Farmers warned to upgrade as 3G shutdown looms
As the clock ticks towards the 3G mobile network shutdown, farmers are being warned to upgrade or risk losing connection to their supply chain.
Rural internet suppliers have improved their time-of-day (TOD) performance over the last 12 months, now matching ADSL and VDSL in urban areas.
The internet speed monitoring company TrueNet says time-of-day variances on fixed wireless are worse than ADSL, but the actual speeds overall are faster.
TrueNet says TOD is a critical performance criterion and ISPs serving the rural sector have responded by matching standard connections with Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) funded connections at 95% or better.
The company says fixed wireless is now a viable and successful technology in rural regions and places between ADSL and VDSL in performance.
“As fixed wireless gains in popularity it’s expected to suffer from some congestion as demand grows, so it’s good to see that the rural wireless speed has settled around 78% of best hour speed.”
DairyNZ Chair Tracy Brown has seen a lot of change since she first started out in the dairy sector, with around one-third of dairy farmers now women.
Castle Ridge Station has been named the Regional Supreme Winner at the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
The South Island Dairy Event has announced Jessica Findlay as the recipient of the BrightSIDE Scholarship Programme, recognising her commitment to furthering her education and future career in the New Zealand dairy industry.
New Zealand and Chile have signed a new arrangement designed to boost agricultural cooperation and drive sector success.
New DairyNZ research will help farmers mitigate the impacts of heat stress on herds in high-risk regions of the country.
Budou are being picked now in Bridge Pā, the most intense and exciting time of the year for the Greencollar team – and the harvest of the finest eating grapes is weeks earlier than expected.

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