Open Country opens butter plant
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
A new dairy industry workplace accord will be launched in May as part of a range of industry actions aimed at helping farmers attract and retain skilled people to work on farms.
"The Quality Workplace Accord is a commitment to improving the work environment of dairy farms," says DairyNZ's strategy and investment leader for people and business, Mark Paine.
"The overarching goal is to achieve quality work environments through helping farmers implement good people management practices.
"We need a positive reputation for employment practice and we need it now. We have to show our commitment to delivering that for the people who work in our industry and who are considering coming into it.
"This Accord is going to be a strong, visible and public commitment. The accord will have deadlines and set out timeframes for meeting key targets around safety, legal obligations and remuneration policies."
www.dairynz.co.nz
Safer Farms has welcomed its first three regional champions that will be taking the Farm Without Harm message directly into their rural communities.
Farm software outfit Trev has released new integrations with LIC, giving farmers a more connected view of animal performance across the season and turning routine data capture into actionable farm intelligence.
Crafting a successful family succession plan is a notoriously hard act to pull off.
Farmers need not worry about fertiliser supply this autumn but the prices they pay will depend on how the Middle East conflict plays out.
American butter undercutting New Zealand's own product on New Zealand supermarket shelves appears to be a case of markets working as they should, says Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ).
Tech savvy Huntly farmer Rhys Darby believes technology could help solve one of the dairy industry's pressing problems - how to attract more young people into farming.