Strange bedfellows
OPINION: Two types of grifters have used the sale of Fonterra's consumer brands as a platform to push their own agendas - under the guise of 'caring about the country'.
OPINION: Another report, and yet another feeble attempt by Greenpeace to blame the dairy sector for all water quality issues in New Zealand.
This time it's a Ministry for Environment report released last week which Greenpeace paints as a 'wake-up call' for the Government.
This activist group seemingly blames dairying for every aspect of environmental degradation.
It puts the sole blame on the dairy industry, calling out Fonterra of course, for the state of all rivers, waterways and drinking water.
Yet it doesn't say a word about urban sewage pollution that we know goes into waterways and makes many of New Zealand rivers and beaches unfit to swim, Auckland and Wellington being two obvious examples.
Farmers are doing their best to reduce nutrient leaching.
The same can't be said about many councils.
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
Fonterra chair Peter McBride says the divestment of Mainland Group is their last significant asset sale and signals the end of structural changes.
Thirty years ago, as a young sharemilker, former Waikato farmer Snow Chubb realised he was bucking a trend when he started planting trees to provide shade for his cows, but he knew the animals would appreciate what he was doing.
Virtual fencing and herding systems supplier, Halter is welcoming a decision by the Victorian Government to allow farmers in the state to use the technology.
DairyNZ’s latest Econ Tracker update shows most farms will still finish the season in a positive position, although the gap has narrowed compared with early season expectations.
New Zealand’s national lamb crop for the 2025–26 season is estimated at 19.66 million head, a lift of one percent (or 188,000 more lambs) on last season, according to Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s (B+LNZ) latest Lamb Crop report.