Milking longer with maize silage
This season's dry conditions have made one thing clear: not having enough feed on hand can bring your season to an early close.
The result of two probes into the supply of bad sire semen to over 1100 LIC farmer customers will be made public next month.
Following the semen quality issue LIC experienced in October last year, a thorough investigation was done, looking at all operational processes and possible improvements. An independent review was also carried out to look into LIC's response to the issue.
LIC chief executive David Chin says the outcomes of the investigation and independent review are being finalised and will be presented to the board next month.
Following that meeting, all farmer shareholders will be informed of the outcomes and any improvements that will be made to our business as a result, Chin says.
“We thank farmers for their patience and understanding while we work through this.
“We are disappointed as a co-op that we didn't deliver to the high standard farmers expect of us, and we continue to take this situation very seriously,” he says.
The farmer-owned co-operative has already paid out over $2 million to farmers as compensation for supplying some dairy farmers bad sire semen.
Two batches of bad semen were delivered to 1127 farms around the country; semen collected, processed and packed into straws and then sent to farms on October 15th and October 21st failed to pass quality control tests on day three. The straws were used over three days to mate herds and resulted in lower pregnancy rates. Fifteen of the 39 straws collected on October 16th and five of 31 straws collected on October 21st were affected.
Recent rain has offered respite for some from the ongoing drought.
New Zealand's TBfree programme has made great progress in reducing the impact of the disease on livestock herds, but there’s still a long way to go, according to Beef+Lamb NZ.
With much of the North Island experiencing drought this summer and climate change projected to bring drier and hotter conditions, securing New Zealand’s freshwater resilience is vital, according to state-owned GNS Science.
OPINION: Otago farmer and NZ First MP Mark Patterson is humble about the role that he’s played in mandating government agencies to use wool wherever possible in new and refurbished buildings.
For Wonky Box co-founder Angus Simms, the decision to open the service to those in rural areas is a personal one.
The golden age of orcharding in West Auckland was recently celebrated at the launch of a book which tells the story of its rise, then retreat in the face of industry change and urban expansion.
OPINION: The appendage swinging contest between the US and China continues, with China hitting back with a new rate of…
OPINION: The irony of President Trump’s tariff obsession is that the worst damage may be done to his own people.