Ravensdown partners with Footrot Flats to celebrate Kiwi farming heritage
Ravensdown has announced a collaboration with Kiwi icon, Footrot Flats in an effort to bring humour, heart, and connection to the forefront of the farming sector.
Ravensdown has appointed George Williams as its new regional manager eastern North Island.
Williams has managed agribusiness in the East Coast region for 18 years. Originally from Gisborne, he has spent the last two years in Dunedin as Ravensdown’s technical manager animal health for the lower South Island.
“The opportunity to lead people achieving great results and service has brought me back to the East Coast,” Williams says.
From Ravensdown’s Napier site at Awatoto he will cover from the top of the East Coast region, Waikura Valley, central Hawkes Bay and Dannevirke.
Ravensdown is a large employer in Hawkes Bay and last year its Napier site won Large Business of the Year at the 2015 Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce Awards.
The farmer-owned co-op seeks to optimise soil fertility and farm profitability in a sustainable way. Along with fertiliser it markets nutrient management services, technical advice and farm inputs.
For the first three months of 2026, new tractor deliveries saw an increase over the previous two months, resulting in year-to-date deliveries climbing to 649 units - around 5% ahead of the same period in 2025.
QU Dongyu, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has issued a warning saying that global fertiliser scarcity caused by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz will lead to lower yields and tightening food supplies into 2027.
Federated Farmers is urging Canterbury's council leaders to move quickly on local government reform.
Having represented New Zealand at the 2024 and 2005 World Ploughing Championships, in Estonia and The Czech Republic respectively, Southland contractor Mark Dillon was at Methven last month for the NZ Ploughing Champs.
New research suggests sheep and beef farmers could improve both profitability and emissions efficiency by increasing lamb weaning weights, with only marginal changes in total greenhouse gas emissions.
With six months until the election, Federated Farmers says the Government is running out of time to deliver its long-promised reform to the country's freshwater system.