Eat more fruit, stay healthy
Nutritionists are urging Kiwis to kickstart their day with a piece of fresh fruit to help improve their health and wellbeing this autumn.
Could robots soon replace humans in picking fruit?
The top of hand versus robotic picking was raised by the speakers at the recent HortNZ conference.
Chief executive of Plant and Food Research, Professor David Hughes says handpicking works well for premium fruit, where consumers want to know more about the provenance of the product. And such consumers are also attracted by the ‘artisan’ nature of handpicking.
“Handpicking works really well for premium products and anything that bruises, such as strawberries, just-ripe peaches and tomatoes,” he explained. “Mechanical harvesting is fine for green tomatoes, but for the ripe red tomatoes hand picked is better.”
Professor Hughes says in the UK at least 50% of the total cost of strawberry production relates to labour. But retail prices have remained static over about ten years, which has pressured growers to reduce their costs. This is opening the way, as robotics get cheaper, for more mechanical harvesting.
“As my colleague (Dr) David says, some people are saying robotics are years away,” he told the conference.
“I think they are looking backwards rather than forwards. It has taken a long time to get to where we are, but I think you will see an accelerated growth and it will come sooner than we expect.”
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.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has informed staff it will cut 391 jobs following a consultation period.
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