Open Country opens butter plant
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
WOMEN WORKING in the dairy industry are being urged to get their nominations in for the 2014 Dairy Woman of the Year award, which closes for entry on November 15, 2013.
Sponsored by Fonterra, the prestigious award includes the chance to attend the year-long Women in Leadership programme valued at $25,000 and delivered by Global Women.
Dairy Women's Network executive chair Michelle Wilson says the Dairy Woman of the Year award celebrates and advances women who are making a real difference in the dairy industry, in their dairying businesses and in their communities.
"So many dairying women are the pillars of their communities. They are extraordinarily passionate farmers, pushing not only their own boundaries but those of the industry, continuously looking for ways we can all benefit. We want to hear about these women.
"If you're a colleague, friend, husband or business partner, find out how to nominate these women for this nationally recognised award before entries close on November 15."
Past winners of the award include DairyNZ director and Taranaki dairy farm owner Barbara Kuriger and BEL Group business manager Justine Kidd from Waipukurau.
The Dairy Woman of the Year will be announced at a gala dinner at the Dairy Women's Network annual conference on March 20, 2014 in Hamilton. Full information and nomination forms can be downloaded at the Dairy Women's Network website: www.dwn.co.nz .
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.

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