Cleland named OSPRI chair
Southland farmer and director Tony Cleland has been named OSPRI New Zealand’s new chair.
Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive Sam McIvor reckons NZ sheep and beef farmers, as a sector, have an opportunity to be world-leading stewards of the natural environment and sustainable communities.
He says sheep and beef farmers have made meaningful improvements to their environmental performance and lowering emissions and they deserve credit for these gains.
“However, farmers know there is more to be done – not just extending the good work already underway but also taking new and different approaches,” he told Rural News.
“This includes adopting new management techniques that better connect actions to environmental outcomes, and more onfarm monitoring and measuring that gives farmers confidence their actions are reaping benefits. We also need to inform the wider community to better understand the contributions farmers are making.”
McIvor says the strategy was developed in partnership with sheep and beef farmers who had significant input into the final document and are determined to be part of the solution.
Many contract milkers in badly drought affected regions around the country are coming under severe financial stress and farm owners are being urged to help them through a bad patch until the start of the new season.
Movement controls have been lifted from Mainland Poultry’s Hillgrove Farm in Otago, after the successful eradication of H7N6 strain of high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
Harvesting is underway of one of New Zealand’s rarest and most unusual fruit - persimmons.
Recent rain has offered respite for some from the ongoing drought.
New Zealand's TBfree programme has made great progress in reducing the impact of the disease on livestock herds, but there’s still a long way to go, according to Beef+Lamb NZ.
With much of the North Island experiencing drought this summer and climate change projected to bring drier and hotter conditions, securing New Zealand’s freshwater resilience is vital, according to state-owned GNS Science.