Methane emission target reset
OPINION: For close to eight years now, I have found myself talking about methane quite a lot.
There is a limit to what farmers can do to improve security on their farms, says Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard.
His comments follow the publicity surrounding the news of a 1080 threat to infant milk formula. At a news conference it was suggested farmers should secure their milk supply.
But Hoggard points out that farmers need to keep their sheds and facilities open at all times for tankers to collect their milk. Beyond installing a security camera they can do little more, he says.
“In the modern cowshed there is quite a bit of technology and kit but we have to leave everything open for tankers,” he told Dairy News.
“More and more farmers are installing security. I have tried a number of different cameras including game trail ones. The worry I have with those is that the criminal could quite easily steal it and I’d never know who the criminal was.”
Hoggard has a camera connected to his computer providing pictures of anyone entering his cow shed. Plenty of equipment is being stolen from cows sheds, an ongoing problem, he says. – Peter Burke
Visiting US climate change expert Dr Will Happer says the idea of reducing cow numbers to greatly reduce methane emissions is crazy.
Federated Farmers has launched a new campaign, swapping "The Twelve Days of Christmas" for "The Twelve Pests of Christmas" in an effort to highlight the most troublesome farm pests.
The Rapid Relief Team (RRT) has given farmers in the Tararua District a boost as they rebuild following recent storms.
The Government is set to announce two new acts to replace the contentious Resource Management Act (RMA) with the Prime Minister hinting that consents required by farmers could reduce by 46%.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change would be “a really dumb move”.
The University of Waikato has broken ground on its new medical school building.