Farmers' call
OPINION: Fonterra's $4.22 billion consumer business sale to Lactalis is ruffling a few feathers outside the dairy industry.
RETIRING Fonterra director Jim van der Poel is back on the board of DairyNZ having retired from it in 2009. He was one of five candidates for Barbara Kuriger’s seat on the board following Kuriger’s resignation in order to stand for Parliament.
“We had a fantastic line-up of candidates, all of whom could have added to the board, but the successful candidate is Jim van der Poel,” chairman John Luxton told the annual meeting.
Luxton, who has chaired DairyNZ since it was formed in 2007 from the merger of Dexcel and Dairy Insight, is one of three farmer-elected directors due to retire by rotation next year. The other two are Ben Allomes and Michael Spaans.
Turnout by voter was 19.31% with a total of 2719 valid ballots cast. Weighted votes were 525,897,398 giving a 28.46% turnout. DairyNZ was unable to provide the breakdown of votes before this article went to press. The unsuccessful candidates were Donna Smit, Greg Maughan, Murray Jamieson, and Dirk Sieling.
Academic Dr Mike Joy and his employer, Victoria University of Wellington have apologised for his comments suggesting that dairy industry CEOs should be hanged for contributing towards nitrate poisoning of waterways.
Environment Southland's catchment improvement funding is once again available for innovative landowners in need of a boost to get their project going.
The team meeting at the Culverden Hotel was relaxed and open, despite being in the middle of calving when stress levels are at peak levels, especially in bitterly cold and wet conditions like today.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
OPINION: The phasing out of copper network from communications is understandable.
Driven by a lifelong passion for animals, Amy Toughey's journey from juggling three jobs with full-time study to working on cutting-edge dairy research trials shows what happens when hard work meets opportunity - and she's only just getting started.
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