Farmers faring well amid summer heat
Dairy farmers are faring well despite data showing above average temperatures for most of the country.
Five nature-based challenges will be delivered via email and promoted on social media over the summer holidays.
Forest & Bird's Kiwi Conservation Club is inviting New Zealanders of all ages to embrace the outdoors with its Summer Adventure Challenges.
The initiative kicked off on 8 December 2025 and runs until 1 February 2026.
It encourages participants to exchange screen time for green time through five challenges that encourage families, young people, and nature lovers to connect with the natural world.
Forest & Bird's Lily Duval says summer is the perfect time to reconnect with the outdoors.
"These challenges are about making nature part of everyday life, whether you're in the city, at the beach, or in your own backyard," Duval says.
The five nature-based challenges will be delivered via email and promoted on social media over the course of the summer holidays.
"The first challenge, which launched on 8 December, is called 'Stick Figures'," Duval says. "The aim is to create something out of found natural objects. Other challenges will involve walks, treasure hunts, and more."
The challenges are designed to be accessed from anywhere, open to everyone, and easy to take part in.
To join in on the fun and get more information, visit Forest & Bird’s Summer Adventure Challenges: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/summer-adventure-challenges-2025-2026
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”.
Farmer owned co-operative Ravensdown has signed a two-year naming rights sponsorship of the Canterbury A&P Show.
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More than 300 growers, exporters, researchers, service providers and industry leaders will descend on Queenstown later this month for EXPO 2026, the annual conference for New Zealand’s apple and pear sector.

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