Keeping cyber attacks at bay
Fonterra says it takes the ongoing threat of 'adverse cyber action' extremely seriously.
Anchor Light Proof milk bottles will soon appear on farms but you won’t find them in a fridge.
Fonterra has teamed up with Kiwi-owned start-up Future Post to turn milk bottles and other soft plastics into farm fence posts — from 100% recycled material.
Fonterra Brands New Zealand’s (FBNZ) sustainability and environment manager, Larisa Thathiah, says the posts are a step forward in farm sustainability.
“This provides farmers with an environmentally friendly fencing option made from the packaging of our farmers’ milk,” says Thathiah. “It’s [cutting] waste or at least turning it into something useful.”
The posts are expected to last at least 50 years.
The managing director of Future Post, Jerome Wenzlick, welcomes the support of Fonterra and he hopes the company will develop other sustainable products for farmers.
“We’re using waste that could have gone to landfill,” says Wenzlick. “This gives us access to a steady supply of raw material from the co-op’s own recycling initiatives, and to the network of nationwide Farm Source stores that can sell the fence posts.
“Future Post is a start-up, but we have plans for new products in 2019 including for non-farming sectors.”
The posts will go on sale in the new year in some Fonterra Farm Source stores in the North Island, and in South Island stores mid-2019.
Among the regular exhibitors at last month’s South Island Agricultural Field Days, the one that arguably takes the most intensive preparation every time is the PGG Wrightson Seeds site.
Two high producing Canterbury dairy farmers are moving to blended stockfeed supplements fed in-shed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to boost protein levels, which they can’t achieve through pasture under the region’s nitrogen limit of 190kg/ha.
Buoyed by strong forecasts for milk prices and a renewed demand for dairy assets, the South Island rural real estate market has begun the year with positive momentum, according to Colliers.
The six young cattle breeders participating in the inaugural Holstein Friesian NZ young breeder development programme have completed their first event of the year.
New Zealand feed producers are being encouraged to boost staff training to maintain efficiency and product quality.
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