Top wool advocate bales out
The conversion of productive farmland into trees has pretty much annihilated the wool industry.
An iconic agricultural figure – shearer David Fagan – is now Sir David.
Fagan's knighthood was announced in the recent new year honours list and recognises his 30 years at the forefront of competitive shearing sports until his retirement last year.
Fagan won 642 open championships, was an individual world champion five times and a world team champion seven times. He was the first shearer to exceed 800 lambs and 700 ewes in a nine hour working day under world record rules. He has represented New Zealand at least 120 times in various teams.
He was recently appointed chairman of Shearing Sports New Zealand and been on the committee of the New Zealand Shearing Championships since 1985.
Fagan has played a huge role in the promotion of his home town of Te Kuiti as the shearing capital of the world.
Others in the ag sector to recognised in the honours list were farmer John Lee who receives the CNZM for developing a number of tourism businesses in the Cadrona Valley.
The ONZM has been awarded to David Civil for developing dairy by-products as a fertiliser. Dr Andrew McEwen received the same honour for his services to forestry and Professor Norman Williamson also received the ONZM for services to the veterinary profession.
MNZM's were awarded to Jonathon Kirk for devising the K-Line spray irrigation system and Linda Nelson for services to agriculture and women.
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.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.