Cuddling cows
OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its cows and instead charge visitors to cuddle them.
New data from Statistics NZ shows that Canterbury had the biggest fall in agricultural emissions, down 2.7%, mainly due to a decline in livestock numbers.
Unsurprisingly, Greenpeace has jumped in, claiming this is clear evidence that lowering cow stocking rates works to cut climate pollution and harping that lowering stocking rates is the simple answer to our climate change woes.
However, what the statistics really show is improving efficiency within the dairy industry. Our farmers are milking fewer cows but still producing the same amount of milk, thanks to better genetics and on-farm practices.
And over time, with new science and technology and even better genetics, our emissions will be lower. No one is buying the activists' suggestion to lower stock numbers.
Federated Farmers is joining major industry-good bodies in not advocating for the Government to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.
Within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, conservatively valued at $150 billion in farming assets.
Boutique Waikato cheese producer Meyer Cheese is investing in a new $3.5 million facility, designed to boost capacity and enhance the company's sustainability credentials.
OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.
Compensation assistance for farmers impacted by Mycoplama bovis is being wound up.
OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its…
OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content…