"Pasture management is where the farming system starts," says Morrinsville dairy farmer Johan van Ras. In the order of things it comes before animal health because if you haven't got this right, your business can't perform.

A SIMPLE new overload-protection device for Fella disc mowers (those with compact angle drive) prevents costly damage to the cutter bar, reports CB Norwood Distributors.

SOW GRASS into existing pasture, or sow grass or forage crops into cultivated ground, or over-sow and fix pugged paddocks – it's over to you, says Orgin Agroup of its new Hatzenbichler tine harrow with broadcast air seeder.

AS Greenpeace launches its annual attack on dairying's use of palm kernel, drought is looming over key agricultural areas, threatening to put pressure on feed availability.

THE RESOURCE Management Act (RMA) has come under fire from a regional council leader. 

HIGH QUALITY feed, every feed, eaten by the best cows you can breed, to produce a top profit. Those are key principles on Alvin and Judith Reid’s home farm near Winchester, South Canterbury, as members of a new DairyNZ discussion group in the region learnt last week.

FIRST SHIPMENTS of whole milk powder from the newly opened Miraka dairy factory near Taupo are on the way through the supply chain in key Asian markets.

ANALYSTS SAY Fonterra's 45c/kgMS payout revision late last month was no surprise and don't see it as the start of a 2008-9-style slide.