Diplomatic Incident
OPINION: Your old mate hears an international incident is threatening to blow up the long-standing Anzac alliance as Kiwis and Aussies argue over who wants new Australian resident and former NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
OPINION: Part of the reason China is buying less of our dairy produce is their success growing their own supply.
It increased its self-sufficiency in milk production by 11 million metric tons/year from 2018 to 2023, or effectively as much as Australia’s current annual production.
China’s annual domestic production is now in the order of 40 billion litres of milk.
The country’s WMP imports plunged from an average of 820,000 metric tons in 2021 to a mere 430,000 metric tons in 2023.
More than half of that drop was at NZ’s expense – the downside to being the biggest supplier of WMP to China.
Aussie and Kiwi farmers once got good money for Friesian heifers to the China live export market but it certainly helped boost growth of their domestic supply.
New Zealand's diverse cheesemaking talent shone brightly last night as the New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) crowned the champions of the 2026 New Zealand Cheese Awards.
Tracing has indicated that the source of the first velvetleaf find of the 2025-26 crop season, in Auckland, was likely maize purchased in the Waikato region.
Fish & Game New Zealand has announced its election priorities in its Manifesto 2026.
With the forage maize harvest started in Northland and the Waikato, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is telling growers of later crops, or those further south, to start checking their maize crop maturity about three weeks prior to when they think they will start silage harvesting.
Irrigation NZ is warning that the government's Resource Management Act (RMA) reform risks falling short of its objectives unless water use for food production and water storage infrastructure are clearly recognised in the goals at the top of the new system.
More than five million trays, or 18,000 tonnes, of Zespri’s RubyRed Kiwifruit will soon be available for consumers across 16 markets this season.