Super grass offers huge benefits – and it’s green! Pity about the GM … – Point of Order:
Environmentalists should be encouraging NZ’s development of ryegrass with the potential to substantially increase farm production, reduce water demand and decrease methane emissions.
We are told the grass has been shown in AgResearch’s Palmerston North laboratories to grow up to 50 per cent faster than conventional ryegrass, to be able to store more energy for better animal growth, to be more resistant to drought, and to produce up to 23 per cent less methane (the largest single contributor to New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions) from livestock. . .
Dig deep for sheep – Annette Scott:
Confidence in sheep is at an all-time high with demand at the Temuka in-lamb ewe fair providing the real proof of industry positivity.
With record processing prices for mutton the sale was always going to be the real test for the market, PGG Wrightson livestock manager Joe Higgins said.
With just 6000 ewes offered and close to 100 registered buyers it was a sellers’ market with clearly not enough sheep to go around. . .
Wool Summit leads to greater direction:
Key players in New Zealand’s wool industry are to form a new coordinating group to better tell wool’s story, says Federated Farmers.
At this week’s Wool Summit in Wellington there was a real sense of urgency to get cooperation and momentum, says Miles Anderson, Federated Farmers Meat & Wool Industry Group Chairperson.
New Zealand wool producers have been under pressure, particularly in the last two years as prices for strong wool hit record lows. . .
Eradicating cattle disease M. bovis may be costly, even impossible, but we must try – Richard Laven:
In May this year, the New Zealand government decided that it would attempt to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis, a bacterial disease that affects cattle.
A phased eradication means that an additional 126,000 livestock will need to be culled, at an estimated cost of NZ$886 million.
Here’s what we know, what we don’t know and what’s at stake. . .
Works not an out for sick stock – TIm Fulton:
Stock transport is high on the animal welfare agenda as new regulations come into force.
Inspectors will be especially alert to badly lame stock being carted to meatworks, Ministry for Primary Industries compliance team manager Peter Hyde told a Beef + Lamb New Zealand meeting in North Canterbury.
“Using the meat companies to sort out your lameness issues is not acceptable,” he said. . .
Kiwifruit expected to remain king of horticulture export industry – Julie Iles:
Kiwifruit exports, valued at $1.86 billion, remains New Zealand’s most valuable horticulture export.
It’s closely followed by the value of wine exports, at $1.72b, though they were less than half the value of the kiwifruit exports in 2004.
The latest forecasts by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) predict the kiwifruit export industry will grow in value at a slightly faster pace than the wine industry over the next four years. . .
Farmlands joins Apple and Emerites in KPMG Award –
Farmlands Cooperative has been named the New Zealand winner of KPMG’s prestigious Global Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) Award.
New Zealand’s largest rural supplies and services cooperative was presented with the award at a ceremony hosted by KPMG in Auckland this morning.
Farmlands joins 13 other winners of the award world-wide, including Singapore Airlines (Australia), Apple Store (Italy), Alipay (China) and Emirates (UAE). Following Farmlands in the top five for New Zealand were Air New Zealand, Kiwibank, New World and ASB Bank. . .
America’s cheese stockpile just hit an all-time high – Caitlin Dewey:
The United States has amassed its largest stockpile of cheese in the 100 years since regulators began keeping tabs, the result of booming domestic production of milk and consumers’ waning interest in the dairy beverage.
The 1.39 billion-pound stockpile, tallied by the Agriculture Department last week, represents a 6 percent increase over this time last year and a 16 percent increase since an earlier surplus prompted a federal cheese buy-up in 2016. . .
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