'Living labs' to tackle emissions
Living labs that bring together expertise at locations around New Zealand are among potential solutions identified by researchers to help the country move towards a more climate resilient future.
Former AgResearch scientist Tom Fraser, who ran the recent field day, says there is a lot of potential for biological control, but it can be very slow.
The only exception to this has been the parasitoid introduced to control clover root weevil; this began working well within a couple of years.
“But in most cases biological control is slow. Farmers are reasonably impatient people and they like to see things happen tomorrow. We have to accept that most biological control is slow, but the beauty is once it’s there it’s free and it will do its thing for a long time.”
Biological control suits sheep and beef hill country farms, Fraser says. It’s too difficult to use a tractor and too expensive for a helicopter so there is a definite need for biological control.
While chemical sprays are an option, most farmers would prefer the other options.
“The other thing about biological control is that you won’t eradicate the pest or the weed. The word is control, Fraser told Rural News. “You have to have the weed (or other pest) there as the host for the bio-control agent to live on. If you got rid of all the cali thistle then the beetle would die as well.”
Fraser says many pests in New Zealand have natural predators in their countries of origin that could be exploited as bio-control agents.
“A lot of the weeds and pests that have come into New Zealand have done well because they have escaped from their natural predators.” Biological control aims at reuniting the pest with its natural enemies.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says New Zealand has no intention of backing down in a trade dispute with Canada over dairy products.
There have been leadership changes at the Hamilton-based Dairy Goat Co-operative, which has been struggling financially in recent years.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
OPINION: In recent years farmers have been crying foul of unworkable and expensive regulations.
Another 16 commercial beef farmers have been selected to take part in the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme designed to help drive the uptake of genetics in the industry.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Kiwi exporters will be $100 million better off today as the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) comes into force.