DISAFFECTED FARMER Allan Crafar says bankers have driven his family out of the dairy industry.

DANISH CO-OP Arla Foods has signalled its intentions in China by signing deals with two leading dairy industry companies.

THE TIME for fighting is over. By the time you read this, Fonterra farmers will have had their say on TAF (trading among farmers).

THOSE WHO have been around a while know that one of the certainties of business life is change. That has taken on a new dimension with the volatility of compressed business cycles accentuating positive and negative swings. An obvious example is the recent softening of dairy prices which has cast an unexpected shadow over 2013 and beyond. 

ROTORUA’S KAPENGA M Trust has won the Ahuwhenua Trophy for a second time, taking honours for New Zealand’s best Maori dairy farm. In 2003 it won the award for best Maori sheep-and-beef farm.

DROUGHT AND insect infestation lead to a testing time for ryegrass pasture establishment in the upper North Island from 2004 to 2010, but lessons were learnt.

IT’S THE calm before the storm as dairy farmers wait out the next month or so for the start of calving. But Manawatu DairyNZ consulting officer Abby Hull says there are plenty of important tasks to do in this ‘quiet’ period.

A NEW dairy industry resource for managing mastitis and improving milk quality was unveiled last week by DairyNZ at the New Zealand Milk Quality Conference in Hamilton.   

A TEAT spray released last week in Hamilton is expected to “dramatically reduce” mastitis infection rates in dairy herds.

UDDER HEALTH on dairy farms remains a priority and the control of the infectious pressure of mastitis-causing pathogens is the key to improving dairy herd productivity. This was the conclusion of the recent 5th European Mastitis Panel (EMP) meeting near Bristol, southwest England.