Farmer investment pays off
Investment by landowners to keep stock and sediment out of the Rangitikei River and its tributaries has been given the big tick from a population of Dwarf Galaxiids, which require healthy streams to survive.
A new study is showing dairy and conservation sites can co-exist, and its findings are contributing to an ongoing project restoring natural biodiversity into a dairy farming environment.
'Persistence of biodiversity in a dryland remnant within an intensified dairy farm landscape', looks at Bankside Scientific Reserve, a small (2.6 ha) remnant in Canterbury surrounded by dairy paddocks.
It still has valuable communities of native species, despite being impacted by nitrate and phosphate encroachment, and habitat fragmentation.
It concludes "it does not appear to be an intractable management issue for the interface between agricultural systems and conservation sites within a dairy landscape mosaic".
One of the study's authors, Professor of Ecology, Nick Dickinson, and other Lincoln scientists have been tasked by Ngāi Tahu Farming and Manawhenua from Tuahuriri Marae, to turn the little triangles of land which irrigators in paddocks cannot reach into an oasis for native plants and animals on Ngāi Tahu's Eyrewell dairy farm.
Professor Dickinson says the study shows there are "means and ways" to restore natural biodiversity into a dairy farming environment, and the Ngai Tāhu Farming project was an example, covering 150ha on 17 reserves, with a similar additional amount of native species being planted on paddock borders and under irrigators.
These create conditions for more than 65 species of plants to regenerate, and also provide corridors for insects and birds between the reserves.
The research hinges on finding the benefits to the farmer of doing this, to encourage more native planting, he says.
A group set up to boost education and promotion of wool says it has made positive strides during the first year of its three-year strategy.
Meat processor ANZCO Foods says despite a challenging business environment, it has posted a net profit before tax of $61 million for 2023.
The deer industry is working on getting more venison into Asia.
The red meat sector is welcoming the start of trade negotiations between New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Meat processor Alliance Group's cash-strapped farmer shareholders face a dilemma - either pour more money into the co-operative or risk losing 100% ownership and control.
Farmer-led charity, Meat the Need is calling for donations to enable it to supply more meals to families in need.