New pasture guide launched to support farmers in a changing climate
A new publication has been launched that offers a comprehensive and up-to-date resource on commercially available grazing pasture species in New Zealand.
Kate Stewart, helped by a pet ram lamb Skippy, won this year’s Massey University Rural News Group-sponsored video competition.
The competition involved students creating a ‘commercial’ to encourage students in secondary schools to choose a career in agri and Massey University as the place to do this.
Good entries poured in, but none could head off Skippy the lamb, who led viewers on a tour of the university, on field trips and even to the Massey/Lincoln exchange visit.
This was the clear and popular winner.
Stewart, who has now completed her ag science degree, hales from Palmerston North and is heading to Te Awamutu as a DairyNZ trainee consulting officer. While she doesn’t come from a farm, her grandparents do.
“I went to Palmy girls college, but my grandparents have a dairy farm 20 minutes out of the city and I love the people and animals – especially calving,” she told Rural News. “I’d stay out with my grandparents every weekend so that sparked the love of agriculture.”
Stewart says she saw others making videos and after taking Skippy along to campus she decided he had a good story to tell.
“So I put the footage together and entered it in the competition. I enjoyed making the video as I hadn’t made one since I was at secondary school. It was quite a challenge at times, but Skippy cooperated and didn’t leave any ‘visiting cards’ in the library,” she says.
Stewart also won the Young Farmers Sally Hobson Award.
Fonterra has unveiled the first refrigerated electric truck to deliver dairy products across Auckland.
Research and healthcare initiatives, leadership and dedication to the sector have been recognised in the 2025 Horticulture Industry Awards.
Virtual fencing and pasture management company Halter says its NZ operations has delivered a profit of $2.8 million after exclusion of notional items.
Manuka honey trader Comvita slumped to a $104 million net loss last financial year, reflecting prolonged market disruption, oversupply and pricing volatility.
The Government has struck a deal with New Zealand's poultry industry, agreeing how they will jointly prepare for and respond to exotic poultry diseases, including any possible outbreak of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI).
The conversion of productive farmland into trees has pretty much annihilated the wool industry.