No regrets choosing cows over boardroom
Winning the 2025 New Zealand Share Farmers of the Year still hasn't sunk in for Thomas and Fiona Langford.
New Zealand 2020 Sharefarmer of the Year, Nick Bertram has apologised for historic tweets where he used bad language.
Read: Sharefarmer of the Year in hot water over social media posts.
Bertram says he’s very embarrassed about the “tongue-in-cheek jokes”.
“On the most controversial tweet I did comment at the time further down in the thread ‘To make it clear this not a practise that we do and I am stirring the Pot’.
“This is definitely not a practice which we do and does not reflect the level of respect that I have for my animals. However, I now understand this is a highly inappropriate thing to post on social media.
“I took a year off twitter to focus on the family and I have been back on twitter for just over a year now. Looking back on my tweets I am embarrassed and ashamed to have tweeted something like that. I now have a far better understanding of social media, realising that twitter is a very public forum.
“Animal health and wellbeing is a huge focus of our operation and those tweets did not reflect that.”
Bertram says he would welcome anybody to his farm, “who would like to view our operation to see how we treat our animal and the high level of respect we show them”.
Animal welfare group SAFE today released a statement highlighting “profanity-laden” tweets from Bertram’s twitter account. One described the cruel and illegal methods he uses to handle his cows, which he called ‘bitches.’
It called on NZ Dairy Industry Awards (NZDIA) to strip Bertram of his award.
NZDIA Trust chair Natasha Tere says they have been made aware of “historical comments” made by Bertram and are investigating.
Tere says NZDIA follows a robust and thorough judging process based on what is happening on-farm today.
“Entrants are judged on information presented and on the farming practices the person follows currently,” she says.
“Judges do not look for and are not aware of historical social media comments.”
Two butcheries have claimed victory at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for 2025.
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
The Government’s directive for state farmer Landcorp Farming (trading as Pamu) to lifts its performance is yielding results.
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at Ospri officially started this month, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
OPINION: Will synthetic milk derail NZ's economy?
OPINION: According to media reports, the eye-watering price of butter has prompted Finance Minister Nicola Willis to ask for a…