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Heat brings challenges for livestock

High temperatures and humidity are prompting questions about farm animals’ production, along with their welfare, AgResearch says.

Taupo meat hits Japan at a premium

Mike and Sharon Barton are members of a Taupo beef and lamb group exporting product directly to Japan.

Taupo Beef & Lamb has just started exporting premium product to Japan, says Mike Barton of Glen Emmreth farm.

Breeding rams go under N cap

Mike Barton’s Taupo farm no longer runs breeding cows.

Now operating under a nitrogen cap – with a cap also on stock units -- Mike Barton of Taupo’s Glen Emmreth Farm no longer runs breeding cows.

A mate of the Hound reckons suggestions that possibly NZ’s longest-serving public benefit bludger -- Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Winston Peters – be sent to North Korea to negotiate with that country’s leader Kim Jong Un is a good move.

Two-faced

The Hound well remembers – like many of those in the primary sector – events of a couple of years ago, when the streets were full of protestors vehemently marching against the ‘awful, appalling, dreadful, shocking’ TPP trade deal.

Woolly thinking

The Hound doesn’t profess to be an expert on everything in the agricultural sector, but given he has been around the traps a fair time, he has managed to pick up a bit of knowledge.

Thanks comrades

Your old mate was not shocked to see the new Labour-led government quickly repay its mates – and major funders – in the NZ union movement by changing the employment laws to favour its comrades in the organised labour lobby.

Population surge demands food protection

Over the next decade, the global middle class will grow from two billion to nearly five billion — an explosive rise considering the entire world population was only five billion in 1990.

Environmental concerns prompt changes

Bryce Lupton discusses his farming regime with attendees at a recent BLNZ environmental field day.

Concerns about the sensitive environment of the Kaipara Harbour prompted the top-performing drystock unit Te Opu to transition from sheep and beef breeding to a successful unit finishing bulls and lambs.

Challenges and opportunities in the future of food

AgResearch chief executive Tom Richardson.

The future of food – especially the emergence of ‘synthetic foods’ and what this might mean for New Zealand as a major food producer – has been prominent in media and barbecue conversations this summer.