Science and technology take centre stage at 2025 National Fieldays
Showcasing the huge range of new technologies and science that is now available was one of the highlights at last week's National Fieldays.
A Mid Canterbury farmer who has already lost his dairy herd to Mycoplasma bovis believes MPI is repeating the mistakes it made last year.
Frank Peters says the region’s farmers are “just bloody up in arms” about the surge in M. bovis notifications.
Peters says MPI was told last year to make sure it had everything done before the change of season, yet here was a surge happening at the start of May.
“Suddenly now they’re hot on the case again? Well, come on, you’re supposed to be on it all the way through,” he told Rural News.
Peters has restocked after destroying 1220 cows last year. Although his farm is self-contained with its own winter grazing, he says the new insecurity for those who needed winter grazing, and for the graziers, was “horrendous”.
Meanwhile, he is still waiting for compensation money “but that seems to be normal practice”.
“That seems to be the worst part about it,” Peters added. “They say compensation is like-for-like, but we will never ever be like-for-like when they finish this.”
The country's second largest milk processor hopes to produce its first commercial butter within two months.
There's no doubt that vehicle manufacturers at Fieldays saw a steady stream of rural folk treading the boards.
Fonterra's co-op model and what it does for New Zealand has lured one of its bright stars back on board.
Farmer lobby Federated Farmers is reporting a growth in membership, for the first time in decades.
New Zealand's Ruminant Biotech says that while it has big goals, the scale of the problem it seeks to solve requires it.
The upheaval in the Middle East may have eased the fall in global dairy prices last week.