Editorial: Punching Above Our Weight
OPINION: With 10,500 dairy farms, New Zealand continues to punch above its weight around the world.
OUTSPOKEN SOUTH Canterbury farmer Leonie Guiney has been elected to the Fonterra board.
Fonterra shareholders have also retained sitting directors John Monaghan and David MacLeod. Three candidates – Grant Rowan, Gray Baldwin and Gary Reymer - missed out; director voting figures are not released by the co-op.
Guiney lives and farms near Fairlie where she is director of four dairy farming companies. She has previous experience as a consulting officer, dairy production lecturer and has studied overseas cooperatives in the Netherlands and Ireland. Guiney was the 2014 winner of the low-input Dairy Business of the Year.
A passionate supporter of Fonterra's co-op model, she was vocal during the TAF process, speaking out against selling share units to investors. TAF was passed by 64% of Fonterra shareholders.
Guiney will join the board at Fonterra's annual meeting in Palmerston North tomorrow.
Shareholders Murray Holdaway and Philip Wilson were elected unopposed as members of the Directors' Remuneration Committee.
In the Shareholders Council elections, Penny Smart, Malcolm Piggott, Wilson James and Ellen Bartlett were elected.
Signing up to a benchmarking tool is not about competition, but about improving collectively, says Ximena Puig and Alvaro Luzardo who are 50-50 sharemilkers at a 164-hectare (effective) dairy farm in Eketāhuna in the Lower North Island.
A leading British farming politician says he's impressed with the positive attitude of New Zealand farmers that he met during his recent trip here.
OPINION: With 10,500 dairy farms, New Zealand continues to punch above its weight around the world.
The Southern Dairy Hub (SDH), which runs a demonstration farm for South Island farmers, has a new general manager.
Esther Guy-Meakin has been announced as the new chief executive of the New Zealand Meat Board (NZMB).
According to a progress report on the Aotearoa Horticulture Action Plan (AHAP), New Zealand's horticulture sector is making real progress on the big issues facing growers.
OPINION: The Irish dairy sector is facing a new dilemma - maintaining year-round fresh milk supplies.
OPINION: Could beef cows play an increasingly important role in improving profitability and resilience on hill country farms?