The 2021 New Zealand export onion season is off to an early and positive start. ‘Amongst all the turmoil created by Covid and the weather, it’s great to be able to report that exports of New Zealand onions to Indonesia are underway, two months earlier than last year,’ says Onions New Zealand Chief Executive, James […]
Agri Business
The underground army
New Zealand is recognised as the world’s leading pastoral agricultural producer. Pasture-based exports account for almost half of our total exports and given the state of the rest of the world, we are quickly becoming globally recognised as gold standard food producers. Unfortunately, all that productivity puts us in the shit…. tonnes of it. It’s […]
Dairy notches record milksolid production in tough year
It’s been another record year for New Zealand’s dairy sector, with total milksolids production at a record high. The DairyNZ and Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) statistics show that in the 2019-20 season, New Zealand dairy companies processed 21.1 billion litres of milk containing 1.90 billion kilograms of milksolids (kg MS). This is a 0.6 percent […]
Agcarm appoints new animal health expert
The industry association for crop protection and animal health manufacturers and distributors has appointed Jeff Howe as its technical manager. Jeff Howe replaces Jan Quay, after a seventeen-year tenure, as Agcarm’s animal health expert. As well as taking the lead on animal health issues, Jeff provides technical support on the company’s crop protection and rural […]
Distribution partnership will lead to ‘connected cows’
Herd improvement and agri-tech cooperative LIC has formed a distribution partnership with Israeli-based Afimilk to market its hi-tech cow collars in New Zealand, supporting a global trend towards ‘connected cows’. The AfiCollar, worn around the neck, collects data on animal health, wellbeing and fertility. Afimilk is one of the dairy industry’s leading producers of cow […]
Federated Farmers hails pragmatic migrant worker visa decisions
Farmers and growers up and down the land will be pleased with the pragmatic decision by government to extend visas for migrant workers already on our shores. “The six-month extension for employer-assisted work visa holders and the postponed stand down period for low-paid Essential Skills via holders will come as a relief for the primary […]
Wishing all our members a Merry Christmas
If you’ve always wanted to see president Andrew Hoggard in a Santa hat … this is for you. Merry Xmas from all of us, stay safe and have a good break. You can watch it, here. Please note our offices will be closed from December 24 to January 5.
A Christmas message of thanks from Federated Farmers
Before Federated Farmers farewells 2020, it wants to salute and thank some generally unsung heroes. “We all got used to talking about clusters of infection with Covid-19, but in another sense that word cluster is somewhat apt for the entire year,” Feds President Andrew Hoggard says. “It could have been a lot worse for our […]
NZ’s first 100 year agreement to innovate
Lincoln University and Taupō dairy company Miraka have today jointly announced the signing of a ‘100-year’ Memorandum of Understanding to team up and provide a real-world farming context to test innovative new farming practices. The partnership is the first of its kind in New Zealand and research areas will include Aotearoa-specific regenerative agriculture approaches, emerging […]
Primary industry exports close to breaking $50b mark
Economic prospects for the primary sector are bright despite the significant challenges from COVID-19, according to the latest Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries (SOPI) report. The report, released on Tuesday afternoon, forecasts food and fibre export revenue of more than $47.5 billion for the year ending June 2021, and a record $49.2 billion the […]