wine than you’d find here at home. You might be more inclined to pay the smaller bit extra.
And the best New Zealand produce is often destined for export markets. . .
With just $5.5bn invested annually, agricultural R&D can reduce hunger and increase per capita incomes, making it one of the best investments humanity can make
One of humanity’s biggest achievements in the last century was a huge increase in food production. From 1900 to 2000, there was a six-fold increase in crop harvests, while the global population increased less than fourfold, meaning that on average, people today have about 50% more food available than their great, great grandparents.
Most of the increase in production came from farmers growing more food from each hectare of land. The extraordinary progress is due to the Green Revolution that turbocharged modern inputs for farming.
It has been estimated that Nobel peace prize-winning agronomist Norman Borlaug, who spearheaded the intensification of modern farming methods, saved more than 1-billion lives from hunger. As well as feeding people, the Green Revolution made societies far richer. And, as agriculture becomes more efficient, people are freed from back-breaking labour and are able to engage in a far broader range of productive activities.
The Green Revolution was an extraordinary achievement. However, the world needs a second Green Revolution to extend the benefits to the world’s poorest and reduce global hunger. . .
Cheese exports rose $763 million (35 percent) in the 12 months to May 2023, compared with the previous year reaching $3.0 billion, according to figures released by Stats NZ.
Over the same period, cheese quantities exported rose 6.9 percent, and the average price per kilogram rose 26 percent.
“Cheese has become an even more valuable export for New Zealand over the last year, reflecting the higher prices that are being experienced globally,” international trade manager Al Allen said.
Cheddar cheese made up 43 percent of total cheese exported or $1.3 billion and was the top category of cheese exported in the year to May 2023. Fresh cheese (mainly mozzarella and cream cheese) made up 18 percent ($528 million), and grated or powdered cheese made up 15 percent ($456 million) of the total. . .
Increasing protectionism, export market red tape, a loss of social licence and an increase in farm subsidies overseas mean the primary industry faces trade challenges not seen since 1995, says Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy secretary, trade and economic Vangelis Vitalis.
Speaking at the Side South Island dairy event, Vitalis said primary industry trade, but especially dairy, had “golden weather” from 1995 until about 2017.
But the trade conditions that created that period had slowly deteriorated, he said.
After the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was established in 1995 any of its 164 member countries could take another member to a court in Geneva if they believed trade rules were breached, he said. . .
Research First’s latest public perceptions trend figures put farmers and growers at the top of the board, with the highest proportion reporting their perceptions have become more positive in the last three years compared with other NZ industries.
Digging deeper into the livestock side of the sector also shows some positive results:
Three quarters of people trust farmers to properly care for their animals; only 11% have a level of distrust.
Three quarters of people rated the welfare of animals in the major activity types of dairy, sheep and beef as ‘good’ or ‘very good’.
Supermarket shortages eggsplain why chickens are at the bottom of the chart. The phasing out of battery cages and the subsequent supermarket duopoly decision against colony cages put egg producers and, by relation, poultry farmers into the media spotlight. . .
Amid concerns about a growing rural-urban divide, a snapshot from @ResearchFirstNZ shows that three quarters of people rated the welfare of farmed animals in dairy, sheep and beef farming as ‘good’ or ‘very good’; while trust in farmers on welfare is also high … /2 pic.twitter.com/rwKXLw7FQv
Farming groups have concerns about incoming freshwater farm plans – as new regulation seeks to reduce the impact farming has on the country’s waterways.
The government released the long awaited freshwater farm plan timeframes earlier this month.
Farmers and growers will need a freshwater farm plan if they have 20 hectares or more in arable or pastoral use, five hectares or more in horticultural use, or 20 hectares in combined use.
Waikato and Southland farmers will be first in line – and have 18 months from 1 August to submit their freshwater farm plans. . .
The wind on the top of the ridge separating the plains of the Maniototo from the Ida Valley can knock an adult to their knees, but the view will surely get them right back up again. In the crisp winter air, and 80 kilometres to the west, are the improbably spiky peaks of The Remarkables, clearly visible like a jagged fringe on the horizon. Mt Aspiring, even further north and some distance west of Lake Wānaka, punches into the skyline with a determinedly pointy fist. Two valleys over, at the southern end of the Dunstan Mountains, is Leaning Rock, through the ages a valuable sentinel for travellers to the vast spaces of Central Otago. And to the northeast are the Kakanui and Hawkdun Ranges; directly to the east is the Rock and Pillar Range.
This is the boundless vista from John Falconer’s boundary fence, tracing several kilometres along the top of the well-named Rough Ridge. John is the third generation of his family to farm this land. Grandfather Laurie Falconer returned from World War II with only one arm and succeeded in a ballot for land south of where John is today. When an opportunity arose to purchase land with two streams and a water right, Laurie moved his family to the current farm. On this land — with Stoney Creek at the southern end and Waitoi Creek at the north — Laurie bred hereford cattle and merino sheep. John’s father, Charles, continued the stud operations and, in the late 1980s, added deer to the farming business before suffering a debilitating stroke. His son John, then aged 23, was in North America working on elk properties and intending to spend his autumns as a hunting guide. John came home to take over. . .
The Tech Users Association (TUANZ) supports a call for high-quality connectivity to be prioritised by the Government as a core utility, a newly published report says.
“The last few years have shown that high-quality connectivity has real value and is an essential need in today’s world. If there was any lingering doubt, the significant weather events of early 2023 made it clear that we need to invest in resilient connectivity for our rural communities,” says Craig Young, CEO, TUANZ.
“While the vast majority of urban NZ have been able to carry on without missing a beat, regional and rural NZ users have had mixed experiences at best or had to deal with being disconnected for significant periods.
“As we head into a period of infrastructure rebuild in large parts of the motu, we need to ensure that the lessons in resiliency we have learned this year are not forgotten. It is not simply a case of rebuilding what was there before, we must build back better.” . .
Sobering stats from @lindy_nelson_ at the @SaferFarms farm without harm launch: -At least one person every four weeks dies on our farms -Sixty people a week, 237.5 a month are seriously injured -Five children a week are harmed on our farms Time for changehttps://t.co/WNzRl4lZQh
The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are thrilled to welcome CowManager as a new national sponsor, with the partnership solidifying CowManager’s commitment to support New Zealand farmers in working towards a sustainable and successful future for their business.
“We are thrilled to have CowManager on board. They’re one of the biggest and best players in the field of cow monitoring systems here in NZ and are a preferred supplier to a lot of NZ farmers,” say Robin Congdon, General Manager of NZDIA “We welcome them to the NZDIA National Sponsor family and look forward to working with them to showcase new innovations and technology to the New Zealand dairy industry.”
The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, with a rich history spanning 34 years, is a renowned program that drives best practices and fosters advancements in the dairy industry. It features over 60 events, engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including dairy farmers, rural professionals, rural businesses, and the wider rural communities, with over 6,000 participants.
CowManager is a revolutionary ear sensor cow monitoring system, active in over 40 countries and committed to give farmers as well as their herds the best life possible. It’s the only cow monitoring system to successfully measure ear temperature combined with behaviour along with measurements of activity, rumination and eating time. Giving farmers actionable insights on the fertility, health, and nutrition of their cows so they can run their business proactively, rather than reactively. . .
It’s the exhaustion, the lack of fight, that is most obvious to Dr Shane Reti when he meets with his former rural general practitioner colleagues.
The National Party’s health spokesperson is unequivocal when he says the health system is in crisis, saying he is reiterating what those at the coal face tell him.
Reti, who worked as a rural GP in Northland, said not only is there a shortage of rural health professionals, but those working there are exhausted, they don’t feel valued and are underfunded. . .
The devastating flood events that bowled through Northland, Te Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay offer no upsides for the regions’ primary producers but may yet provide some valuable insights on how best to manage future events’ impacts upon highly productive land and production.
AgResearch scientist Dr Alec Mackay is working alongside scientist Dan Bloomer and Alex Dickson of LandWISE.
The project they are co-ordinating aims to provide growers with advice about stabilising and restoring impacted sites and, secondly, establish baselines to support a longitudinal study of site recovery to build soils back better to increase land resilience to mitigate future events.
“In the week following the cyclone, Dan reached out to AgResearch, Massey University and Plant and Food Research looking for information on past flooding events to put up on the LandWISE’s website for landowners to consider what was best to do with eroded surfaces or sediment,” Mackay said. . .
Zespri has confirmed challenging weather events throughout the 2023 growing season have contributed to a lower-than-expected New Zealand kiwifruit crop this season.
The latest New Zealand crop estimate indicates that Zespri now expects to export around 136 million trays of Green, SunGold and RubyRed Kiwifruit to more than 50 countries this season. This is down from the 171 million trays supplied in 2022, with this season’s crop potentially reducing even further as orchard assessments are completed following April’s hail event in Te Puke.
Zespri CEO Dan Mathieson says it’s been an extremely challenging growing season in New Zealand, with growers affected by multiple severe weather events.
“Like many others in the primary industries around the world, kiwifruit growers have faced a particularly tough time this growing season, including many weather-related challenges. . .
Morning New Zealand Southland has sunshine and grass and a little bit of mud all is good in the world pic.twitter.com/FmRpTTA44L
OVER THE PAST decade, the disease management agency OSPRI has been edging closer to eliminating bovine tuberculosis (TB) from New Zealand.
At the start of 2023, fewer than 30 herds had TB infections, a far cry from the 1990s when the number was close to 1700 herds.
Pest management is a major part of the TBfree programme. Aerial and ground control are the main form of control for possums, the main TB spreader. While much progress has been made, elimination is still in sight.
An example of how the eradication programme is working can be seen in the upper South Island high country of Molesworth Station and the neighbouring Muzzle and Bluff Stations. With recent 1080 aerial operations, farmers in the area are feeling positive that their properties may soon be clear of TB. . .
New Zealand Apples and Pears is welcoming the Government’s support to clean up orchards but is calling on the government to urgently talk to growers as they recover and rebuild following the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle.
“We simply want some clarity from the Government. We don’t expect all the answers but we are currently operating in an information vacuum,” chairman Richard Punter said.
Ministers have delayed releasing any information until they get a report from the recently established Hawkes Bay Recovery Agency.
“But while they wait, growers have no answers or clarity. This lack of clarity is taking its toll. They can’t continue living in an environment and running businesses with no certainty.
Mr Punter said the impact of the cyclone is now extending to the Hawke’s Bay economy. . .
Analysis finds the carbon footprint of cultivated meat is likely to be higher than beef if current production methods are scaled up because they are still highly energy-intensive.
Meat produced from cultured cells could be 25 times worse for the climate than regular beef unless scientists find ways to overhaul energy-intensive steps in its production.
Lab-grown or “cultivated” meat is made by growing animal stem cells around a scaffold in a nutrient-rich broth. It has been proposed as a kinder and greener alternative to traditional meat because it uses less land, feed, water and antibiotics than animal farming and removes the need to farm and slaughter livestock, …
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. , ,
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. . .
Did you know that New Zealand dairy farmers have the lowest carbon footprint per litre of milk in the world? 🥛
This was confirmed in a study carried out by @AgResearchNEWS in 2021 commissioned by @DairyNZ.
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. . .
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. . .
Time for these girls to head home for the winter, nice wee afternoon walk for them on a stunning day. pic.twitter.com/Xhk9jE7C6Q
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 . . .
“The recent flooding in Auckland, Northland and the Bay of Plenty has caused chaos and has put people, homes and businesses at risk. It has also decimated huge crops of fruit and vegetables at a time when we are already paying significantly more than we were a year ago,” says Vanessa Winning, Chief Executive of Irrigation New Zealand.
“This disaster demonstrates the need for New Zealand to better mitigate the impacts of climate change – and water management is a significant part of this.
“Water capture and storage is a proven way to reduce the destructive effects of flooding by regulating the water flow and volume into vulnerable areas. Drawing on water from storage also supports food production. The more volatility in the climate, the more we need resilience in water infrastructure.
“The reform of New Zealand’s Resource Management Act (RMA) gives us an opportunity to prioritise water infrastructure as part of our climate change response. . .
Dr Jacqueline Rowarth takes a closer look at the debate surrounding the effect synthetic nitrogen fertiliser has on health.
Over half of the people reading background information supplied to them in a Greenpeace Horizon Poll released last week supported phasing out synthetic nitrogen.
“Some scientific research shows that pollution from the increase in synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and the rise in dairy cow numbers has degraded the water quality of New Zealand rivers and lakes. Medical researchers also say that nitrate contamination of drinking water is linked to increased risk of bowel cancer and preterm birth.” . .
In its recent research, the @RiddetIns found that plant-based beverages provide only a fraction of the nutrients found in cow’s milk. The environmental effect of replacing milk protein with plant-based beverages was also considered. More at: https://t.co/B5bhQUuITq… 2/3
As Prof Warren McNabb of @RiddetIns stated: "the argument for the alternatives being more environmentally sustainable…did not stack up when considered in the light of how much product would need to be consumed to achieve the same nutritional benefits as conventional milk"
Online auctions for chickens have attracted double the usual number of clicks in recent weeks, amid a nationwide egg shortage.
Supermarket shelves have been empty and there are limits on how many cartons customers can buy.
And it could be months before the shortage eases.
It’s the end result of a few different things: a 10-year transition away from battery cages; the decision by the big supermarket chains to go completely cage-free; and supply chain issues borne of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. . .
Last summer it was drought. Now floods have ravaged crops in Pukekohe, and growers warn vegetable price hikes are the likely result.
Shon Fong said Friday’s deluge was the worst rain he had seen before. His family business, AH Gorn & Sons, had been based in the area since the 1950s.
“It was continuous for 24 hours and the ground just couldn’t take it,” Fong said.
His fields had lines gouged out of the soil by flood waters. Fong said onions, which had been harvested and left in the open to dry, were left strewn across the paddocks and an adjoining road. . .
The cycle of environmental damage caused by plantation forestry operations must stop. It is time to rein in damaging planting and harvesting practices with a fundamental reset of the rules that govern the sector.
Increasing frequencies of severe storm events that mobilise massive quantities of slash and sediment, combined with higher public expectations of environmental performance, mean that large-scale clear-felling of exotic forests is no longer tenable or acceptable in many areas.
Recent pictures from Tairāwhiti are shocking. The devastation inflicted on land and homes, and the swathes of marine life dead on log-strewn coastlines, are deeply distressing to see. It is a major environmental disaster and points to a serious failure of public policy. It requires more than the provision of ad hoc financial assistance to those affected, and for an environmental clean-up.
Forestry Minister Stuart Nash appears to have accepted that an inquiry focused on land resilience on the East Coast is required. That decision was made after repeated calls from the Environmental Defence Society (EDS), and from the Gisborne District Council, Federated Farmers and thousands of locals via a petition. The forest industry itself even belatedly agreed. . .
Rohan and Ellie Watson could not be prouder about having worms — millions of them.
Their farm has just taken on 18 extra truckloads of hermaphrodite invertebrates to keep up with demand from Bunnings, councils and community groups.
In 2014 Mr Watson, a carpenter, and his kindergarten teacher wife were working in outback Cloncurry when his uncle posed a question that would change the course of their lives.
“I was down on holidays and he came and said to me, ‘What are you doing when you finish out west?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know’ and he said, ‘Do you want to come and grow worms?’ Mr Watson said. . .
New Zealand’s red meat processing and exporting sector is urging the Government to make changes to its agricultural emissions pricing proposal.
The Meat Industry Association (MIA) rejects the Government’s proposed interim processor-level levy, wants changes to the emissions price-setting process, proper recognition for genuine sequestration happening on New Zealand’s sheep and beef farms, and levy relief for those farmers disproportionately impacted by emissions pricing.
“The red meat sector has a role to play in addressing climate change and we support an approach to pricing that would reduce emissions but not at the expense of massive production losses and hurting rural communities,” says Nathan Guy, chairman of MIA.
“The He Waka Eke Noa Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership’s recommended proposal was carefully calibrated to ensure that disproportionate impacts were minimised across sectors, particularly for the sheep and beef industry. . .
And that should come as music to the ears of strong wool growers, as the Wanaka businesswoman — co-founder of Wilson and Dorset with her husband, Ben Wilson — is a passionate advocate for the fibre.
For 16 years, the couple have made sheepskin furnishings, having spied an opportunity to do something “cool” with New Zealand sheepskins.
Having been looking to buy a sheepskin, she found it hard to find a suitable one. “Some fleeces may as well have been synthetic, they were so over-processed,” she recalled. . .
A big week at #Mangara Station as we mustered all the #Ezicalve cows and calves through the yards for their pre-mating selenium, copper, BVD booster and mating mob recording. Big country, hard work and loving it! pic.twitter.com/kntiPtXgX9
If tractor sales are the barometer of success for Fieldays exhibitors this week, then adoring throngs gathered are the equivalent for politicians.
I’ve been a regular attendee at Fieldays since the mid-90s, meaning I’veseen Jim Bolger, Jenny Shipley, Helen Clark, John Key, Bill English and Jacinda Ardern come and go. And it would be fair to say that only two of those prime ministers, past and present, have enjoyed rock star status at Mystery Creek.
I fondly (sort of, if you excuse the fog diversion from Hamilton airport), remember picking up a fellow stranded traveller for the drive down to the ‘Tron from Auckland. It must have been about 2012 or 2013, because David Shearer was the then leader of the Labour Party.
Like me, and any number of other passengers who were diverted to Auckland, he needed to make his way to Fieldays. We had a rental car. He was (in true egalitarian Labour fashion) going to take a bus. We had a spare seat. I insisted he hitch a ride. He obliged and we thoroughly enjoyed his company, even stopping to broadcast our midday radio show on the side of the road somewhere near Huntly. . .
Today Minister Little announced action planned by the Government to provide pay parity for health workers. In his statement he made two conflicting statements:
“The Government is committed to ensuring health workers are paid fairly and receive parity with others doing the same or similar work, especially given the current cost of living pressures workers and their families are under”,
and then in the next breath,
“However, I have to be clear that this package will not mean significant change immediately for those working in GP practices.” . .
When deer scientist Geoff Asher and colleague Jason Archer suggested collecting milk samples from milk hinds for a research project at AgResearch’s campus at Invermay near Dunedin, some were sceptical but they found a way to make it work. Now, decades later, deer milk (tia miraka) is not only harvested routinely, it’s a key component of high-value cosmetics.
“We got a lot of commentary thrown at us, ‘I hope you get a new set of teeth soon because you will get your current ones kicked out!’, and various things like that,” Asher says.
“It was kind of considered in the very, very hard basket but we were not been daunted by that. Sometimes you just need determination and a touch of stupidity.”
Invermay recently celebrated 50 years of deer farming science by AgResearch and its predecessors, always in partnership with the deer industry and farmers. The research on lactation was typical of their studies, which included major advances in understanding deer nutrition, health, behaviour and genetics and the development of products such as venison, velvet and milk that are exported around the world. . .
A prime cattle grazing block once owned by a former New Zealand dairy industry leader and one of the Hauraki Plains’ earliest farming founders has been placed on the market for sale.
One of the titles in this 81.6-hectare block at Kopuarahi was owned by former dairy industry leader Sir William Hale who not only represented New Zealand’s farming sector on the world stage for its meat and diary products, but also ensured the industry was in a healthy state domestically.
Born in Thames in 1883, William Hale left school at an early age, and took up farming work at Puriri, before he drew a property allocation at Kopuarahi in the first land ballot in 1910. William Hale lived on the same farm until his death in 1968, being the only person of the first ballot to be still living on his property at the time of his death.
William Hale’s long associations with Hauraki Plains local body affairs commenced in 1914 and he served for 18-years as a member of the Thames Hospital Board, 13 of these being chairman. In 1916 he became a director of the Thames Valley Co-operative Dairy Company. . .
Masterton farmer and Beef + Lamb NZ councillor Paul Crick says there’s a fundamental unfairness in the government’s interpretation of He Waka Eke Noa, one that conflicts with its own policy goals.
“Reading the ‘Fit for a Better World’ policy document, in Damien O’Connor’s foreword he writes how its aim is to build a more productive, sustainable and inclusive food and fibre sector. That appears a lot throughout the document, ensuring a better future for farmers and growers. How then do we throw that lens over what we heard on HWEN this week?”
Crick said there is a fundamental unfairness in the removal of the ability to sequester methane against farm vegetation, and in ignoring the 1.4 million hectares of woody vegetation already growing on NZ drystock farms that could be applied.
“It seems they are saying on one hand we will take it, and on the other we will take it as well. There is no balancing of the ledger there.” . . .
Paki Nikora, a trustee of Te Urewera-based Tātaiwhetu Trust, says he can’t fathom why farmers continue to be blamed for the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“Mēnā tātou ka whakaaro i te wā ka pā mai te mate uruta kia tātou, ka makere mai ngā ēropereina i te rangi, ka makere mai ngā motuka i ngā huarahi ka mārama te kitea atu i te taiao ki te whare rā anō o te atua. Kei te whakapae rātou nā ngā kau kē te hē. (If we think back to when the covid pandemic hit us and the planes were grounded and cars were off the roads, it was clear to see the improvement in the environment. But they still want to blame the cows.)
He describes the government’s emissions reduction scheme is a “senseless tax” on the industry.
“Kāore au i te mārama he aha rātou e huri mai nei ki te tāke i a tātou whenua. He mahi moni noa tērā.” (I don’t know why they keep trying to tax us on our whenua. It’s just a plain money grab) . .
Going from the laboratory to the family dinner table, a multi-year research programme looked into the relative nutritional benefits of grass-fed beef and lamb, and plant-based alternatives. Annette Scott found out why grass is so great.
A New Zealand research programme has found pasture-raised beef and lamb beats both grain-fed beef and plant-based alternatives when it comes to health and wellbeing benefits for consumers.
The four-year programme brought together researchers from AgResearch, the Riddet Institute and the University of Auckland and included two ground-breaking clinical trials to look at the impact of red meat on the diet.
The clinical trials assessed the physical effects on the body from eating beef or lamb raised on grass, grain-fed beef and plant-based alternatives, and looked at measurements of wellbeing such as satisfaction, sleep and stress levels. . . .
A prototype for New Zealand’s first sustainable, land-based salmon farm is in the early stages of development, with backing from the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) fund.
SFF Futures is committing $6.7 million over six years to the $16.7 million project, which was officially launched in Twizel today. Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker attended the launch and visited the freshwater salmon farms to hear about Mt Cook Alpine Salmon’s plans for building the prototype.
“Demand for healthy, sustainably produced aquaculture products continues to grow, and land-based salmon farming will enable New Zealand to boost the supply of this high-quality, high-value product,” says Steve Penno, MPI’s director of investment programmes.
Mr Penno says the project aligns with the Government’s aquaculture strategy, which outlines a sustainable growth pathway to an additional $3 billion in annual revenue. . .
Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited today revised the forecast for its 2022/23 New Zealand milk collections to 1,480 million kilograms of milk solids (kgMS), down from its previous forecast of 1,495 million kgMS.
Fonterra last reduced its 2022/23 milk collections forecast in early September. Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell says this was due to weather conditions in parts of New Zealand causing a slow start to the season. . . .
My Food Bag has released its latest meal kit offering to enable Kiwi foodies the opportunity to recreate dishes featured on Three’s new programme, Nadia’s Farm.
My Food Bag is a proud sponsor of Nadia’s Farm, an unfiltered look at Nadia and her husband Carlos as they re-establish Royalburn Station, airing Wednesday nights on Three and ThreeNow.
Bringing the fresh and high quality ingredients seen on television direct to Kiwi kitchens, My Food Bag is releasing meal kits inspired by meals seen on Nadia’s Farm and has launched a farm shop filled with products from Royalburn Station, and other boutique New Zealand suppliers.
Jo Mitchell, Chief Customer Officer of My Food Bag, says supporting Nadia’s Farmis a way to celebrate the best of New Zealand food and what happens on the farm to make that possible for us. . .
Has the Ardern government just shot itself in the foot?
Despite its poll ratings slipping in recent months, it nourished hopes of returning to power next year. But its “world-first” policy to cut greenhouse gases with farm-level pricing, effectively making 20% of NZ’s sheep and beef farms uneconomic, could result in it bleeding votes in most of the regional electorates it won in 2020.
The unpalatable truth is just dawning on the country: cutting agricultural emissions means cutting food and fibre output. And that means slashing the export income on which NZ depends.
Clearly the Cabinet ministers adopting the policy announced yesterday believed they could “sell” it on the basis that NZ would be leading the world, in cutting agricultural emissions. . .
The government’s response to the primary sector’s He Waka Eke Noa proposal fails to meet the partnership’s fairness test, according to the group’s programme director.
Kelly Forster said of particular concern is the government’s rejection of He Waka Eke Noa’s (HWEN) proposed involvement in setting the emissions price, its priorities in how the price is set and the tightening in the classes of vegetation recognised in sequestering carbon.
“We don’t think it has met the sector’s fairness test,” Forster said.
“What the sector put forward we felt was a good balance. This shifts the balance away from what the sector thinks is fair.” . .
We have the sort of logic only the Prime Minister can use when she largely isn’t on top of the subject she is talking about.
She tells us that farmers will benefit by leading the world once the Government’s new “tax farmers more to save the world” scheme gets under way. Small news flash, we already lead the world.
It’s been a good trick. You create the problem, in this case farming emissions.
You then tell farmers you’re going to tax them and farmers get upset. Farmers are lucky because they are the backbone economy so have political heft. So the Government pretends to acquiesce and say “okay no ETS for you, let’s have a special plan, and you can tell us what it is.” . .
Right I'm done with trying to explain food production today, here's some colour for you all, eat Tulips eh. 🤔 They'll peak next weekend. pic.twitter.com/V9wV09EeIS
Invercargill MP and National Party Associate Spokesperson for Agriculture Penny Simmonds describes the Government’s recently released emissions plan as another kick in the guts for farmers, one which she claims threatens the future of farming in the South.
The Emissions Plan, released yesterday, has seen the Government accept most of the recommendations from the He Waka Eke Noa partnership, including a farm-level split-gas approach to emissions pricing.
“I’m deeply concerned at the implications of the Government’s proposals, which will effectively price farming off the market for a large number of people within the sector and risk leaving our rural communities in despair,” Simmonds says.
She says that while there has to be change, New Zealand farmers are already the most carbon efficient in the world and no other country has imposed a carbon tax on its agriculture sector. . .
AgResearch scientists say they’ve managed to breed sheep that produce less methane while still producing good quality meat.
NZ has been a world leader in the recent development of breeding sheep that belch out less methane – a relatively short-lived but potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
The latest progress stems from more than a decade of research by AgResearch scientists, supported by the industry through the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRc) and Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics, as well as the Government via the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC).
The result is sheep that naturally emit less methane as a product of their digestion and it is believed this trait can be bred for and passed down through generations. . .
Just some random farming pictures from the last couple of days….make the most of them because if this government gets it's way they will be a thing of the past. pic.twitter.com/HRUTvmGZvf
Federated Farmers and the Ministry of Social Development are pleased to announce another round of support for the “Get Kiwis on Farm” project, one of the government’s most successful worker placement COVID initiatives.
The initiative started in 2020 and to date has helped 605 people get jobs in farming.
MSD Industry Partnerships provides $323,000 of funding for 100 ‘starter kits’, to get the right gear in the hands of wannabe farm workers, and it also goes towards support with recruitment and pastoral care for those people.
New recruits get free farm and wet weather gear from Northland-based Kaiwaka Clothing, aimed to make them feel comfortable from their first day at work on the farm. Affording the right clothing was identified as a barrier for young people looking to work in farming. . .
Wellbeing, Maniototo farmer Emma Crutchley reckons, begins with mindset.
Ms Crutchley is a third-generation farmer on Puketoi Station near Ranfurly. A qualified agronomist from Lincoln University, she spent nearly six years working as a rural professional before coming home to the family farm.
Despite enjoying her childhood on the farm which is relatively remote, she found returning in her late 20s to be quite a culture shock.
“I had been away at boarding school, university and then lived in towns and central Wellington when I was working as an agronomist. It was actually really tough when I came home; trying to find my place and especially as a young female, the weekend sports on offer weren’t really what I was into.” . .
AgResearch is applying to conduct field trials in Australia for its genetically modified high metabolised energy ryegrass.
AgResearch farm systems scientist Robyn Dynes told a Farmax panel discussing how to match consumer expectation with farm business realities that recent United States trials confirmed the promise shown in the laboratory by high ME ryegrass.
The genetically modified grass grows at twice the rate of conventional ryegrass, stores more energy, has greater drought tolerance and reduces by up to 23% the methane released by animals.
Dynes said the US trials have confirmed that promise but research now needs to be scaled up to field trials to prove its efficacy, hence its application in Australia. . .
Got my nieces on the power tools today building some Doc 200 predator traps how good! pic.twitter.com/VBea1qOHFi
A new strain of M Bovis has been discovered on one of four farms infected with disease in Mid Canterbury.
MPI’s M. bovis programme director Simon Andrew says recently completed genomic testing from a single property, which was previously confirmed with M.bovis, had identified the strain.
He says the new strain doesn’t behave any differently than the strain MPI have been dealing with, and their existing testing will pick it up, as it has done in this case.
Simon Andrew says as a result of finding the new strain MPI’s testing programme will be stepped up and a thorough investigation will be carried out to see how arrived on the farm.
Raising a pet lamb is Kiwi as, but before you bring little Barbara, Shaun or Rosemary home this spring those in the know have a few words of advice. A traumatised Virginia Fallon reports.
It was lambageddon, that long ago spring.
Every few days more of them arrived, spilling from hessian sacks onto the barn floor in a jumble of skinny woolly legs. Some were still covered in afterbirth, others caked in mud.
While the weakest ones lay dangerously quiet on the straw-covered concrete, the rest screamed for attention. Incredible how such little scraps can be responsible for so much noise. . .
Jenni Vernon reckons her love for the land and livestock was forged as a child, helping her grandfather feed out mangels on farm.
Today, after more than four decades in farming and public sector leadership, she remains passionate about giving back to the industry.
Vernon has taken on the role of independent chair of the steering committee for the Hill Country Futures Partnership programme. It’s a task she combines with her job as a principal adviser for the Ministry for Primary Industries and other governance positions – including with the Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) and the National Fieldays Society.
Vernon was also New Zealand’s first female Nuffield Scholar and the first woman chair of Environment Waikato. . .
Kapiti and Wairarapa Olive Oil makers have dominated the annual New Zealand Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards, winning four of the five major awards for Olive Oil Excellence.
The New Zealand Olive Oil Awards began in 2000 and recognise excellence in New Zealand Extra Virgin Olive Oils (NZ EVOO). The winners were announced tonight at the Olives NZ 2022 Award Ceremony.
A future National Government will review today’s law change banning live cattle exports, National’s Animal Welfare spokesperson Nicola Grigg says.
“Despite National’s opposition, Parliament has today passed the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill into law, banning the export of live animals by sea from April next year.
“As New Zealanders grapple with a cost of living crisis made worse by the Labour Government, today’s decision signals more economic pain for farmers and consumers.
“An Infometrics Economic Impact Report says this ban will reduce New Zealand’s gross domestic product by $472 million and cost export cattle breeders between $49,000 and $116,000 per farm, every year. . . .
New Zealand has been robbed of an opportunity to shape welfare standards in the global trade of live animals, with the upcoming passage of a law that will end exports from this country as of April next year.
Once again, we have before us another example of a government that prefers a cancel culture, rather than a constructive culture. This ban came about on the back of the sinking of the Gulf Livestock 1 in 2019, in which two New Zealanders died.
That was a tragedy, and I do acknowledge those families involved.
But the livestock trade will continue whether or not New Zealand is part of it. Now, unfortunately, other countries with less rigorous animal welfare standards will make up for the gap in the market as New Zealand withdraws. . .
Wheat looking stunning, 25ha of tulips getting ready to flower, oil seed rape starting to flower, livestock bathing in grass, I'm all up to date, glorious day……how bloody good! Should probably just sit back and crack a cold one i reckon. pic.twitter.com/oOhwpT8AC2
It is only a star on the horizon for the bulk of dairy farmers — but this is what they may aspire to. How about a payout of $11.30kg/MS?
That’s what the 101 farmer-shareholders in the Waikato specialist-product-co-op Tatua will receive — a record — for the 2021-22 year. Tatua will still retain close to $20m to reinvest in the business.
Tatua has reported group earnings equivalent to $12.65kg before retentions for the year ended July 31. This was up on the previous year’s earnings of $10.43kg and was achieved in spite of Covid-related disruption and shipping issues.
The company said group income was $444m ($395m the previous year), with earnings available for payout of $186m. Retentions were equivalent to $1.35/kg. . .
Among the many issues related to the performance of the export sector and how the Government might further help it is the case for negotiating a trade deal with India.
Australia has secured a free trade deal with what is the planet’s fifth-biggest economy.
In contrast, Agriculture and Trade Minister Damien O’Connor says concluding a free trade agreement between NZ and India “is not a realistic short-term prospect”.
Intensive negotiations were held between India and NZ in the context of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership FTA negotiations, especially in 2018 and 2019, before India withdrew from the RCEP negotiations in November 2019. . .
New Zealand scientists have conducted a ground-breaking research programme to explore the differences between pasture-raised beef with grain fed beef and alternative proteins.
Most of the global research around the nutritional, environmental and health impacts of producing and consuming red meat have been based on grain-finished cattle.
However, New Zealand specialises in free-range, grass-fed farming without antibiotics and hormones. Not only are the farming styles different, but so too is our pasture-raised meat.
Researchers, scientists, dietitians and nutritionists from AgResearch, the Riddet Institute and the University of Auckland recognised that difference and have undertaken a ground-breaking new research programme that compared pasture-raised beef and lamb against grain-finished and protein alternatives – products like plant-based alternatives. . . .
A new experimental vineyard in Blenheim will help enhance the supply of quality grapes for New Zealand’s wine sector into the future.
The new Experimental Future Vineyard facility, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, will provide a unique resource for research into wine grape production. Operated by Plant & Food Research, the Experimental Future Vineyard will support productivity and quality aspirations of the New Zealand wine sector by developing new growing practices with improved environmental outcomes.
The new facility will be based within a 600m2 shelter, allowing researchers to control the vineyard environment and build knowledge that will ensure the wine sector is prepared for future challenges. The facility will enable research to be conducted within the vine and beneath the soil, and allow researchers to control aspects of the environment such as soil type and temperature and water availability.
“We’re excited to be a part of Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa,” says Dr Damian Martin, Science Group Leader Viticulture and Oenology at Plant & Food Research. “We know climate change will add to challenges facing wine production in New Zealand, with warmer days and more insect pests and diseases able to establish here. We also know that consumer expectations will continue to evolve, with increased focus on sustainability credentials. Being able to understand how best to grow excellent grapes that allow winemakers to meet their environmental, financial and societal requirements will ensure our wine sector can continue to grow.” . .
We acknowledge with gratitude the latest comments from the Climate Change Commission. That the ETS allows companies to “plant and pollute” and needs reform. These comments are consistent with 50 Shades of Green long running assertions that indeed, the ETS needs a good overhaul.
We continue to ask the Government. Please pause before the Sheep and Beef sector is challenged out of existence. [1]
What has happened under current policy settings? Instead of driving a change in behaviour, at source, the opposite has resulted in our valuable breeding country, the top of the supply chain, used as a proxy, relying too heavily on planting trees to absorb polluters’ carbon dioxide emissions.
While the government takes its time reviewing the ETS, our issue is they have happily ignored our valid and vindicated concerns. Uncritically relying too heavily on what we can only assume is official advice and not acknowledging the devastating effects on New Zealand Hill country constantly put to them. The recent additional sales confirmed, and in the pipeline of more valuable stations lost from the sector that produces c$10b in receipts for the country are gone for good. Sweeping rural communities away in their path. . .
From a noxious pest that should be exterminated to livestock providing high value products to the world, the deer industry in New Zealand has come a long way in 50 years – and the research that made it possible is now being celebrated.
An event next week at AgResearch’s Invermay campus near Dunedin will mark 50 years of deer farming science at the site by AgResearch and its predecessor organisations, always in close partnership with the deer industry and farmers. The half century of research has included major advances in understanding of deer nutrition, health, behaviour and genetics, and in development of products such as venison, velvet and milk that are exported around the world.
“Fifty years ago, researcher Ken Drew and veterinarian Les Porter thought it might be a good idea to put some science in behind the newly emerging deer farming industry,” says AgResearch’s programme leader for Deer Science for Success, Jamie Ward.
“With incredible backing by early industry participants, innovation, positivity, and fantastic researchers, Invermay became synonymous with the evolution of the New Zealand deer farming industry and earned an international reputation for its science and research output.” . .
Big strides are being made in the development of a seaweed-based product which, it is claimed, reduces methane emissions in ruminant animals by up to 90%.
The product, which its champions say could resolve New Zealand’s climate change threat from methane emissions in the nation’s dairy herd, has been sold for the first time—-to an Australian customer.
It has been made by CH4 Global™, Inc., a company which says it is
”… on an urgent mission to address climate change by providing our seaweed-based Asparagopsis products to farmers worldwide so they can dramatically reduce the methane emissions of their livestock and realize significant value in the process.” . .
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is to report next month on offsetting short-lived methane emissions from livestock by planting fast-growing forests – a bid to address two of NZ’s most vexed climate problems simultaneously
Dr Rod Carr says markets – in this case the Emissions Trading Scheme – have an important part to play sending signals about the real costs of greenhouse gas emissions.
But speaking at the Climate Change & Business Conference this week, the Climate Change Commission chair warns the “plant and pollute” nature of the present trading scheme, where companies can buy their way towards net carbon zero using forestry plantings as offsets, risks allowing them to get away with not reducing their actual carbon emissions.
That’s why New Zealand needs new solutions – and just across Wellington, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is exploring one such. . .
Data released today by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) shows there were -126 fewer farm sales (-38.2%) for the three months ended August 2022 than for the three months ended August 2021. Overall, there were 204 farm sales in the three months ended August 2022, compared to 255 farm sales for the three months ended July 2022 (-20%), and 330 farm sales for the three months ended August 2021.
1,545 farms were sold in the year to August 2022 — 278 fewer than were sold in the year to August 2021, with 2.6% more Dairy farms, 25.2% fewer Dairy Support, 21.5% fewer Grazing farms, 13.9% fewer Finishing farms and 17.5% fewer Arable farms sold over the same period.
The median price per hectare for all farms sold in the three months to August 2022 was $25,690 compared to $27,170 recorded for the three months ended August 2021 (-5.4%). The median price per hectare decreased by 6.5% compared to July 2022.
The REINZ All Farm Price Index decreased 8.3% in the three months to August 2022 compared to the three months to July 2022. Compared to the three months ending August 2021 the REINZ All Farm Price Index increased 3.6%. The REINZ All Farm Price Index adjusts for differences in farm size, location, and farming type, unlike the median price per hectare, which does not adjust for these factors. . .
A law change that will help streamline the process required for wineries to sell samples at the cellar door has been drawn from the Member’s Bill Ballot today, MP for Kaikoura and National’s Viticulture spokesperson Stuart Smith says.
“The Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Cellar Door Tasting) Amendment Bill will plug an important gap in the old legislation so that winery cellar doors can now charge visitors for wine samples without having to secure a separate on-license and all the costs associated with that.
“While this may be a small change, it will make a big difference to New Zealand’s wineries.
“This Bill has been drawn at an opportune time as wineries have faced significant costs and reduced production as a result of the pandemic. This regulatory change will ensure that they can provide cellar door services without the unnecessary extra red-tape. . .
It was a Bit Black O'er Bill's Mother's as I walked from Monsal Dale to Wardlow, but the light on the Peak District fields looked fantastic against the dark sky. This little farm was shining in the spotlight surrounded by its golden fields. pic.twitter.com/FrZmGOCxeV
With just over a week until entries open in the 2023 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, organisers of the regional programmes are gathering in Rotorua for the annual conference to learn how to deliver over 48 events and numerous judging days..
General Manager Robin Congdon says the conference is an opportunity for the many volunteers from around the country to come together after a busy winter season.
“The conference will be a busy few days, ensuring everyone knows what’s required to deliver the dynamic programme and bring them up to speed on this year’s changes made to the Share Farmer category judging process,” he says.
“The Exec have reviewed extensive feedback on last year’s changes to the Dairy Manager and Dairy Trainee categories, which was overwhelmingly positive. . .
It’s a tense time in New Zealand’s farming industries. Already the Ministry for Primary Industries has had to shoot down an overseas news report that China had shut its borders to NZ and Australian products due to concerns about foot-and-mouth.
NZ exports to China are continuing as normal, a Ministry for Primary Industries spokesman said.
And Fonterra’s fortnightly GDT auction went ahead as scheduled this week, with keen bidding by Chinese buyers.
Prices fell for the fifth consecutive time but buying caution was attributed to the fact consumers are worrying about soaring food prices. Other observers noted the impact on demand of disruption from Covid-19 lockdowns in China, an economic crisis in Sri Lanka and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. . .
The man who has led the Dairy Companies Association of NZ (DCANZ) for the past 15 years believes the dairy sector does not get enough recognition for what it does for NZ.
Malcolm Bailey, who steps down from his DCANZ role this week, has made a huge contribution to NZ and the dairy sector in particular for nearly four decades.
Bailey says one of the difficult things he’s had to overcome in his tenure at DCANZ is getting traction in the media about all the initiatives and works that the industry has done in the face of public criticism.
He says individual farmers – and the industry itself – have invested massively to minimise the environmental footprint of dairying and there have been some real success stories that have not been recognised. . .
Malcolm Bailey grew up on a dairy farm near the township of Feilding in the lower North Island.
He still farms there today, with his son doing much of the on-farm work, while he focuses on his numerous other roles.
After completing a Bachelor of Ag Economics, Bailey left the family farm and took a job in the economics section of the Reserve Bank. One of his roles was to crunch some of the balance of payments numbers. It was here that he experienced the power of one Robert D. Muldoon, a man whose interventionist policies were eventually one of the reasons the young Malcolm Bailey went back to the family farm.
“As far as I was concerned, he was a lying crook who took the NZ economy in completely the wrong direction,” Bailey told Rural News. “The Reserve Bank could do nothing, despite a lot of the officials hating what was going on, but they couldn’t speak out publicly.” . .
A milestone of 50 years of science delivering for the deer farming industry will be celebrated in Mosgiel next month.
AgResearch scientist Jamie Ward is on the committee organising a celebration of 50 years of deer farming science at Invermay Agricultural Centre on Monday, September 26.
“I’m the one who did the math and figured out it all happened 50 years ago.”
In 1972, scientist Ken Drew and veterinarian Les Porter launched a deer farming research programme at Invermay. . .
Fijian rugby star merges agricultural work, rugby and entrepreneurship to help create financial security for players.
He’s instinctively working the Colin “Pinetree” Meads model, only in an entirely different context. And Fijian international rugby star Seremaia Bai is making a real success of it – not just for himself.
While Meads trained in his King Country paddocks for his superlative rugby feats back in the day, and went back to farming after active rugby playing, Bai is operating in the new world of professional sport – which is not all rosy, and which has its own attendant challenges.
“The average professional career of a Fiji rugby player is approximately 10 years. But while so many young players have dreams, only 2% make it to the professional level. What happens to the other 98%?” Bai asked.. . .
Agritourism operators in south-east Queensland’s Scenic Rim region are asking tourists to sign waivers — and some to avoid their properties altogether — due to increased vigilance about the threat of foot-and-mouth disease.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) affects pigs, cattle, goats and sheep.
It was detected in Indonesia in May and spread to Bali earlier this month, prompting fears a tourist could carry the disease into Australia on clothing or footwear.
In the worst-case scenario, billions would have to be spent on a national response while scores of painfully diseased cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats could be culled. . .
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) say it is distressing to see rural communities suffer due to a lack of access to quality health services.
RWNZ president Gill Naylor says the health and wellbeing of rural communities is at risk of further deterioration if something is not done to resolve the issues facing people who live, work and play in rural New Zealand.
In June this year, a rural health strategy was added to the Pae Ora Healthy Futures legislation which came into effect last month. The strategy had been removed during the select committee phase but was added back into the legislation after Health Minister Andrew Little was convinced to add it by his party’s ‘rural caucus’.
Naylor says the challenges rural families face with access to health services are varied and include a lack of rural midwives, lack of rural nurses and GPs, lack of rural mental health services, delays in emergency services such as ambulances and long distances to travel for services like allied health and cancer treatment. . .
The Climate Change Commission is estimating exotic forestation has surged to a rate well beyond the annual levels it says is required for New Zealand to achieve 380,000ha of exotic plantings by 2035.
The commission’s general manager for emissions budgets, Stephen Walter, told delegates at this year’s Carbon Forestry conference that the latest data indicates 60,000ha of exotic forest will be planted this year. That is more than twice the rate the commission envisaged.
This is also reflected in the Ministry for Primary Industries’ workload for accepting forests into the Emissions Trading Scheme. MPI’s ETS forestry manager, Simon Petrie, said there is an application queue of 130,000ha of forest awaiting scheme approval as of June.
The recent move by the commission to recommend the government limit carbon units is partly due to concern that current ETS emissions prices will drive large-scale afforestation for sequestering carbon, rather than behaviour change to reduce emissions. . .
Help us name our fur family this calving, we have in coming heifer cows & calves to name, comment your ideal name below & see if it makes the cut, hint the shorter the better 😊 @bartjevandeven#helpusnameourherdpic.twitter.com/kmLSoyNVi4
Residents in Ladbrooks, a seven-minute drive from the edge of suburban Christchurch, say living in a cellphone coverage blackspot is annoying and dangerous.
Ladbrooks School, with its 150 pupils, sits in the centre of a semi-rural area with an increasing number of lifestyle blocks.
It also sits in the middle of a cellphone black spot.
Ladbrooks School principal Margaret Dodds said the lack of cellphone coverage was much more than an inconvenience. . .
A grass and hay wintering system is showing promising results in Northern Southland.
AgResearch Invermay soil scientist Ross Monaghan is running a nearly $1 million project to explore whether dairy cows grazing on pasture in winter can reduce nitrogen leaching and mud compared with being on traditional forage crops.
The Soil Armour Project was launched in October 2020.
Experiment sites are live on a dairy farm on the Telford campus near Balclutha and Freedom Acres Dairy Farm at Wendonside. . .
More than 250 growers, suppliers, industry leaders and government officials from around the country will gather at the Rutherford Hotel in Nelson for the 2022 NZ Apples and Pears Inc (NZAPI) Conference.
The Conference will be held on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 August, with the industry AGM being held on Wednesday 24 August at 4pm. An ‘Agritech in the Orchard’ field day will be also be held on Wednesday 24 August, a collaboration between Callaghan Innovation and NZAPI.
The theme for the 2022 conference is ‘Adapting to New Horizons’. NZAPI CEO Terry Meikle says that two years on from the beginning of the pandemic, we have learned to modify and adapt to a new environment to ensure New Zealand pipfruit can continue to compete on the global stage, demand premiums and remain an industry exemplar.
“NZ is widely regarded as the best apple and pear producer in the world, but to retain that title, we must continue to adapt and innovate. The Conference will explore how we as an industry can meet and succeed in these new environments. . .
The S&K front tank saved the day today. If you’re quick and you can get to the fire when it’s small, you can control it. Not sure how it started. Guessing a spark from a stone and header? pic.twitter.com/uK5w2aPF3i
Materials that can carry CRISPR gene-editing into plant cells could be key in the fight against global hunger.
There were sceptics when Michael Strano and his colleagues published their method for using nanoparticles to alter the biology of living plants (J. P. Giraldo et al. Nature Mater. 13, 400–408; 2014). In a letter to Nature Materials, one prominent plant scientist stated that the findings were wrong. “She wrote to the editor and said, ‘What these authors are proposing is not possible. We think they’re misinterpreting their data’,” Strano recalls.
But the chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge, won over his critics, overturning an assumption that the membrane of the chloroplast — an organelle within plant cells that is responsible for photosynthesis — was impervious. “We had real-time video of particles going into this seemingly impenetrable chloroplast,” he says. The method, known as lipid exchange envelope penetration (LEEP), allows scientists to calculate where a nanoparticle will go to inside a cell — such as into the chloroplast or another organelle — or whether it will remain in the cytosol, the fluid that surrounds the organelles. This information can inform the design of nanoparticles that carry gene-editing machinery to targeted areas to rewrite the plant’s genome and imbue it with properties such as pest and disease resistance.
In particular, researchers are exploiting the CRISPR gene-editing system to engineer food crops that offer higher yields, or plants that produce compounds used in medications. The technology, for which Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, allows specific stretches of DNA to be targeted for editing, deletion or replacement. . .
John Caradus, scientist and chief executive of AgResearch’s commercial entity Grasslanz Technology, is pushing industry leaders, politicians and farmers to reconsider genetic modification (GM) as the primary sector grapples with the challenges of climate change, nutrient losses and disease. He spoke to Richard Rennie about his recent work reviewing GM globally.
There is a level of hypocrisy within New Zealand’s stance on genetically modified (GM) foods that does not sit well with John Caradus.
He points out NZ consumers can shop for over 90 different GM foods produced from 10 plant species here, but NZ farmers are unable to grow any of them.
“We have a regulatory system that makes it extremely difficult for any entity considering doing so,” he says. . .
Processing capacity at meat works around the country is returning to normal but a backlog remains.
There had been a backlog for months due to staffing shortages as workers isolated with Covid-19.
That made it harder for farmers to offload stock, which caused huge stress, especially in areas where feed levels were tight.
An update provided to farmers by Beef and Lamb and the Meat Industry Association showed staff levels were now returning to normal and capacity from plant to plant was ranging from 80-100 percent. . .
Last week, Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva visited North Otago, the birthplace of New Zealand’s frozen meat industry. She talks to business and rural editor Sally Rae about the state of the red meat sector.
It is time to celebrate.
That is the message from Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva to all levels of the red meat sector, from the farming community through to processors and other industry organisations.
Ms Karapeeva was in Oamaru last week for a function to mark National Lamb Day, the 140th anniversary of the first shipment of frozen New Zealand lamb arriving in the United Kingdom in 1882, and the centenary of the New Zealand Meat Board. . .
New Zealand red meat exports hit a record in April however ongoing volatility in China indicates head winds in the coming months, says the Meat Industry Association (MIA).
New Zealand exported products worth $999.6 million during the month of April, up 16 per cent on April 2021 with the value of overall exports increasing to most major markets.
Sirma Karapeeva, chief executive of MIA, said that while red meat exports continued to achieve good returns, there was some fluctuation in demand, particularly in China and the US.
“The value of overall exports to China was down six per cent year on year. There was also a small drop in the volume of both sheepmeat and beef exported. The reduction in sheepmeat was largely due to China, with beef exports to the US also dipping. . .
In a bid to protect against the impact of dry conditions, a trial maize crop on a West Otago dairy farm will return next season and be more than twice the size.
Matt Haugh and his partner Kirsten McIntyre own Cottesbrook Dairy, milking 1450 cows across two platforms on about 470ha near Heriot.
Mr Haugh said pasture growth had been good for most of the summer but dry conditions started to bite in late summer and early autumn.
The dry conditions were an “absolute killer”, because the farm traditionally relied on rain at that time of year. . .
How much wood could a Kiwi cut if a Kiwi could cut wood?
A lot – if Taumarunui sheep and beef farmer Jack Jordan and Tokoroa’s Cleveland Cherry’s performances at the Timbersports World Trophy event on Saturday in Vienna, Austria, is anything to go by.
However, it was Jordan who came out tops after taking on national champs, many of whom are lumberjacks from around the world, for the coveted title.
The competition, which is organised by Stihl France, sees 16 competitors take metal to wood as they face off using a variety of chopping tools to out chop each other – whoever chops the most wood in the least amount of time wins. . .
The Government’s decision to cut road user charges (RUC) by 36% for three months is cold comfort for contractors and farmers using off-road vehicles that will not qualify for the exemption, Federated Farmers says.
The cut, which will take place from late April to late July, is in response to the spike in global fuel prices. Transport Minister Michael Wood said the change was to support the road transport industry.
For the arable industry, the reduction in charges is too late for this season, with much of the harvest already completed apart from harvesting maize grain, Federated Farmers transport spokesperson Karen Williams said.
On Williams’ own farm, fuel costs for the three months during peak harvest had almost doubled from $4000-$7000 a month in 2020 to $8000-$9500 a month this year. . .
Some orchardists say Covid-19 is running rampant through their harvest fields.
It is peak apple harvest time across the country – and Omicron is not showing any signs of slowing down in the two busiest apple harvest regions – Hawke’s Bay and Nelson-Tasman.
Hawke’s Bay grows over 4700 hectares of apples and Nelson-Tasman is second with about 2400.
Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrower’s Association chair Brydon Nisbett also runs his own 16-hectare two-orchard apple operation. . .
With 95% pregnancy tested in-calf, across all mixed age stud cows, we have this line of 45 in-calf R-3-year-olds for sale: https://t.co/XyXsVOAwH3 As well as another 40 in-calf mixed age cows. pic.twitter.com/zJ4jv7MsTm
AgResearch principal scientist Dr Eric Altermann admits he has a dream to see a charcuterie of uniquely New Zealand meats and salamis, along with fermented dairy and plant products on the market someday soon. Richard Rennie spoke to him on how his and his team’s work on fermented foods will make that a reality.
Over the past four and a half years AgResearch’s Fermented Foods research team has managed to slice through tens of thousands of evolved bacterial strains to find those with traits most suited to enhancing the flavour and texture of meat, dairy, and plant fermented food types.
The tool that has enabled them to accelerate the natural process of genetic change, which would otherwise have been an almost impossibly time-consuming and frustrating process, has been a high-throughput robotics handling and assaying (screening) platform, developed by AgResearch principal scientist Dr Eric Altermann and his team.
“The platform’s technology allows us to take bacteria, subject them to rapid genetic evolution using sources such as UV light and then identify those evolved variants which exhibit a positive change towards the desired traits,” Altermann said. . .
A couple of teenage sweethearts are looking forward to retirement on their sheep and beef farm in South Otago.
Howie and Marion Gardner (both 66) will hold a clearing sale on their farm Awakiki Ridges in Puerua Valley tomorrow.
Awakiki Ridges has come a long way since his parents, Clyde (now 93) and his late mother, Beth, bought the land and started developing it in the mid-1960s.
The property was once considered “the worst bit of dirt in South Otago,” Mr Gardner said. . .
The 2.1-billion litres of unsold Australian wine sitting in storage is wreaking havoc on Victoria’s grape harvest this season, as a storage shortage forces growers to leave grapes on vines.
Last year the nation’s wine exports plummeted $860 million, or 30 per cent, due to China’s crippling tariffs on bottled Australian wine.
China’s anti-dumping duty introduced the last march of up to 218pc for containers of two litres or less, and is set to remain in place for five years.
It has been a blow for the industry with Australia’s wine exports the lowest in nearly two decades, as the volume of wine sent overseas dropped 17pc to 619-million litres in 2021. . .
The NZ dairy herd increased 82% between 1990 and 2019, with some of the largest increases in Canterbury and Southland. Neal Wallace investigates the future of dairying in those regions and talks to some innovators who are confident that with the use of technology and management changes, dairying has a future.
The impact of the Government’s new freshwater regulations could invariably end dairying in Southland or result in a 20% decline over 20 years, depending on who you talk to.
Similarly, there are forecasts the number of dairy cows in Canterbury could decline by up to 20% over that period, depending on how regional councils implement National Policy Statement on Freshwater (NPS-FW) limits on the use of synthetic nitrogen and controls on leaching.
New regulations limiting nitrogen use will require changes, worrying farmers, especially in Canterbury and Southland, where dairy expansion has made nutrient loss to waterways an issue. . . .
AgResearch’s world-class Life Cycle Assessment team provides an evidence base to help maintain NZ’s export market edge.
As New Zealand seeks to maintain its position as a leading food producer to the world, measuring and reporting the environmental impact of its products has never been more critical.
This is where AgResearch’s world-class Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) team plays a pivotal role: by delivering research to prove the efficiency and sustainability of food production in New Zealand, and how it stacks up against the rest of the world.
“I use the analogy of writing a story,” explains AgResearch scientist and LCA team member, Dr Andre Mazzetto. . .
Last week New Zealand dairy farmers woke up to fantastic news on two consecutive days.
The first was the early morning signing of a free trade deal between New Zealand and the United Kingdom in London.
The second was the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) price index rising for the fifth straight time; more importantly whole milk powder and skim milk powder, used by processors to set the milk price, posted solid gains.
The two doses of good news come as farmers grapple with issues including rising costs, a pandemic and a looming levy/tax on greenhouse gas emissions. . .
An award-winning shearing couple, who spent their careers chasing the perfect shearing day, say there’s no greater feeling than finding your rhythm and getting into the ‘zone’, because that’s when the tallies start to happen. They spoke to Gerald Piddock.
Being a top shearer means chasing perfection.
It’s about having a perfect day in the shearing shed where the wool flows off the sheep from the shearer’s blade.
Chasing that perfection has elevated Emily and Sam Welch to be regarded among the best in the industry. For Emily, it has seen her become a world record holder and industry role model for female shearers. . . .
Ever fancied being paid to work outdoors amongst New Zealand’s beautiful landscape with the nation’s iconic fruit?
New Zealand’s borders have just opened to backpackers again and the country’s kiwifruit industry is crying out for help to pick and pack it’s small, fuzzy fruit.
If you’ve ever wanted to visit New Zealand, Working Holiday Visas are available from today and the kiwifruit industry has lots of jobs up for grabs.
New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated (NZKGI) are leading the call for people to visit their beautiful country. “I strongly encourage everyone to roll up their sleeves and join the team”, says NZKGI CEO Colin Bond. “Picking is a great opportunity for those who like to be in the outdoors, while the packhouse is suited to those who like to have fun in larger teams indoors”. . .
Trying Space hoppers along with calf brushes – 🤪 was a surprise addition! Amazed how much the calves are using them pic.twitter.com/KkTScQktha
DONGAS and relocatable homes in strong demand on farms are now in very short supply on the back of the same shortages of building materials and labour that has wreaked havoc in the construction business.
Waits on new relocatable homes have pushed out to 18 months, prices of second-hand dongas have tripled and some manufacturers have even shut up shop until supplies come back on line.
Ironically, the supply challenges have coincided with ramped up demand for both farmhouse replacements and additional dwellings on agriculture properties on the back of strong commodity prices.
David Rowe, from Victoria’s Bond Homes, which has been building relocatable homes at Ballarat for more than three decades and has strong custom in replacing old farmhouses and installing new dwellings for farm workers, says pandemic material supply issues are now being amplified by the Ukraine war. . .
Parts of Aotearoa may have to prepare for a third consecutive year in drought.
Although spring rain may be keeping some hopeful, it is getting dry rapidly, with many farmers seeing their land dry out before their eyes in recent weeks.
The driest parts of the country are at opposite ends – Northland and Southland.
NIWA’s drought index is rating one part of Southland, dry, another very dry and a small part south east of Invercargill extremely dry. . .
AgResearch scientists’ work to successfully breed low methane emitting sheep has the potential to help all NZ livestock farmers lower their carbon footprint.
The ground-breaking research took out the 2021 Supreme Award at the Science New Zealand Awards.
Backed by the industry through the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRc) and the Government – via the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) – the AgResearch team spent over a decade working on the science.
They were able to identify genetic differences which influences how much methane an individual sheep produces. Methane is a relatively short-lived but potent greenhouse gas. . .
Rabobank has announced the appointment of Stefan Vogel as General Manager of its food and agribusiness research division in New Zealand and Australia.
Mr Vogel takes on the role after more than seven years with Rabobank in London, where he held two concurrent global positions with the bank – Head of Agri Commodity Markets Research and Global Grains and Oilseeds Sector Strategist.
In his new position, based in Sydney, Mr Vogel leads the New Zealand and Australian arm of the agribusiness bank’s highly-regarded global food and agricultural research division, RaboResearch.
In New Zealand and Australia, RaboResearch comprises a team of 10 specialist agri commodities analysts, who are part of a network of 75 research analysts worldwide focussed on providing comprehensive, leading-edge food and agribusiness research for the bank’s clients. . .
New Zealand’s two largest medicinal cannabis companies have signed a supply contract that will provide Kiwis further access to locally made medicines and pave the way for international export success.
The five year multi-million-dollar deal between Marlborough-based cultivator Puro and Auckland-based Helius Therapeutics is New Zealand’s largest to date.
Under the partnership, Puro will supply over 10 tonnes of organic medicinal cannabis to Helius over the next five years, the equivalent of approximately five shipping containers of dried cannabis flower. . .
Comvita, global leader in Mānuka honey, has today announced a new collaboration with Microsoft, with the creation of an immersive multi-sensory consumer experience powered by Microsoft’s HoloLens technology.
Set to launch to consumers in January 2022 at Expo 2020 Dubai, the experience represents the next step in Comvita’s mission to transform the consumer retail experience, following the opening of its award winning multi-sensory space, The Wellness Lab, in Auckland earlier this year.
With its application of Microsoft’s HoloLens technology, Comvita has transported the Wellness Lab’s 180-degree theatre experience into the fully mobile headset, enabling it to connect consumers anywhere in the world to the unique benefits of Mānuka honey and the magic of bees and nature. . .
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