PGG Wrightson Revenue Tops $1.1b as Profit Jumps 46%
After delivering a strong financial year, rural trader PGG Wrightson says the coming months will depend on customer confidence and weather.
Finance Minister Bill English says it turns out that the country is not as dependent on the dairy industry as we thought.
"We certainly benefited from its strength through 2009-10 when the dairy industry helped pull the country out of recession ," he says.
"Now we see a whole range of industries where there size is such when they grow as they are, it is taking the whole national economy forward."
English made the comments while opening the 2016 National Fieldays.
English singled out the horticulture industry and the sheep and beef industry as doing well.
He says the economy has pretty strong prospects because "it turns out we have a well balanced export sector".
"Of course there are risks out there; on any given day we can worry about whether the Chinese credit bubble will burst or whether Britain will leave the EU.
"Both of these things look a bit more likely this week than they did last week."
Testing confirms H5 bird flu in a single northern giant petrel, found dead on a remote Cape Palliser beach in the Wairarapa, says Dr Mary van Andel, the Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI) Chief Veterinary Officer.
"What's for dinner?" may sound like a simple question, but for many Kiwi parents, answering it has become a job in itself.
Fifty Eight years ago, on the 16th of August 1968, August Claas, the founder of the harvesting company and father of Helmut Claas, personally presented a Claas Senator combine harvester to Scottish farmer John Steven.
New Zealand consumers are paying more for beef mince than ever before, with the average retail price now sitting above $24 per kilogram, according to Rabobank.
State farmer Pamu has delivered its strongest operating result on record.
Four years since it was first detected in New Zealand, researchers and growers now know much more about management of maize pest fall armyworm (FAW).