On the go
OPINION: After hopping from one event to another at Fieldays, Associate Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard would have been hoping for a rest.
FONTERRA'S DECISION to pump $555 million into Edendale and Lichfield plant upgrades represents a huge vote of confidence in the dairy industry and the provinces.
Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard says the investments will be "a great shot in the arm for jobs building this new capacity, let alone the 75 full-time jobs that will be generated plus many more downstream jobs that will flow from it".
"We're more than pleased to see this investment ahead of this season's peak-milk, given last year's buttermilk lakes represented a lost opportunity.
"Fonterra has recognised the need for more capacity with investments worth over half a billion dollars.
"It also shows how wrong it is to think that milk is a low value export."
Fonterra has announced that approval has been given to build a drier at the Lichfield site in South Waikato:
• Capable of processing up to 4.4 million litres per day
• Similar in size to the world's largest drier at Darfield which produces up to 30 metric tonnes of Whole Milk Powder per hour, and 700 metric tonnes per day
• Will use the latest energy-efficient processing and water reuse technology.
Three plants will also be installed at the Edendale site in Southland:
• Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC) plant which separates protein from skim milk and turns it into protein powder – capable of processing 1.1 million litres per day
• Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant which will increase capacity on an existing drier by 300,000 litres per day
• Anhydrous Milk Fat (AMF) plant capable of processing 550,000 litres of milk into cream per day.
A technical lab manager for Apata, Phoebe Scherer, has won the Bay of Plenty 2025 Young Grower regional title.
Following heavy rain which caused flooding in parts of Nelson-Tasman and sewerage overflows in Marlborough, the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO Scheme) is urging homeowners and tenants to be cautious when cleaning up and to take the right steps to support claims.
Newly elected Federated Farmers meat and wool group chair Richard Dawkins says he will continue the great work done his predecessor Toby Williams.
Hosted by ginger dynamo Te Radar, the Fieldays Innovation Award Winners Event put the spotlight on the agricultural industry's most promising ideas.
According to DairyNZ's latest Econ Tracker update, there has been a rise in the forecast breakeven milk price for the 2025/26 season.
Despite the rain and a liberal coating of mud, engines roared, and the 50th Fieldays Tractor Pull Competition drew crowds of spectators across the four days of the annual event.
OPINION: It's official, Fieldays 2025 clocked 110,000 visitors over the four days.
OPINION: The Federated Farmers rural advocacy hub at Fieldays has been touted as a great success.