Prosecution initiated over piggery effluent discharges
Waikato Regional Council is taking Te Aroha piggery farm to court following an investigation into the discharge of effluent into a stream.
The 2016 annual Effluent Expo at Mystery Creek has been cancelled.
The Waikato Regional Council will instead run catchment-specific field days to promote good effluent management practices.
The council says it will take a fresh approach to helping farmers with effluent management next year, with more catchment field days for providing advice to smaller groups of farmers closer to home.
In recent years, the council has run the annual Effluent Expo at Mystery Creek, an event which has regularly attracted hundreds of farmers and dozens of exhibitors.
The council has decided not to hold an expo at Mystery Creek in 2016 given the dairy payout situation, and it believes its new approach will make things simpler for farmers.
“We feel we can better support farmers in the current economic climate by running effluent management field days in each catchment to help drive overall improvements in effluent systems,” says sustainable agriculture advisor Electra Kalaugher.
Meanwhile, the council also intends having a stand at the Grasslandz agriculture hub in Hamilton in January. “So we won’t be slowing up on offering effluent management advice to farmers even though we’re not going ahead with the Effluent Expo at Mystery Creek,” she says.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford is claiming “some real success” on the 12 policy priorities it placed before the Coalition Government.
Federated Farmers is throwing its support behind the Fast-track Approvals Bill introduced by the Coalition Government to enable a fast-track decision-making process for infrastructure and development projects.
The latest report from ANZ isn’t good news for sheep farmers: lamb returns are forecast to remain low.
Divine table grapes that herald the start of a brand-new industry in Hawke’s Bay have been coming off vines in Maraekakaho.
In what appears to be a casualty of the downturn in the agricultural sector, a well-known machinery brand is now in the hands of liquidators and owing creditors $6.6 million.
One of New Zealand’s deepest breeder Jersey herds – known for its enduring connection through cattle with the UK’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II – will host its 75th anniversary celebration sale on-farm on April 22.