increase font size
Bronwyn Muir.
As a dairy farmer I'm looking for a reason at the moment to help me focus on the positive points of farming in Taranaki.
Cashflow is tight and in the immediate future it doesn't look like there is going to be any dramatic improvement on that front.
When I chat with our sheep and beef neighbours the conversation seems to follow a similar theme. Farming profitably and sustainably is proving more and more challenging and Taranaki farmer morale isn't high.
The flipside is we live in a great farming region with many good things going for us that other regions are challenged by.
We are naturally green most of the year and we don't have to turn on machines to make it rain, although it would be handy now and then.
We have high calibre farmer business owners and management and supportive organisations and businesses all striving for the same thing – a successful, sustainable business in this great province.
Taranaki literally is still the land of milk and honey, with a 60% lift in apiculture in the last four years.
Tasty beef, lamb, pork and chicken are also grown here. So why is it if I go shopping for locally grown produce, I struggle to find the Taranaki origin brand on our food.
We are literally transporting our entire raw product out of the province by tanker, truck, container and barrel. Someone else clips the ticket and gets rich off our hard work.
We don't even have abattoir facilities to process local meat to serve up in our fantastic provincial restaurants, but you can get a good rack of Hawkes Bay lamb.
Recently I addressed Food Futures Taranaki 2016 on behalf of Taranaki Federated Farmers and Taranaki primary producers.
Massey University, Food HQ, and Venture Taranaki hosted a well-organised event with some excellent, inspiring speakers. They included Massey University vice-chancellor Steve Maharey, Massey University director of business engagement and establisher of Food HQ Mark Ward and Maori trustee and Te Tumu Paeroa chief executive Jamie Tuuta, research students and farm business owners.
It's a shame more local farmers didn't hear these leaders speak.
Everyone attending the Food Futures event saw the opportunity to work together as a province and look at how we could do Taranaki Food Inc better.
Yes, it needs investment, infrastructure, scale and commitment. As ever, I am an optimist and I know with the right heads around the table it can be done.
• Bronwyn Muir is Federated Farmers Taranaki provincial president.
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.
Despite political shenanigans in Wellington, farmers are confident that Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms will get over the line in this term of Parliament.
The Government has announced it will pause key parts of Waikato Plan Change 1 (PC1) in a decision that is set to give Waikato farmers a reprieve from new consenting and farm-planning requirements while the wider resource management system is overhauled.
OPINION: As the general election approaches, political parties are churning out policies in the hope of attracting more votes.
With forecasters advising El Niño conditions will develop through winter and strengthen into spring and summer, Ballance Agri-Nutrients is encouraging farmers and growers to think ahead about nutrient planning and be prepared to work around challenging weather conditions.
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.
Testing confirms H5 bird flu in a single northern giant petrel, found dead on a remote Cape Palliser beach in the Wairarapa, says Dr Mary van Andel, the Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI) Chief Veterinary Officer.
"What's for dinner?" may sound like a simple question, but for many Kiwi parents, answering it has become a job in itself.
OPINION: After hogging the media limelight for telling a NZ Chinese MP to "go back home", Winston Peters has decided…
OPINION: With fuel prices soaring, one would have expected most farmers to be reclaiming excise duty on petrol.
