With cattle keeping on top of feed, demand has been flat in the North Island. Store prices in the paddock have eased slightly although good quality cattle continue to sell well.

The North Island lamb kill is beginning to lift off seasonal lows and this will begin to happen in the South Island as well over the coming weeks.

DOES THIS sound familiar? You write all your calvings into your notebook or on a scrap of paper, then when you go to enter it in the computer it’s missing – or you’re unsure whether one digit is a 6 or a 0. 

It's calving time and that means children all around New Zealand are making some very important decisions on which one they would like to take to Calf Club.

The wet weather around the North Island this week and last has slowed store cattle trading even further.

A NEW 3-point linkage sprayer from Hardi allows the operator to stay in the tractor cab during spraying, and to expect less of the downtime sometimes suffered by booms during travel.

EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT on dairy farms is improving. A national snapshot, to be released in November, will show the 2011-12 season’s significant non-compliance dropping below 10% from 11% in 2010-11 and 16% in 2009-10.

IT NEVER rains, it pours. Once again in 2012, La Nina has caused large areas of Australia to flood. It comes as a cruel blow after so many years of drought, and with the exception of the west, most states have been inundated where the dairy cattle are found.

A new innovation means farmers can set up drafting of cows for the next milking from wherever they happen to be, and in the time it takes to send a text.

The winds that hit South Taranaki earlier this month were ferocious, devastating and all over in a matter of hours. But it’ll take several weeks, possibly months to clean up the mess as Dairy News reporter Peter Burke found out when he toured the worst-hit areas last week.