Rural insurance company Farmers Mutual Group will have a wider presence at stock auctions and stud sales, according to FMG business development manager Hayden Dunne.

Like a martial art, sustainable and smart pest and disease management relies on understanding opponents’ strengths and weaknesses and using these against them, says Charles Merfield of Lincoln University’s biological husbandry unit (BHU).

Do you know how docks, thistles and dandelions differ in their ability to regrow? Or from how deep particular weed species germinate? Or what are the alternative hosts for the pests that try to demolish your crops?

The existence of Landcorp’s Ahuriri Station near Napier, one the country’s newest farms, came at a huge cost to the local community.

Budget 2015 is, I believe, one of the best for the primary sector since National has been in government. 

Labour is now also putting the putting the boot into the NZ dairy sector. Its trade spokesman David Parker has accused Trade Minister Tim Groser of insulting Canadian diplomats by comparing that country’s dairy industry to the Soviet Union.

Your old mate reckons the border security team at MPI will have a new take on the old saying “Is that a lump in your pants or are you just pleased to see me?” after detecting a Polish gardener trying to smuggle plants in his underpants through Auckland airport recently.

The Hound knows that the Greens hate farming about as much as they hate cars.

Your old mate notes that for the last few weeks the Australian-owned, controlled and managed so-called NZ Farmer rag has been touting the fact on its front page that it was a finalist in the ‘community newspaper’ category at the recent Canon media awards.

Workplace Relations Minister Michael Woodhouse recently described the existing workplace safety legislation a ‘bugger’s muddle’. 

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