How farmers make spring count
OPINION: Spring is a critical season for farmers – a time when the right decisions can set the tone for productivity and profitability throughout the year.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients has confirmed a farmer rebate of $45 per tonne for the year ending 31 May 2020.
The farmer-owned fertiliser co-op has reported a profit before rebate and tax of $68.9 million.
In total, it will be returning $54 million to its farmer-shareholders.
Total sales volume for the 2020 financial year, including nutrient products, animal feeds and industrial ingredients, were 1.6 million tonnes.
Ballance says it is well positioned to support the primary sector to drive the prosperity of NZ. It says that in 2019, NZ export revenue attributable to the primary sector was over $45 billion, with about $19.8 billion of this revenue dependent on access to nitrogen fertilisers.
The co-op says that the employment of almost 74,000 people in NZ is dependent on nitrogen fertiliser.
“The 2020 financial year has been like no other, with COVID-19 and extreme weather events from floods in the south to drought in the east and north,” says Ballance chairman, David Peacocke.
“We’re entering a new era, and one thing is for sure, we can look forward to a renewed understanding of the value of the primary sector to NZ global economic future and reputation,” he says.
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.
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