NZ's handbrake
OPINION: Your old mate gets the sinking feeling that no matter who we vote into power in the hope they will reverse the terminal slide the country is in, there will always be a cohort of naysayers determined to hold us back.
OPINION: This old mutt reckons the climate alarmists at multi-national, tax-dodging, fundraising outfit Greenpeace should be delighted with news that NZ's sheep and dairy cow numbers are falling.
According to the screaming skulls at Greenpeace, all of this country's problems to do with fire, floods, and pestilence are because of farming - particularly livestock farming.
However, the latest Stats NZ figures shows there are now a lot fewer dairy cattle and sheep (down almost 1 million from 2020) on NZ farms.
This is outlined in the latest five-yearly Agricultural Production Census 2022, which was recently released.
It also shows the total number of dairy cattle was 6.1 million at June 2022 - 8% lower than in 2014, when the total dairy cattle herd peaked at 6.7 million.
You'd think Greenpeace would be shouting this big drop in livestock numbers from the hilltops.
Following a recent overweight incursion that saw a Mid-Canterbury contractor cop a $12,150 fine, the rural contracting industry is calling time on what they consider to be outdated and unworkable regulations regarding weight and dimensions that they say are impeding their businesses.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says his officials plan to meet their US counterparts every month from now on to better understand how the 15% tariff issue there will play out, and try and get some certainty there for our exporters about the future.
A landmark New Zealand trial has confirmed what many farmers have long suspected - that strategic spring nitrogen use not only boosts pasture growth but delivers measurable gains in lamb growth and ewe condition.
It was recently announced that former MP and Southland farmer Eric Roy has stepped down of New Zealand Pork after seven years. Leo Argent talks with Eric about his time at the organisation and what the future may hold.
It's critical that the horticulture sector works together as part of a goal to double the sector’s exports by 2035.
RaboResearch, the research arm of specialist agriculture industry banker Rabobank, sees positives for the Alliance Group in its proposed majority-stake sale to Ireland's Dawn Meats.