Tasman champ first grand finalist
DEFENDING TASMAN champion, Reuben Carter, is the first Grand Finalist to be named for the 2014 ANZ Young Farmer Contest.
PRIMARY INDUSTRIES Minister Nathan Guy, launching the proposals, says the recent drought focused attention on the importance of water to the national economy.
Economic and environmental issues are interlinked, he says. “We can’t lose sight of one without the other. Most farmers are environmentalists and understand the need to improve our water quality. They want to leave the environment in a better state than they found it. Farmers recognise the importance of fresh water resources, they understand there will be costs and they have shown that and proven they want to work constructively.”
Guy says farmers have fenced waterways and voluntarily signed the sustainable dairy accord.
The task of improving water quality rests with everyone, he says. “What the primary sector needs is reasonable time-frames to adjust, good science and guidance on how to manage the limits, and new technologies to help make these water quality improvements.”
While the District Field Days brought with it a welcome dose of sunshine, it also attracted a significant cohort of sitting members from the Beehive – as one might expect in an election year.
Irish Minister of State of Agriculture, Noel Grealish was in New Zealand recently for an official visit.
While not all sibling rivalries come to blows, one headline event at the recent New Zealand Rural Games held in Palmerston North certainly did, when reigning World Champion Jack Jordan was denied the opportunity of defending his world title in Europe later this year, after being beaten by his big brother’s superior axle blows, at the Stihl Timbersports Nationals.
AgriZeroNZ has invested $5.1 million in Australian company Rumin8 to accelerate development of its methane-reducing products for cattle and bring them to New Zealand.
Farmers want more direct, accurate information about both fuel and fertiliser supply.
A bull on a freight plane sounds like the start of a joke, but for Ian Bryant, it is a fond memory of days gone by.

OPINION: If you ask this old mutt, the choice at the next election isn't shaping up as a contest of…
OPINION: A mate of yours says we're long overdue for a reckoning on what value farmers really get for the…