Farmers oppose work visa changes
Farmers are crying foul over changes announced by the Government this week to the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) scheme.
Trade Me says livestock sales are now permitted on its online platform, while New Zealand is at COVID-19 alert level 4.
It says concerns have been raised about animal welfare during lockdown, due to the closure of saleyards around the country.
Trade Me’s head of marketplace Lisa Stewart says the company has worked with both Federated Farmers and the Ministry for Primary Industries to understand the issue.
"With typical public livestock sales closed due to the lockdown, farmers are restricted in how they sell their livestock at this busy time of year,” she says.
Stewart says Trade Me is now a registered essential seller with MPI, so it is able to provide this service to farmers.
“We hope this will help them to move and buy the animals they need during the lockdown,” she says.
Federated Farmers meat & wool chair Miles Anderson says the Trade Me platform will be useful for farmers.
“We’ve got pretty much a perfect storm of factors impacting animal feed – the COVID-19 complications, drought in many parts of the country and under-powered meat processing capability due to lockdown restrictions,” he says.
“Opening up Trade Me to livestock sales and livestock feed sales gives farmers another option to deal with some of the issues they’re facing.”
Rural trader PGG Wrightson has revised its operating earnings guidance, saying trading conditions have deteriorated since the last market update in February.
It's been a bumper season for maize and other supplements in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
Leading farmers from around New Zealand connected to share environmental stories and inspiration and build relationships at the Dairy Environment Leaders (DEL) national forum in Wellington last month.
AgriZeroNZ, a joint venture fast-tracking emissions reduction tools for farmers, is pouring $5 million in a biotech company to develop a low emissions farm pasture with increased productivity gains.
Fonterra is teaming up with wealth app provider Sharesies to make it easier for its farmer shareholders to trade co-op shares among themselves.
Te Awamutu dairy farmers Doug, Penny, Josh and Bayley Storey have planted more than 25,000 native trees on the family farm, adding to a generations-old native forest.