Govt to rethink farm health and safety rules with practical reforms
Farmers are welcoming new Government proposals to make farm health and safety rules more practical and grounded in real-world farming.
OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is growing and making up a disproportionate share of nonnegative workplace drug test results.
The proportion of meth detections has jumped since the start of the year January: 13.7%, February: 18.2% and March: 24.9%
The frontline data tells a confronting story; meth use is more than a big-city issue. The agency says it is seeing higher proportions of meth detections in smaller regions like the Central North, The Lakes and Taranaki.
However, there is no data break down for rural towns. The agency says the issue with getting any more specific with rural data is that it becomes identifiable. Everyone knows who’s testing, who isn’t and what companies they’re using to carry it out.
So, for the farming sector, the days of finding out the level of drug use in their local patch may still be a while away.
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
Fonterra chair Peter McBride says the divestment of Mainland Group is their last significant asset sale and signals the end of structural changes.
Thirty years ago, as a young sharemilker, former Waikato farmer Snow Chubb realised he was bucking a trend when he started planting trees to provide shade for his cows, but he knew the animals would appreciate what he was doing.
Virtual fencing and herding systems supplier, Halter is welcoming a decision by the Victorian Government to allow farmers in the state to use the technology.
DairyNZ’s latest Econ Tracker update shows most farms will still finish the season in a positive position, although the gap has narrowed compared with early season expectations.
New Zealand’s national lamb crop for the 2025–26 season is estimated at 19.66 million head, a lift of one percent (or 188,000 more lambs) on last season, according to Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s (B+LNZ) latest Lamb Crop report.