Seedy milk
OPINION: Seeds of legume plants are being used to make dairy-free milk products by scientists at Massey University’s Palmerston North labs.
New Zealand's sheep milking industry plateaued a bit in the last year, says an organiser of last week’s Sheep Milk NZ Conference 2017.
But this is good, says Craig Prichard, of Massey University’s School of Management, because he would hate to see people get too excited, given that the industry still has a long road to travel.
The industry faces big challenges and its emphasis now is on improving the genetics of milking sheep in NZ and on developing new food products.
Farmers, scientists and agribusiness professionals attended the conference, as did people from Australia and France, including staff from a company supplying genetics to NZ farmers.
Prichard says some people think sheep milk is still novel, but he wants them to get over that novelty notion and focus on the great food dishes and other things the NZ industry is producing.
“NZ already produces some amazing sheep milk cheeses,” he told Rural News. “Once we have worked out what their particular strengths are we’ll find a cheese that will rival others around the world.”
He says the tastes and styles of sheep milk products vary from region to region in NZ, as in Europe. He points to a sheep milk cheese maker in Nelson whose cheeses have a very distinctive flavour.
“And Kingsmeade Cheeses, in Wairarapa, and the new group emerging there, are working on a product range that is really exciting. Obviously you have three big producers all pushing hard to get their production up to get some return on their investment.”
Prichard says soils and weather influence product style and taste, and regionality is important in developing high-value sheep milk products.
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.
OPINION: This old mutt well remembers the wailing, whining and gnashing of teeth by former West Coast MP and Labour…
OPINION: Your canine crusader gets a little fed up with the some in media, union hacks, opposition politicians and hard-core…