Two new awards open to help young farmers progress to farm ownership
Entries have opened for two awards in the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards (NZDIA) programme, aimed at helping young farmers progress to farm ownership.
While the lowest lamb crop in 60 years should support prices, the market is being swamped by other factors at present.
While the lowest lamb crop in 60 years should support prices, the market is being swamped by other factors at present, says the ASB in its weekly commodities report.
These other factors include strong UK supply and weak Chinese demand, the report says.
In the UK, the high pound is making British lamb expensive in Europe and thus more UK lamb staying put in its domestic market. At the same time, a push to buy local from supermarket chains is hurting prices of NZ imports, the ASB says.
On net, the ASB expects prices to stay under par for the rest of this season.A pick-up in demand next season is expected to lift prices to a more healthy level.
Beef and Lamb NZ's 2015 lamb crop report showed that the crop is the smallest in nearly 60 years. The number of lambs tailed this spring was down 6.7% or 1.73 million on the previous spring to 23.9 million head.
The drought led to fewer breeding ewes as well as a lower number of lambs per ewe.
All up, the smaller lamb crop should help support prices, however at the moment the lower NZ supply is being swamped by those other factors, the ASB says.
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.

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