Editorial: Agri's mojo is back
OPINION: Good times are coming back for the primary industries. From sentiment expressed at Fieldays to the latest rural confidence survey results, all indicate farmer confidence at a near-record high.
Beyond Massey University’s cheeseboard at Fieldays was the objective of promoting sheep milking.
Associate professor Craig Prichard, a driving force in promoting the new industry, spent all his time at Fieldays handing out samples of an ever-popular smoothie made from sheep milk.
He says Massey is trying to get people used to sheep milk as a food.
“There is an historic gap in New Zealanders’ palette in respect of sheep milk,” Prichard told Rural News. “That’s why we have been doing a smoothie, which is a very popular food.”
And people were able to add their own flavours, which was popular.
Spring Sheep Dairy, which runs a big sheep milking farm in the central North Island, was also on the stand talking to farmers about setting up to milk sheep.
“Sheep dairy is no longer a novelty but we need to build supply now,” Prichard says. “While we have proven markets, NZ still has only 16 significant sheep milk farmers. This this is just a pimple on the side of the dairy industry and we need to ramp that up.”
He says chefs are excited about sheep milk and how it can be used as an ingredient for other dishes, hence the need to think of sheep milk beyond the cheese board.
NZers are good at eating cheese, but getting cheese into foods and developing it as an ingredient is also important, Prichard says.
A Chinese business leader says Chinese investors are unfairly viewed as potential security risks in New Zealand.
In the first of two articles focusing on electrification in New Zealand, Leo Argent talks with Mike Casey, operator of the 100% electric-operated Electric Cherries orchard and founder of advocacy group Rewiring Aotearoa.
A Foundation for Arable Research initiative which took a closer look at the efficiency of a key piece of machinery for arable farmers - their combine harvesters - has been recognised at the Primary Industry NZ Awards.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has reiterated New Zealand’s ‘China And’ policy, adding that it wasn’t about choosing one market over another but creating more options for exporters.
A long running trade dispute between New Zealand and Canada over dairy access has been resolved.
New Zealand Police is urging rural property owners to remain vigilant and ensure their property is secure.
OPINION: Spare a thought for the arable farmer, squeezed on one side by soft global prices and on the other…
OPINION: Labour leader Chris 'Chippy' Hipkins is carrying on the world-class gaslighting of the nation that he and his cohorts…