Domestic Focus
OPINION: After hogging the media limelight for telling a NZ Chinese MP to "go back home", Winston Peters has decided to focus on a domestic issue - oil and gas drilling.
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.
Ballance Agrinutrients chief executive Kelvin Wickham says despite a tough year, he is pleased the business has returned to profit.
When Northland farmer Mark Cameron entered parliament six years ago, the Beehive was a lonely place.
Speculation of a possible joint move by Fonterra and a2 Milk to buy Synlait raises a much bigger strategic question, says agribusiness expert Dr Nic Lees.
I think it's going to greatly weaken National at the election. That's the view of a former senior National MP on the recent attempted coup against Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Despite political shenanigans in Wellington, farmers are confident that Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms will get over the line in this term of Parliament.
New Zealand's pest problem has reached crisis point, according to Federated Farmers' second National Pests Survey, which shows farmers are spending more money and effort on control — yet pest numbers keep climbing faster than they were two years ago.