Feds support live animal exports
Federated Farmers have reiterated their support for the coalition Government to abolish the present ban on the live export of animals.
The meat industry has some great exemplars but still too many laggards, says the Minister for Primary Industry, Damien O’Connor.
He told the Red Meat Sector conference that the laggards are farmers who ignore NAIT and animal traceability and who breach animal welfare codes and other regulations.
He says New Zealand’s reputation is determined by the lowest common-denominator farmer for whom there is no place anywhere in the primary sector.
“This is because an iPhone can send a negative message around the world and undermine all the good stories we will tell under the Taste Pure Nature brand.”
O’Connor says Taste Pure Nature is a good start but he believes NZ must promote regional differences as the wine industry does.
“Then we will have people coming to NZ to find the subtle differences in the flavour of meat between, say, Hawkes Bay and Canterbury.”
O’Connor referred to two serious concerns he hads about the meat industry: one was the lack of women at the conference -- not peculiar to the meat industry; the other was the low involvement of Maori. “They have values, kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and manaakitanga (hospitality) that embody everything we are trying to do in producing food and protecting our environment,” he says.
Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.
Within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, conservatively valued at $150 billion in farming assets.
Boutique Waikato cheese producer Meyer Cheese is investing in a new $3.5 million facility, designed to boost capacity and enhance the company's sustainability credentials.
OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.
Compensation assistance for farmers impacted by Mycoplama bovis is being wound up.
Selecting the reverse gear quicker than a lovestruck boyfriend who has met the in-laws for the first time, the Coalition Government has confirmed that the proposal to amend Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) charged against farm utes has been canned.