Mountain Warrior's words of wisdom
The Mountain Warrior Shane Cameron is coming back to his roots as key note speaker at the East Coast Farming Expo Property Brokers Evening Muster in February.
Eastland Energy will recreate its Electric Village at the Wairoa A&P Showgrounds during the expo. The interactive display will include electric vehicles and other options for energy.
The East Coast Farming Expo has secured its place on the region’s rural event calendar with three key sponsors giving their support to the 2018 event.
Rural News Group and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council are back -- they sponsored the expos in 2016 and 2017 -- and Eastland Group is aboard as a sponsor for the second time.
Acting land manager for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Nathan Heath, said HBRC is looking forward to this year’s expo and is proud to be a major sponsor.
“We believe the expo has the potential to be a must-do event on the annual farming calendar,” he said.
“Rapid growth in technology can make significant improvements to the way we farm. So to have access to people researching, producing or selling this technology on our doorstep is a great opportunity for the community to learn more.”
Staff on the council’s site will answer questions about the work they are doing and discuss proposed changes to services for the Wairoa community.
Eastland Group returns as a key sponsor in 2018 and chief executive Matt Todd said the company is excited to be involved.
“We’re delighted to be a strategic sponsor of the expo for the second year running,” he says. “We believe the expo’s focus on innovation can be of genuine value to the farming community and the region as a whole.”
Todd says Eastland Group’s newly opened Electric Village, at 37 Gladstone Road, Gisborne, is a NZ-first community space focusing on emerging energy technologies.
“We’ll be bringing Electric Village on the road to Wairoa, giving farmers the chance to have conversations about electric vehicles, electric bikes and farm bikes, our solar research trials, and possible savings on their power bills.
“And we look forward to hearing how they envisage their businesses being powered in the future.”
Rural News Group general manager Adam Fricker says that judging by the strong turnout of exhibitors and sponsors for the expo this year, the industry is acknowledging farmers’ ongoing interest in bringing innovations into their farm businesses.
“Events like this are vital to allow new technology and farming techniques to be discussed and shared throughout the industry,” he said.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (the College) and Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network are calling for investment in a proposed new training pathway for rural GPs, warning that many rural practices are struggling to recruit while a large share of the existing workforce nears retirement.
Federated Farmers has called on Central Otago District Council (CODC) to drop or vote down a plan to truck sludge from Alexandra and Cromwell to farmland near Lauder, warning it would compound an "outrageous" situation created by a separate council's decision weeks earlier.
Synlait has swung to second-half profit as operations stabilise, but the dairy processor still posted a $75.4m annual loss.
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.

OPINION: The same mainstream media muppets that brought you Jacindamania in 2017 have been flat out pimping for the Opportunities…
OPINION: Your old mate reckons the atrocious way farmers in the UK are treated by their lords and masters in…