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.
The announcement that the emissions price will be set at the lowest rate needed and fixed for five years to give farmers certainty has gone down like a lead balloon.
Even DairyNZ says there is contention over whether the changes address farmer concerns.
Farmers rightly think they are the victims of the Government's obsession with overseas plaudits and that the Prime Minister wants to go on the world stage and say that New Zealand is the first country in the world to price agricultural emissions.
To win over farmers, especially in an election year, the Government will need to come up with something better, and fast.
