New plans to boost flood resilience for local community
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council says a new plan for managing the Wairoa River Bar will improve resilience for the Wairoa community in flood events.
The dairy industry and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council are 80% towards their goal of achieving 100% compliance with all resource consents.
The solid progress made on compliance was celebrated at the recent Dairy Compliance Award, which recognise farmers who consistently achieve full compliance with their resource consents.
2020 marks the eight year of the awards, which cover water takes, farm dairy effluent and air discharge consents.
At the event, it was revealed that 38 of 75 farms had been fully compliant for five years. Another 14 farms have been fully compliant since the beginning of the scheme in 2008-9.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council policy and regulation group manager Katrina Brunton congratulated each of the awarded dairy farms.
“We acknowledge the dairy sector’s important contribution to our economy in what has been a difficult year with the challenge of Covid-19 and lockdown,” she said.
“The scheme is important, and we are committed to work in partnership with the sector, and work through challenges together and continue to celebrate progress,” she said.
Hawke’s Bay dairy farmer Elliot Cooper says he and other farmers acknowledge the work of the regional council and staff to help farmers.
“It’s definitely a partnership between us and the Council,” Cooper said, “We don’t go it alone.”
“It’s not an easy job for the Council, with so much regulation coming down the pipeline, and we appreciate what they do.”
The Dairy Awards are supported by sponsors Ravensdown, Farmlands, Fonterra, and Stoney Creek.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand has launched an AI-powered digital assistant to help farmers using the B+LNZ Knowledge Hub to create tailored answers and resources for their farming businesses.
A tiny organism from the arid mountains of mainland Greece is facilitating a new way of growing healthier animals on farms across New Zealand.
OPINION: Westland Milk may have won the contract to supply butter to Costco NZ but Open Country Dairy is having…
OPINION: The Gene Technology Bill has divided the farming community with strong arguments on both the pros and cons of…