UK Politician Alistair Carmichael Praises "Positive Spirit" of NZ Farmers
A leading British farming politician says he's impressed with the positive attitude of New Zealand farmers that he met during his recent trip here.
Irish company Micron Agritech will be bringing their animal health diagnostic technology to National Fieldays, with The Micron Kit, a rapid Faecal Egg Count (FEC) testing system for gastro-intestinal worms and liver and rumen fluke in cattle, sheep, horses, goats and llamas.
This AI-powered platform delivers lab-quality test results and analytics in just 10 minutes, helping to speed up diagnosis and providing practitioners with the information needed to make treatment decisions protocols, or indeed, whether medicinal intervention is necessary.
The kit was initially developed as a university project by co-founders Sean Smith, Daniel Izquierdo, Tara McElligott and Jose Lopez in 2019 in response to new European legislation aimed at limiting the use of anthelmintics on farms as a preventative measure, which was prompted by concerns over a rise in anthelminthic-resistance due to the prolonged overuse and misuse of certain medications.
The ‘Micron Kit’ enables vets, farmers, and animal-health professionals to run rapid on-site parasite testing for grazing animals, using a faecal sample with a simple sample preparation method, a smartphone app, and the Micron reader.
Users receive FEC results within minutes, identify animals needing treatment, reduce unnecessary dosing, slow drug resistance, and generate shareable diagnostic reports.
The Micron Kit is being used extensively by leading veterinary practices in Europe, with the Micron Agritech team planning to bring the system to New Zealand to support farmers, veterinarians and animal health professionals to identify and treat livestock for parasites.
By providing access to rapid diagnostics, which enables more effective and sustainable treatment/no treatment decisions.
On display at this year’s Fieldays Innovation Awards in the Growth & Scale Award category, with a complementary display at the Enterprise Ireland site (D67).
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.
Fifty Eight years ago, on the 16th of August 1968, August Claas, the founder of the harvesting company and father of Helmut Claas, personally presented a Claas Senator combine harvester to Scottish farmer John Steven.
New Zealand consumers are paying more for beef mince than ever before, with the average retail price now sitting above $24 per kilogram, according to Rabobank.
State farmer Pamu has delivered its strongest operating result on record.
Four years since it was first detected in New Zealand, researchers and growers now know much more about management of maize pest fall armyworm (FAW).

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