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Bruce Orr
Two Southdown rams shared the honours at Canterbury A&P Association’s elite ram & ewe sale last November, both making $14,000.
Of 238 rams offered, 77 were passed but all 24 ewes sold. Rams averaged $1781 and ewes $234 to total $286,725, back on last year’s $306,120.
“While overall sales are down on last year, the clearance rate was good and averages kept up with 2013,” said PGG Wrightson NZ livestock genetics manager Bruce Orr. The drop in sales was disappointing but a sign of the times and buyers were getting “very good value” with rams, given the number and price of prime lambs they could sire, he added.
“The overall picture for sheep and beef looks pleasing when you consider the global outlook for dairy farming, particularly taking into account the large disparity in the 2013 and 2014 proposed payouts.”
The two sale-topping Southdowns were from BC Macaulay’s Maclaka stud, Christchurch, and Chris Medlicott’s Clifton Downs, Waimate.
OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).
With a focus on producing their own on-farm dairy feed requirements, it would be safe to say that the Fleming family are no strangers to a fertiliser spreader on their North Canterbury farm, near Culverden.
As the New Zealand Government launches negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement with India, one Canterbury-based vegetable seed breeder is already benefiting from exporting to the world's fifth-largest economy.
Two high producing Canterbury dairy farmers are moving to blended stockfeed supplements fed in-shed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to boost protein levels, which they can’t achieve through pasture under the region’s nitrogen limit of 190kg/ha.
Rare Canterbury mudfish and tadpole shrimp have been discovered at an environmental restoration site at Bennetts Stream in North Canterbury which is part of a biodiversity initiative being carried out by Waimakariri Irrigation Limited (WIL).
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
