Fieldays’ sustainability credentials getting greener
The New Zealand National Fieldays Society has achieved a major sustainability milestone - reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and reaching the target five years early.
The German cultivation and seeding machinery maker Lemken is chasing more business in New Zealand.
It set up a subsidiary in mid 2018 to support its business in New Zealand and Australia. This is to give new dealers and customers in NZ a more direct link to the company, better technical support, a wider choice of tillage and seeding equipment and greater access to demonstration machines.
Lemken managing director and sales manager Robert Wensing says the move will be crucial to Lemken’s growth and will help develop the company’s partnerships with local dealers.
“We have begun establishing our new dealer network,” Wensing said. The first dealers are Te Aroha Tractors, Te Aroha, and Tractor Repairs and Spares (TRS) in Renwick, Seddon, Richmond and Hawke’s Bay.
“We expect to make further announcements regarding new dealers soon,” said Wensing.
New Lemken products will be launched in NZ later this year, Wensing said. These will include the Rubin 10-disc cultivator with larger discs than the Rubin 9 it replaces, a symmetrical disc layout and much improved overload protection.
Other releases will include the Diamant 16 plough and Solitair 23 front-mounted, air-seeder.
Lemken will be at site A15 at Fieldays.
Farmer interest continues to grow as a Massey University research project to determine the benefits or otherwise of the self-shedding Wiltshire sheep is underway. The project is five years in and has two more years to go. It was done mainly in the light of low wool prices and the cost of shearing. Peter Burke recently went along to the annual field day held Massey's Riverside farm in the Wairarapa.
Applications are now open for the 2026 NZI Rural Women Business Awards, set to be held at Parliament on 23 July.
Ravensdown has announced a collaboration with Kiwi icon, Footrot Flats in an effort to bring humour, heart, and connection to the forefront of the farming sector.
Forest & Bird's Kiwi Conservation Club is inviting New Zealanders of all ages to embrace the outdoors with its Summer Adventure Challenges.
Grace Su, a recent optometry graduate from the University of Auckland, is moving to Tauranga to start work in a practice where she worked while participating in the university's Rural Health Interprofessional Programme (RHIP).
Two farmers and two farming companies were recently convicted and fined a total of $108,000 for environmental offending.

OPINION: The release of the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill to replace the Resource Management Act is a red-letter day…
OPINION: Federated Farmers has launched a new campaign, swapping ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ for ‘The Twelve Pests of Christmas’ to…