A positive Fieldays, says Langford
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
OPINION: Recently several Labour MPs, including leader Chris Hipkins and deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni spent two days in Waikato with representatives of DairyNZ, Beef+Lamb NZ, Federated Farmers, Groundswell and Rural Women NZ among others.
The two-day event was aimed at farming organisations making 'a team ag' approach to improve outcomes for farmers.
Labour was flogged by farmers at the last general election and National won back the traditionally blue seats.
But Labour isn't resting on its laurels and is keen to improve its standing among farmers. What this means is National should not take the farming vote for granted.
The coalition Government has done a lot during the first eight months in office for the rural sector but there's still more needs doing.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).