Unreal hot air
OPINION: The Hound is perplexed about some of the over-the-top climate catastrophising by mainstream media outlets during the holidays.
Prolonged wet weather and surface flooding is causing concern on-farm during a very busy period in the farming calendar, with calving and in some pockets, lambing, underway.
"I know when we hit a long dry spell farmers will look back at the rain longingly. But what many need right now are days or weeks of fine settled weather to dry out," says Katie Milne, Federated Farmers Adverse Events spokesperson.
"The only way to describe much of rural New Zealand is sodden and there'll be plenty of people in the towns and cities who'd probably agree. Farmers are hoping for a decent fine spell in order for saturated pasture to recover.
"Our advice to livestock farmers, especially those with cattle, is to avoid pugging damage where they can. Heavy pugging can seriously knock back pasture growth rates and even moderate damage can put your farm behind the eight-ball.
"Being a West Coaster we know a bit about heavy rain. Experience tells us you can get away with one wet grazing but if you have to graze wet again, farmers need to either stand off cattle after three hours grazing or once they've eaten grass down to a desired residual.
"If you don't avoid pugging damage your farm pasture, your stock and your balance sheet will suffer ahead of our key growing season," Milne says.
OPINION: The recent Federated Farmers / Rabobank 2024 Farming Salaries Report revealed strong growth in farm salaries over the past two years.
The low unemployment environment is one of the key factors driving on-farm salaries higher over the past 24 months, says Rabobank general manager for country banking Bruce Weir.
Fonterra has appointed a new chief financial officer, seven months after its last CFO’s shock resignation.
A seminar on rural dispute resolution has been organised at Lincoln University, Christchurch this month.
The legacy of Dr Peter Snow continues to inspire as the recipients of the 2023 and 2024 Peter Snow Memorial Awards were announced at the recent National Rural Health Conference.
One of Fonterra’s global customers, Mars is launching an ambitious sustainable dairy plan to work with dairy farmers and cut emissions by 50%.
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