Rewarding farmers who embrace sustainability
Winners of DairyNZ’s Sustainability and Stewardship awards in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards have their eyes firmly fixed on progressing a positive future for New Zealand dairy.
DairyNZ's Rob Brazendale says the drought situation is quite serious in some parts of the lower North Island area.
The DairyNZ head of lower North Island says farmers in Tararua and Rangitikei are the worst hit.
But Brazendale says Taranaki is dry but not too bad at this stage and south of Palmerston North in the Horowhenua there are not too many signs of a drought.
But in the worst-hit areas, Brazendale says pasture covers are much lower than normal for this time of the year, crops are finished and a lot of farmers are starting to run out of silage. He says normally they would turn to PKE as an alternative, but they are under pressure to restrict their use of this.
“A lot of farmers are already on once a day milking or have started to dry cows off. From what I have heard, the maize crop has not been good and it appears that farmers have been harvesting it early to get what they can from the crop,” he says.
There is the potential for a feed pinch in many districts, but Brazendale emphasises that it is still only early March and if the rain comes soon and soil temperatures remain warm, then the season could quickly pick up.
“So we could still get good growth through April/May and could go into winter in a good position.” he says.
In terms of morale Brazendale says farmers seen to be coping with the drought and also the corona\virus situation. But he says what continues to concern them is the threats of climate change policy, zero carbon and other environmental policies which are in the pipeline.
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
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