Ahuwhenua Trophy 2025: Northland winners take top Māori sheep & beef awards
Northlanders scooped the pool at this year's prestigious Ahuwhenua Trophy Awards - winning both the main competition and the young Maori farmer award.
NORTHLAND FARMERS are calling for a revision of the Hikurangi Flood Control Plan after being hit with a third 100-year flood in five years.
A 200mm deluge on March 18-20 inundated farmland, closed roads and delayed milk collections.
Hikurangi swamp land was among the worst hit, losing 3500ha to flooding. Ben Smith saw 60% of his farm go under and was still pumping a week later.
Collective pasture renewal costs are estimated at $49m, but Smith says the effects on the river and the Kaipara Harbour worry him most.
"It's an environmental time bomb... We've been liasing with the council and fencing off waterways but what's the point when something like this happens?" he said to Rural News.
Smith blames an outdated catchment and river management system for the situation and says changes are needed throughout the Wairua River and Kaipara Harbour catchment.
Whangarei District Council waste and drainage manager Andrew Carvell says the Hikurangi flood control system was designed in the 1960s to handle a one-in-five-year storm, but recent large storms have prompted suggestions the design is out-of-date.
The council has raised the future of the scheme with farmers and other stakeholders and council's immediate aim is to repair damaged stop banks and adjust spillways.
"Our main goal is to get the flood control system working to its intended capacity," says Carvell.
Resource consents allow 40,000L/sec. to be pumped into the Wairua River. Carvell says the council and farmers are further limited because they can't pump when the river is already full.
The council is working with a Kaipara Harbour water quality focus group to find a whole-system solution but the number of people and organisations involved make it difficult.
"Kaipara Harbour encompasses two regional councils and three district councils... Things can get very complicated."
Two butcheries have claimed victory at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for 2025.
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
The Government’s directive for state farmer Landcorp Farming (trading as Pamu) to lifts its performance is yielding results.
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at Ospri officially started this month, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
OPINION: Spare a thought for the arable farmer, squeezed on one side by soft global prices and on the other…
OPINION: Labour leader Chris 'Chippy' Hipkins is carrying on the world-class gaslighting of the nation that he and his cohorts…