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OPINION: About as productive as a politician's taxpayer-funded trip to Hawaii, as cost-effective as an OSPRI IT project, and as smart as the power-company pylon worker, the Hound gives you the NZ Post business strategy:
From November 1, 2023, Ministry for Primary Industries’ Mycoplasma bovis Eradication Programme has been contracted out to disease management agency OSPRI, as it enters a long-term surveillance phase.
The change marks the transition of the whole programme to a management agency, with the goal of eradicating M. bovis in New Zealand by 2028.
OSPRI took the opportunity to reinforce how well the programme had dealt with the issue, given that most other countries believed the task was impossible, but also reminding farmers of the need to be vigilant.
NAIT was designed to provide fast and accurate tracing of animals (deer and cattle) to support disease management in NZ, provided farmers “bought into” recording and supplying movement data in a timely manner.
Louisa Sahin, regional partner extension services for OSPRI, says the best way for farmers to help shut the gate on diseases like M.bovis is to keep accurate information about themselves, their farm and their herd via the NAIT system.
Noting that disease can spread rapidly through any locality, OSPRI highlighted the need to record and report animal movement onto or off farms within 48 hours of any such actions.
Sahin notes that she had heard reports of some stock owners being reluctant to tag animals, maybe because of losing tags accidentally. Rather, they preferred to tag animals as they left a property, likely to result in mistakes at the last minute. Helping visitors to Southern Field Days recently to have a little fun with this serious message, a roaming inflatable cow called Lucy was seen to be posing for the obligatory selfie with young and old, and even Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) says securing more China label registrations and developing its own nutritional manufacturing capability are high on its agenda.
Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.
As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.
Livestock can be bred for lower methane emissions while also improving productivity at a rate greater than what the industry is currently achieving, research has shown.
The horticulture sector is a big winner from recent free trade deals sealed with the Gulf states, says Associate Agriculture Minister Nicola Grigg.
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