Drones, AI making cattle counting a dream
PGG Wrightson has launched a new stock-counting service using drones and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which it says removes all the hassle for farmers, while achieving 99.9% accuracy.
Australian rural services company Elders has downplayed media speculation it is raising funds for a buyout of New Zealand’s largest agricultural services company PGG Wrightson (PGW).
In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, last week, Elders said had not made “any definitive proposal” to buy PGW.
This came after a report in The Australian newspaper that it is seeking to raise A$300 million – speculating that Elders – along with Dutch seed company Barenbrug (a corner-stone shareholder in NZ Agriseeds) – are interested in buying all or part of PGW.
However, in the ASX statement, Elders chief executive Mark Allison says the company will only make acquisitions that make compelling strategic and financial sense.
Rumours about PGW’s future have been triggered by claims that Chinese-owned Agria Corp wants to quit its 50% stake in the NZ rural services company.
Agria is being investigated by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) for its “good character”, following its delisting from the New York Stock Exchange in 2016 after the NYSE announced it allegedly uncovered evidence a “top executive and other intermediaries” artificially inflated the company’s stock price.
PGW said it had nothing to add to a statement it made in May, that the company had been conducting a strategic review of its business, including growth opportunities, capital and balance sheet requirements, and potentially shareholding structure.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the relationship between New Zealand and the US will remain strong and enduring irrespective of changing administrations.
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.
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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