Floating Farm Sinks
OPINION: The world's first floating dairy farm, once hailed as a vision of farming's future, is up for sale after seven years.
OPINION: The country's dairy farmers will now also have a hand in providing free lunch for schools.
The Government's new school lunch programme unveiled last week will cost $3 a lunch (down from $8) and save $130 million.
The Government had been working with local businesses, including Fonterra, to "transform" the school lunch programme, in a bid to save money.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says the Government had "embraced commercial expertise, used government buying power, and generated supply chain efficiencies to realise over $130m of annual cost savings".
Fonterra is already partnering with Sanitarium and the Ministry of Social Development means to provide breakfast as part of the KickStart Breakfast. Since 2009, the programme has served more than 70 million breakfasts and run in over 1400 schools nationwide.
A four year trial has reaffirmed that mixing plantain into dairy pastures can help reduce nitrogen losses to freshwater while maintaining milk production and profitability, say researchers.
Fonterra has opened its upgraded Chengdu Application Centre, bringing New Zealand dairy expertise closer to customers in one of China's fastest-growing regions.
When it comes to annual rebates, it's been a long time between drinks for Ravensdown shareholders.
Special courses for secondary school teachers to help excite kids about agriculture and horticulture are now being run at Massey University.
Running a tight and self-contained ship is the key to the success of the country's largest dairy farmer, says Blair Robinson, the new man at the helm of Dairy Holdings.
Federated Farmers president Colin Hurst and his family raised a glass of milk last week to toast the start of a new addition to their farming operation at Makihihi, south of Timaru.