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OPINION: This old mutt reckons the latest red meat export numbers bring to mind the old maxim, "When China sneezes, the world catches a cold".
Certainly, it's lower demand from China that's holding back a recovery to full health in meat industry returns, whoch had been decidedly sick until recently.
MIA data shows positive growth overall in June, driven by the US, up 14% to $303m, Japan up 53% to $61m, the UK up 66% to $61m and Canada, up 94% to $51m.
China, still the second largest market after the US, was down 38% to $176m - dragging the June average back to a 2% increase overall.
Same deal with second quarter red meat exports, down 1% to $2.9b despite all major markets boosting volumes, except China, which was down a whopping 40%.
OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.
OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."
OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.
OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.
OPINION: Nothing it seems can be done in the short term to get Donald Trump to change his mind about removing the unfair 15% tariffs that he’s imposed on New Zealand exports to the US.
Environment Southland's catchment improvement funding is once again available for innovative landowners in need of a boost to get their project going.
The team meeting at the Culverden Hotel was relaxed and open, despite being in the middle of calving when stress levels are at peak levels, especially in bitterly cold and wet conditions like today.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
OPINION: The phasing out of copper network from communications is understandable.
Driven by a lifelong passion for animals, Amy Toughey's journey from juggling three jobs with full-time study to working on cutting-edge dairy research trials shows what happens when hard work meets opportunity - and she's only just getting started.
The New Zealand Fish & Game Council has announced a leadership change in an effort to provide strategic direction for the sector and support the implementation of proposed legislative changes.
