Red meat rebound
The red meat sector is poised for a strong rebound this season, with export receipts forecast to top $10 billion and farm profitability to almost double.
Beef + Lamb NZ (B+LNZ) board chair Andrew Morrison has lost his board seat to Southland sheep and beef farmer Geoffrey Young.
In the election, part of the 2023 B+LNZ Annual Meeting process, Young received 8,777 weighted votes while Morrison received 6,587 votes.
Turnout in the Southern South Island director election, in an electorate which covers Southland and Clutha, was 36%.
Morrison’s term will conclude at the end of the B+LNZ annual meeting in New Plymouth on Thursday 30 March and the board will elect a new chair following the meeting.
The meeting will also mark the conclusion of Morrison’s term with the New Zealand Meat Board which will subsequently elect a new chair.
Meanwhile, the farmer director election in the Eastern North Island electorate has been postponed due to disruptions caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
A new process and deadline for voting for the ENI farmer director role will be announced following the Annual Meeting.
Current ENI director George Tatham, who planned to stand down after nine years, will continue in the role until the rescheduled election is completed.
A blockbuster year and an exciting performance: that's how Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Director General, Ray Smith is describing the massive upsurge in the fortunes of the primary sector exports for the year ended June 2025.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.