Bulk wine exports surpass packaged wine volumes
Data from February 2025 shows volumes of bulk wine exports exceeded packaged wine.
The Ministry of Primary Industries has dismissed claims that 100s of new cases of Mycoplasma bovis have been found.
It says a recent media report incorrectly said there are newly found or identified farms.
“The media outlet involved has started to report restricted places (RPs) that aren’t also infected places (IPs).
“MPI has reported both of these numbers since the start of the response,” it says.
“A farm is only designated an infected place if it has returned a DNA sequenced polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result. Infected places are a subset of restricted places and all restricted places are considered to have Mycoplasma bovis.”
According to MPI’s latest update, only 31 properties are still infected with Mycoplasma bovis.
Of the 31 IPs, 28 are in the South Island and three in the North Island — 14 dairy farms and 17 beef farms.
A total of 72 properties remain under restricted place notice; these include all infected farms and those suspected of having M. bovis.
Properties under notice of direction total 145; taking animals from these farms is considered risky.
A total of 449 properties remain under active surveillance.
MPI says almost 90,000 animals have been culled; 71 properties have had their IP status lifted and 513 freed from movement restrictions. About 305,000 tests for the disease have been done -- on milk, blood swab and tonsils.
On compensation, MPI says 839 claims have been received and 536 have been fully or partially paid.
MPI has so far paid $54 million in compensation.
After 20 years of milking cows, Northland farmer Greg Collins is ready to step into the governance side of dairy.
For some Canterbury teenagers, their career is being shaped by hands-on experience in a sector they are passionate about - dairy farming.
Dairy farmers will be paying a new levy rate of 4.5c/kgMS - an extra 0.9c/kgMS - to industry-good body DairyNZ from June 1 this year.
The 'atmospheric river' of rain that swept down the country last week almost completely avoided one of the worst drought-affected regions in the country – coastal Taranaki.
Much-needed rain finally arrived in Northland, giving many farmers breathing space to get themselves back on track for next season.
Despite the turmoil in global markets, Fonterra is continuing with a dual track process to divest its multi-billion dollars consumer businesses.
OPINION: In the same way that even a stopped clock is right twice a day, economists sometimes get it right.
OPINION: The proposed RMA reforms took a while to drop but were well signaled after the election.