Ravensdown partners with Footrot Flats to celebrate Kiwi farming heritage
Ravensdown has announced a collaboration with Kiwi icon, Footrot Flats in an effort to bring humour, heart, and connection to the forefront of the farming sector.
Ravensdown’s Technical Development manager Michael White addresses the crowd about solving the challenges of hill country farms topography with remote sensing technology to improve the identification of nutrient requirements – Photo by Steve Attwood
Winners' field day goers witnessed the spectacular scene of more than 75 cars snaking through the back tracks of Omarama station.
The cars, in a plume of high country dust, were a visual highlight of the South Island Farmer of the Year winners' field day on Monday.
But for the more than 250 attendees, the real meat in the day was the challenges and opportunities put to them by a variety of speakers.
Hosted by the Lincoln University Foundation and title winners Richard and Annabelle Subtil and their team, the field day was a popular attraction with visitors from throughout New Zealand.
Foundation chair Ben Todhunter says the day had a strong theme of looking forward and new opportunities.
Advances in farm technology, soil science, pasture trial successes in demanding high country soils, stock genetics, data collection and application, and innovative thinking were featured, Todhunter says.
"The day had an air of optimism for New Zealand high country farming, highlighted by end users such as Silver Fern Farms (red meats) and Icebreaker (fine wools) looking at the growing benefits to New Zealand of farmers working directly with their companies to produce what the consumer wants."
Todhunter says the diverse audience was actively interested with sharp and testing questions being put to presenters.
New Zealand's diverse cheesemaking talent shone brightly last night as the New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) crowned the champions of the 2026 New Zealand Cheese Awards.
Tracing has indicated that the source of the first velvetleaf find of the 2025-26 crop season, in Auckland, was likely maize purchased in the Waikato region.
Fish & Game New Zealand has announced its election priorities in its Manifesto 2026.
With the forage maize harvest started in Northland and the Waikato, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is telling growers of later crops, or those further south, to start checking their maize crop maturity about three weeks prior to when they think they will start silage harvesting.
Irrigation NZ is warning that the government's Resource Management Act (RMA) reform risks falling short of its objectives unless water use for food production and water storage infrastructure are clearly recognised in the goals at the top of the new system.
More than five million trays, or 18,000 tonnes, of Zespri’s RubyRed Kiwifruit will soon be available for consumers across 16 markets this season.