THE MEAT industry has taken a small step in rationalisation with Blue Sky Meats buying a Gore beef and venison exporter.

FARMERS WILL support any agreement between meat processors on a moratorium on new plants, says Beef + Lamb NZ chairman James Parsons.

THE MEAT Industry Excellence (MIE) group says it will endorse just one new candidate for Silver Fern Farms' co-op elections.

LAMBS GRAZING high sugar ryegrass (HSG) grow faster and heavier than lambs grazing a standard ryegrass (SRG), according to a two-year trial on three farms in the southern South Island.

RURAL SERVICE trader Allied Farmers has returned an unaudited net profit of $1.1 million, turning around a $4.4m loss last year.

ALLIANCE GROUP chief executive Grant Cuff will be stepping down in December, following the company's annual meeting.

AFTER TWO and a half years of "industry turmoil", Blue Sky Meats is back in the black, and its chairman Graham Cooney predicts its result is a bell-weather for the sector.

LEADING MEAT processor and exporter Alliance Group has completed commissioning the second stage of its $25 million new rendering plant at Lorneville near Invercargill.

RECENT CLAIMS in an Auckland magazine about shoddy inspections in the meat industry show that New Zealand needs a separate food safety authority, says Labour Primary Industries spokesman Damien O’Connor.

SUPPLIERS TO Hawkes Bay-based Lean Meats' Atkins Ranch Producer Group are set to get a $3.89 per lamb Christmas present in the last week of December.