PGG Wrightson Revenue Tops $1.1b as Profit Jumps 46%
After delivering a strong financial year, rural trader PGG Wrightson says the coming months will depend on customer confidence and weather.
The biggest number of entries on the first day have been received for the 2013 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards.
National convenor Chris Keeping says 33 entries were received online at www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz yesterday – the first day people could enter the New Zealand Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year, New Zealand Farm Manager of the Year and New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year competitions.
"We are pretty happy with that and it's 10 more than entered on the first day last year," she says.
"The first entrant was a dairy trainee from the Hawke's Bay Wairarapa region who must have entered before milking as the entry was up very early in the morning."
Keeping says the Auckland Hauraki region held its first launch event in Ngatea on the Hauraki Plains last night and that had resulted in seven entrants.
Most regions are holding launch events for people interested in entering the awards this month, details of which are on the website www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz.
The Dairy Industry Awards are supported by national sponsors Westpac, DairyNZ, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda Motorcycles NZ, LIC, Meridian Energy, Ravensdown and RD1, along with industry partner AgITO.
More than 500 people are expected to enter the 2013 awards before entries close on December 20.
New Zealand's pest problem has reached crisis point, according to Federated Farmers' second National Pests Survey, which shows farmers are spending more money and effort on control — yet pest numbers keep climbing faster than they were two years ago.
Testing confirms H5 bird flu in a single northern giant petrel, found dead on a remote Cape Palliser beach in the Wairarapa, says Dr Mary van Andel, the Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI) Chief Veterinary Officer.
"What's for dinner?" may sound like a simple question, but for many Kiwi parents, answering it has become a job in itself.
Fifty Eight years ago, on the 16th of August 1968, August Claas, the founder of the harvesting company and father of Helmut Claas, personally presented a Claas Senator combine harvester to Scottish farmer John Steven.
New Zealand consumers are paying more for beef mince than ever before, with the average retail price now sitting above $24 per kilogram, according to Rabobank.
State farmer Pamu has delivered its strongest operating result on record.
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OPINION: With fuel prices soaring, one would have expected most farmers to be reclaiming excise duty on petrol.