Stop making decisions for farmers – Peter Buckley:
From my observations of general media reporting it seems that in today’s world no one wants to take responsibility for their actions.
And more often than not they seek to blame others for the results of their actions. This is the case for private persons, government and their departments, councils and social organisations in a large portion of reports.
The majority seem to want someone else to take responsibility for their actions or lack of action. Some in government want even more control because they believe the government can fix things through legislation.
The problem with the government growing bigger, passing more legislation (much of it being a form of social engineering) and enforcing that legislation is that it takes responsibility away from the people who should hold that responsibility. . .
Vet’s best work stories Told in new book – Catherine Groenestein:
A Taranaki vet has documented 30 years’ working with cattle in a hefty 1.5kg book that’s part instruction manual, part work stories.
Hāwera vet Cathy Thompson always carried a camera in her kit and took photos of many of the interesting animals she dealt with on farms.
Since retiring in 2017, she has used many of them in two books.
“The first one was a practical guide for cattle vets, but I thought it should be made available for farmers too, so I rewrote it,” she said. . .
Potential second drought shows importance of dams in Northland, trust says – Denise Piper:
The potential for a second drought in Northland shows the vital importance of large-scale dams, according to Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust.
The trust was formed this year to help progress water storage projects, helped along with $70 million in Provincial Growth Funding.
Work is expected to start this month on a 750,000 cubic metre reservoir near Kaikohe – one of the towns so severely impacted by drought there was a real risk taps could run dry in February.
However, the reservoir will not be ready for use until the first half of 2021. . .
Meet the farming couple breeding leeches for New Zealand hospitals :
Maria Lupton has New Zealand’s only leech farm, with tens of thousands of the parasites in tanks on her Waikato property.
If it’s a nice fine spring weekend, then Maria and Robert Lupton know they’ll probably get a call from a hospital asking for their leeches.
The Waikato couple owns a leech farm supplying hospitals throughout the country to help in surgery to restore blood flow to severed fingers or for restorative surgery after cancer treatments.
“Men and skill saws are very good for business,” Maria says. . .
B+LNZ and OSPRI to improve sheep traceability with electronic ASDs:
Introductions of pests and diseases onto farms can be devastating for businesses and rural communities.
COVID-19 and the response to Mycoplasma bovis has underscored the importance of tracing to find, contain and control infectious diseases.
For sheep, mob-based tracing is an efficient and effective method. For a number of years, B+LNZ has been seeking to improve the traceability of mobs of sheep.
Current tracing of movements of sheep relies on Animal Status Declarations (ASDs). These are paper-based, which limits investigators’ ability to trace a rapidly moving disease because they must follow the ‘paper trail’. . .
Coronavirus leads to food industry crisis in Europe – Gavin Lee:
Across Europe, much of the food and agriculture industry has been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Half of the fishermen in the Netherlands have stopped going out to sea. That’s because the price of fresh fish has plummeted due to a lack of demand.
In France, 1,500 tonnes of high quality cheese went off last week, because farmers can’t sell it.
And many of the warehouses that store fresh food across Europe are now reaching capacity.
BBC Europe correspondent Gavin Lee takes a look at the impact. . .
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Homepaddock 