Misguided campaign
OPINION: Last week, Greenpeace lit up Fonterra's Auckland headquarters with 'messages from the common people' - that the sector is polluting the environment.
Taranaki is one the true heartlands of the dairy industry, says Fonterra chairman John Wilson.
He made the comment while opening the co-op’s annual general meeting today at its Whareroa plant in Hawera.
“The co-op model first arrived in Taranaki back in 1890s and became the mainstay of the region’s dairy industry,” he says.
Taranaki has always been at the forefront of dairy innovation; the rotary cowshed was invented in the region.
New Zealand’s first dairy export is credited to a Taranaki – the first shipment of butter was sent to the UK from here.
Wilson says the country now exports on average $14 billion of dairy products every year.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).