Project takes aim at pasture persistence problem
Farmers are welcoming a $17 million, seven-year collaborative science and research programme to lift pasture persistence and productivity.
OPINION: Farmers are rightly urging the Government to relax the rules around KiwiSaver and allow young farmers to use their savings towards purchasing either a house, cows or a farm.
After all, National’s agriculture spokesman Todd McClay, on the eve of the last general election, told farmers in Morrinsville that a National-led Government would let young farmers use their KiwiSaver as part of a deposit to buy a farm, or sharemilking herd or for a flock, to help them get on the ownership ladder.
He said people in towns could use KiwiSaver for their first home deposit, but in rural New Zealand, this wasn’t possible.
“This just seems wrong, and the next National Government will fix it,” McClay told farmers back then.
Now Federated Farmers wants the Government to deliver on that pre-election promise.
According to Feds, the announcement was incredibly popular, particularly among the next generation of farmers, but also with older farmers who are looking for succession pathways.
The federation points out that while National MP Suze Redmayne has since submitted a Members’ Bill that would address some of the issues young farmers face, it is but one of more than 70 bills in the Members’ Ballot – effectively a raffle – and her bill may never be drawn.
Federated Farmers national board member Richard McIntyre claims that having a Members’ Bill in the biscuit tin doesn’t even come close to delivering on their campaign promise.
He wants McClay and all rural MPs to really get in behind farmers and push hard on this issue.
With the National Fieldays around the corner, it may be a good venue for the Prime Minister, and McClay to finally deliver on their party’s election promise.
Showcasing the huge range of new technologies and science that is now available was one of the highlights at last week's National Fieldays.
Coby Warmington, 29, a farm manager at Waima Topu Beef near Hokianga was named at the winner of the 2025 Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer Award for sheep and beef.
Northlanders scooped the pool at this year's prestigious Ahuwhenua Trophy Awards - winning both the main competition and the young Maori farmer award.
Red meat farmers are urging the Government to act on the growing number of whole sheep and beef farm sales for conversion to forestry, particularly carbon farming.
The days of rising on-farm inflation and subdued farmgate prices are coming to an end for farmers, helping lift confidence.
A blockbuster year and an exciting performance: that's how Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Director General, Ray Smith is describing the massive upsurge in the fortunes of the primary sector exports for the year ended June 2025.
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