Team effort brings results
For the team at Westmorland Estate Limited in Waikato, it has been another year of everyone working together to achieve impressive results.
Westmoreland Estate Ltd, which runs three dairy farms in Waikato with a multinational team of workers, recently held its annual performance awards.
This event is to celebrate the team and how their hard work contributes to the success of and the wider dairy industry.
The whole Westmoreland team gathered in Matamata for the event; industry stakeholders were also present.
Owned by David and Sue Fish, the three farms - Somerset Farm, Westmoreland Farm, and Sandhurst Farm - supply milk to two co-ops, Fonterra and Tatua.
The Best Cows award 2023 went to the Sandhurst team; Dries Verrycken, Levgenii Dushkevych, Ken Ragasajo and Brian Garcia.
The Lowest SCC Award 2023 went to Somerset team; Dries Verrycken, Fredrico Lopez, Declan Tully and Barbara Hinton.
The Best Calves Award 2023 went to Sandhurst: Dries Verrycken, Paola Verrycken, Levgenii Dushkevych, Ken Ragasajo and Brian Garcia.
The Farm Pride Award was also won by Sandhurst team; Dries Verrycken, Paola Verrycken, Levgenii Dushkevych, Ken Ragasajo and Brian Garcia.
The Empty rate Award 2023 was won by Westmorland team; Dries Verrycken, David Fish, Aubrey Fish and Yurii Kokhanevych.
The chair of Beef + Lamb NZ, Kate Acland says the rush appears to be on to purchase farms and convert them to forestry before new rules limiting this come into effect.
New Zealand farmers will face higher urea prices this year, mainly on the back of tight global supply and a weak Kiwi dollar.
Andy Caughey of Wool Impact says a lot of people in NZ have been saying it's crazy that we are not using natural fibres in our buildings and houses.
Former chief executive of Beef+Lamb New Zealand Scott Champion will head the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) from July.
Avian flu getting into New Zealand's poultry industry is the biosecurity threat that is most worrying for Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard.
The annual domestic utilisation of wool will double to 30,000 tonnes because of the edict that government agencies should use woollen fibre products in the construction of new and refurbished buildings.