Massey University to upskill teachers amid rising ag subject demand
There's been unprecedented demand from secondary school students across the country to study agricultural related subjects.
Digital dermatitis is the most serious infectious cause of lameness in dairy cattle worldwide.
The disease now affects New Zealand dairy herds, says Richard Laven, associate professor in production animal health at Massey University.
Typically, digital dermatitis is found on the skin just above the interdigital space, and it may also be found along the coronary band. Digital dermatitis is most commonly found on the hind feet; fewer than 3% of affected cattle have lesions on the front feet only.
The classical lesion of digital dermatitis is a moist ulcer, Laven says.
However, digital dermatitis is a cyclical disease with lesions forming, healing and then returning, so it has multiple stages. The most persistent stage (often called M4) is a chronic thickening of the skin with rapidly spreading growths which can often resemble hairs (in some countries these are called hairy hoof warts).
In NZ the most common appearance of digital dermatitis is a small lesion less than 1 cm in size.
Larger lesions, either when they develop into ulcers or when they are growing, tend to be extremely painful
Digital dermatitis was first identified in Northern Italy in 1974, and is now reported worldwide.
The first NZ case occurred in 2004, with sporadic reports until around 2011 when the number increased markedly.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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