This old mutt was a little surprised to hear Winston Peters and Shane Jones both putting the boot into farmers recently over the legitimate concerns the sector has raised about the proposed methane reduction targets set by the Government in its climate change legislation.

Monty Python's ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’ sketch sprang to the Hound’s mind as he pondered New Zealand’s most unnecessary government department – you will likely never have heard of it – the Walking Access Commission.

Like a small scale model of the challenges New Zealand agriculture faces being so far from its main markets, farmers on the Chatham Islands are far enough from the mainland to make shipping inputs in and livestock out a marginal exercise.

Ireland, often a source of skilled farm machinery operators for rural contractors in New Zealand, is facing even worse driver shortages than NZ.