Fonterra’s exit from Australia ‘a major event’
Fonterra’s impending exit from the Australian dairy industry is a major event but the story doesn’t change too much for farmers.
OPINION: The Hound notes that Fonterra is cashing in on the curent government's largesse with taxpayer money.
The dairy co-op recently unveiled its first electric milk tanker for which it received $427,000 in co-funding from taxpayers to offset the estimated total cost of $850,000 to purchase the electric truck cab/chassis and convert it into a tanker.
The tanker - apparently named 'Milk-E' - will be based at Fonterra's Waitoa plant, where there's a lot of close supplying farms on relatively flat land.
This begs the question, just how realistic and sustainable are electric milk tankers if they can only do short runs with no hills to maintain battery life?
Looks like more greenwashing than anything realistic.
Meanwhile, speaking of greenwashing, Energy Minister Megan Woods, who was on hand to unveil the electric truck, had a V8 BMW740 and driver waiting outside to take her to her next appointment!
Fonterra’s impending exit from the Australian dairy industry is a major event but the story doesn’t change too much for farmers.
Expect greater collaboration between Massey University’s school of Agriculture and Environment and Ireland’s leading agriculture university, the University College of Dublin (UCD), in the future.
A partnership between Torere Macadamias Ltd and the Riddet Institute aims to unlock value from macadamia nuts while growing the next generation of Māori agribusiness researchers.
A new partnership between Dairy Women’s Network (DWN) and NZAgbiz aims to make evidence-based calf rearing practices accessible to all farm teams.
Despite some trying circumstances recently, the cherry season looks set to emerge on top of things.
Changed logos on shirts otherwise it will be business as usual when Fonterra’s consumer and related businesses are expected to change hands next month.

OPINION: Here w go: the election date is set for November 7 and the politicians are out of the gate…
OPINION: ECan data was released a few days ago showing Canterbury farmers have made “giant strides on environmental performance”.