$20m facial eczema research funding announced
Government and the red meat sector are teaming up to help eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) on farmed animals.
Beef + Lamb NZ director Kirsten Bryant is concerned about the perception that hill country farmers aren’t doing well.
Bryant says she and her husband have three hill country farms and financially they have never done as well as they are doing now. Their properties are returning 5% to 8% on capital. “I don’t know where this perception that hill country farming is not profitable has come from,” she told Rural News.
“For a start, let’s not forget about hill country farms that this is where the lambs are bred. So you start focusing on hill country farming as a negative and talking it down and soon you are going to lose your breeding ewes and total lamb production,” she says.
Bryant says BLNZ has work to do to dispel the thinking that hill country farms are not profitable.
She says, in general, things are looking positive for sheep and beef farmers. However, a whole lot of things are changing outside the farmgate and the challenge is going to be keeping farmers abreast of all of these developments and helping them to adapt in a positive way.
Bryant says the big issues relate to environmental performance, climate change, water quality and health and safety
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.