NZ Ploughing Team to Use Borrowed Gear After Shipping Mix-Up
The New Zealand ploughing team to the world championship in Croatia next month will be banking on borrowed equipment as they seek glory.
Ideal conditions greeted competitors at the 61st National Ploughing championships held near Rongotea in the Manawatu over the weekend.
The weather was fine and sunny and this helped attract good crowds for the two days of competition. There was a good representation from both the North and South Island for the event.
The chairman of World Ploughing, Colin Millar says the local organisers and the owner of the land where the competition was held really stepped up to the mark because it was beautiful site and well prepared land. The event was well run.
"The soil conditions were amazing, the level of the grass and the stubble was exceptional. We told the competitors they could remove as much straw as they like because there was no straw on the site," he says.
One of the events which attracted the crowds was the Rural News sponsored horse ploughing competition which saw six competitors in the race to win the coveted Rural News trophy. Sean Leslie and Kaye Walker from Middlemarch who took out the trophy.
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
For Canterbury dairy farmers Sian Meijer and Rick Wobben, wearable technology has become one of their most valuable on-farm tools - helping manage 1850 cows across an expansive, high-performing dairy operation while improving efficiency, mating outcomes and day-to-day decision making.
Fonterra has unveiled its annual results for the 2026 financial year, posting $27 billion in revenue and close to $20 billion returned to New Zealand farmer owners and unit holders.
The first major update to the Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare in more than a decade has been released, marking what DairyNZ describes as an important step in ensuring animal welfare standards continue to evolve alongside scientific evidence and on-farm realities.