Milking longer with maize silage
This season's dry conditions have made one thing clear: not having enough feed on hand can bring your season to an early close.
Fonterra is turning to expert advisors in a bid to make sure its controversial TAF (trading among farmers) proposal ensures 100% farmer control and ownership.
Co-op chairman Henry van der Heyden says the advisors are running the ruler over TAF as part of a comprehensive due diligence process.
Van der Heyden says the Fonterra board's due diligence committee is drawing upon a panel of advisors with deep understanding of the co-operative who will provide technical expertise and critical review.
They include:
• Professor Michael Cook, Missouri University USA, who is an expert on co-operatives;
• Alan Galbraith QC, whose areas of practice include constitutional, commercial and securities law;
• Murray Gough, former chief executive of the New Zealand Dairy Board;
• Paul Oldfield, a director at corporate law firm Harmos Horton Lusk;
• Eric Lucas, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers;
• Colin Giffney, who is on the board of the Financial Markets Authority and is deputy chair of the Takeovers Panel.
The advisors were picked by Fonterra management and chairman of the board capital structure committee John Wilson. The board's due diligence committee is headed by John Waller and includes Wilson; David Jackson; Jim van der Poel and Nicola Shadbolt.
"The committee will produce a series of reports to the board this year as it reviews progress on TAF, and ensures it stays true to the intent of the co-operative," says van der Heyden.
"A particular focus of the committee will be to ensure that the market is deep, liquid and readily available for farmer shareholders to buy and sell shares when they want.
"Another focus will be changes to DIRA.
"In all their deliberations, front of mind will be the board's commitment to 100 per cent control and ownership."
Fonterra will later this month update shareholders on TAF.
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.
OPINION: Otago farmer and NZ First MP Mark Patterson is humble about the role that he’s played in mandating government agencies to use wool wherever possible in new and refurbished buildings.
For Wonky Box co-founder Angus Simms, the decision to open the service to those in rural areas is a personal one.
The golden age of orcharding in West Auckland was recently celebrated at the launch of a book which tells the story of its rise, then retreat in the face of industry change and urban expansion.
OPINION: The appendage swinging contest between the US and China continues, with China hitting back with a new rate of…
OPINION: The irony of President Trump’s tariff obsession is that the worst damage may be done to his own people.