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OPINION: The Hound hears the supposed new collegial working arrangement between Fed Farmers, Beef+Lamb NZ and DairyNZ is off to a rather rocky start.
With the ink barely dry on a recent announcement lauding how the three groups were now taking a closer approach to how they 'work together' on issues affecting farming - there is already major tension.
Apparently, the so-called 'entente cordiale' (as it was so eloquently described by a mate of yours truly) between Feds, B+L and DairyNZ is under threat due to B+L's response to the Greater Wellington Regional Council Plan.
Feds and DairyNZ's submissions said there should be no farming limits, however the submission by their good mates at B+L took the same lines as Forest and Bird, Fish and Game and DoC saying there should be limits, which will mean no more dairying in the region.
Gee - with friends like that who needs enemies!
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Certainty and a clear understanding of the needs of rural communities is a critical outcome in the series of government reforms that are taking place at present.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
Red meat farmers are using higher farmgate returns to make their farms more resilient, says Federated Farmers meat and wool industry group chair Richard Dawkins.
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson says his party – NZ First - isn’t opposed to the “trade element” of a free trade deal with India.
The managing director of a company seeking to build a solar farm in Canterbury says receiving fast-track approval is a “really positive outcome”.
Retiring MP and dairy farmer Mark Cameron is blasting the Green Party for proposing to ban the use of synthetic fertiliser and cutting cow numbers.
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Wayne and Ange Moxham of Horowhenua have just been named as Fonterra's top organic performer for milksolids. As well as providing organic milk to Fonterra, the couple also sell Udderly Organic milk to more than 100 outlets in the region and are embarking on another exciting venture producing organic gelato. Reporter Peter Burke went along to see their farming operation.
Certainty and a clear understanding of the needs of rural communities is a critical outcome in the series of government reforms that are taking place at present.
