The recent holiday deluge of rain in the south saw two very different reactions. There was despair from the holiday makers trying to take a break from the year we’d had, right through to joy and relief from the local farmers, who were even prepared to tolerate the disruption the flooding brought because of their […]
Adverse Events
Summer fire prevention campaign aims to reduce risk
Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s new ‘check it’s alright’ website allows anyone about to light a fire to check to see if the conditions are right and if they’ve taken the right actions to reduce fire risk. Check out the website here: https://www.checkitsalright.nz/ . It features a quick 3-step ‘Can I Light A Fire?’ tool […]
Resilient Kiwi spirit kept agriculture strong through pandemic
Kiwi ingenuity and a drive to “make it work” have been pivotal in New Zealand’s agriculture sector getting through the COVID-19 pandemic with relatively little impact, according to a new study by AgResearch and its partners. Farmers and others working in the agriculture and food systems in New Zealand and Australia were surveyed or interviewed […]
Farmers walking the talk on climate change
OPINION: With the government declaring a climate emergency, it’s timely to recap what actions farmers are taking to further reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint. I say ‘further reduce’ deliberately. We’re already ahead of many other dairy and meat producing nations on the greenhouse gas front. While the global average for emissions from milk production, processing, and transport […]
Be prepared – tips to get your home fire safe for summer
As summer approaches, Fire and Emergency wants people living with a risk of wildfire to act now and protect their homes from the wildfire hazard. This includes people living in rural communities, on lifestyle blocks and near town boundaries or large areas of scrub and bush. Fire and Emergency Wildfire Specialist Graeme Still says identifying […]
Tales of WWII land girls shared
Among the crowd of more than 120 who travelled to Maungati, near Timaru, on October 18 to remember the World War II ‘land girls’ were two particularly special guests – Sadie Lietze (nee Stuart) and Daphne Attfield (nee Williams). Now in their late 90s, the pair represented the last of the ranks of the New […]
Surviving to thriving – Diary of a drought
A drought is defined as a rainfall deficit that restricts or prevents a human activity – for example, farming or power generation.Extended dry periods are experienced in New Zealand most years, but whether or not they are classed as drought depends on a range of different factors. Hawke’s Bay and Northland are currently in the […]