Editorial: O Canada
OPINION: The Canadian government's love affair with its lifestyle dairy farmers has got it into trouble once again.
Aged 64, Malcolm Bailey says farewell after a stellar career in the dairy industry but his knowledge, innovation and drive will not be lost to the wider primary sector.
He's got no plans for politics; his focus will be on the many innovative technology companies he's involved with. He says countries such as the US which have strong economic engines are at the leading edge in the technology space. He says NZ also has the potential to do that and says his economic background is helpful when it comes to crunching numbers and seeing whether a venture is profitable.
One of the companies he's involved with is Greentech Robotics, based in Palmerston North, which is in the final stages of having one of its products, WeedSpider, operating on farms in the US. It's set to be the world's first truly autonomous weeding robot capable of identifying and eliminating weeds in a variety of crops, without a human lifting a finger.
Bailey says the idea was developed to help commercial vegetable growers who worldwide are facing labour shortages. The robot drives up and down the rows of plants, identifying and removing the weeds. The company has other products in the pipeline. He says throughout his life he's been prepared to put some resource into developing new businesses and helping to create new jobs. The next phase of his life will be in the technology sector.
Fieldays 2025 opens this week with organisers saying the theme, 'Your Place', highlights the impact the event has on agriculture both in the Southern Hemisphere and across the globe.
Sam Carter, assistant manager for T&G's Pakowhai Sector, has been named the Hawke's Bay 2025 Young Grower of the Year.
The CEO of Apples and Pears NZ, Karen Morrish, says the strategic focus of her organisation is to improve grower returns.
A significant breakthrough in understanding facial eczema (FE) in livestock brings New Zealand closer to reducing the disease’s devastating impact on farmers, animals, and rural communities.
Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.
OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).