Agriculture Minister David Carter is well aware the report he commissioned into the wool industry could sink without trace. He’s given the Taskforce plenty of space to prepare its report with the assistance of his department. The report addresses some cold, hard facts. Wool is never going to win going head to head with the […]
In only five years, a new breed of dairy sire - KiwiCross - has moved up the popularity stakes and is now breeding a quarter of NZ’s dairy cows. KiwiCross(tm) was launched in 2005 by LIC - the first team of proven crossbred bulls in the world - and its market share has grown every […]
Meat companies are copping some unfair flak from farmers and industry watchers who gripe about prices received from supplying Europe’s supermarkets. But Keith Woodford, Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University and some-time adviser to Silver Fern Farms and Blue Sky Meats, says in reality, the region which takes some 60% of NZ’s […]
Federated Farmers felt empowered this week appearing before the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee. John Key’s agenda-setting address for the opening of Parliament nailed some of the national farm lobby group’s main planks. Key was most explicit about water storage and irrigation in Canterbury, vowing to “remove regulatory roadblocks” this year. His language suggests the […]
Milk powder in Fonterra’s online auction declined for a second month amid expectations of increased output from northern hemisphere producers. Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden says he’s “neutral” on prices and expects “more volatility up and down” in 2010. The average price for whole milk powder fell 1.6% to US$3,256 a tone in this […]
An inevitable tightening of global supplies of phosphorus could prove a major challenge to modern farming practices. Unlike nitrogen, which can by synthesised from the air, or the use of renewable energy to substitute for fossil fuels, there is no substitute for phosphorus. All the world’s phosphate fertilisers come from mined phosphate rock, making it […]
Sheep and beef farm profitability is set to fall almost 50% this season on the back of falling farm incomes and the continuing adverse impact of a volatile NZ dollar. Meat & Wool NZ’s Mid-Season Update for 2009-10 estimates there will be an 8.6% decrease in total gross farm revenue to $317,600 for the average […]
Farmer pleas to have the compulsory National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) project scraped have, as expected, fallen on deaf ears with NAIT being given the go ahead. David Carter says the decision is a signal the Govt has “bought in” to NAIT and recognizes the cost of not adopting such a scheme. “There was […]
Good news for North island dairy farmers. Taranaki based The Organic Dairy Co-operative wants to more than double its supplier base as it struggles to cope with booming offshore demand, opening up the possibility of more dairy farmers tapping into this high value niche market. CEO Patrick Geals says the co-op is looking for up […]
It is reasonable to suppose the parties behind proposals to farm 18,000 or so cows under cover in the Mackenzie have done their sums and reckon they are on to a winner. Abe Deworde, who operates a similar (but much smaller) farm in Southland, says he has been housing 500 cattle in cubicle stables for […]
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