Data sharing initiative wins national award for saving farmers time
The work Fonterra has done with Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd, LIC and Ravensdown to save farmers time through better data connections has been recognised with a national award.
Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor today announced changes to the legislation governing the dairy industry.
While retaining the contentious open entry and exit provisions, the Government will allow Fonterra the right to refuse supply from newly converted dairy farms.
It will also allow Fonterra to refuse milk supply from farmers in circumstances where milk is not compliant or unlikely to comply with Fonterra’s terms and standards of supply.
Other changes include;
• Limit Fonterra’s discretion in regard to setting a key assumption in calculating the base milk price, the asset beta.
• The DIRA shall be reviewed on a 4 – 6 yearly basis, to provide regulatory certainty.
• Require Fonterra to appoint one member of its Milk Price Panel on the nomination of the Minister of Agriculture.
• Remove the requirement for Fonterra to supply regulated milk to independent processors with their own supply of 30 million litres or more in a single season.
• Update the terms on which Fonterra supplies regulated milk to Goodman Fielder for the benefit of domestic consumers.
“These changes will provide certainty for the dairy industry and ensure the sector can pursue sustainable value growth for the benefit of all New Zealanders,” says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor.
“The industry has changed considerably since 2001, and it is important to ensure the regulatory regime puts the sector in the best possible position,” says O’Connor.
“The Government is committed to building a modern and productive economy and that means being smarter in how we work.
”The changes we’re making will support our dairy sector to produce and export high value goods in a way that sustains the environment it relies upon. DIRA drives much of this work and after 17 years it’s the right thing to do to make it fit for the 21stcentury.
“Following farmers, independent dairy processors, NGOs, and representatives of Maori interests around the country sharing their views, Cabinet this week approved changes to both pieces of legislation. They will now be progressed through Parliament.”
Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.
Within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, conservatively valued at $150 billion in farming assets.
Boutique Waikato cheese producer Meyer Cheese is investing in a new $3.5 million facility, designed to boost capacity and enhance the company's sustainability credentials.
OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.
Compensation assistance for farmers impacted by Mycoplama bovis is being wound up.
Selecting the reverse gear quicker than a lovestruck boyfriend who has met the in-laws for the first time, the Coalition Government has confirmed that the proposal to amend Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) charged against farm utes has been canned.
OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its…
OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content…