Ballance Farm Environment Awards Launch on West Coast
The Ballance Farm Environment Awards are coming to the West Coast of the South Island.
Woodchopping champ Jack Jordan has won the Young New Zealand Rural Sportsperson of the Year award at the 2017 Norwood New Zealand Rural Sports Awards.
Held at the Awapuni Racecourse in Palmerston North on Friday 10 March, the awards were sponsored by CB Norwood Distributors and presented by the New Zealand Rural Games Trust alongside strategic partner Federated Farmers of New Zealand. Considered the ‘Halbergs for the rural sector’, the awards celebrate sporting excellence among New Zealand’s largely unsung rural heroes.
Jordan of Taranaki, sponsored by Husqvarna, was chosen over two other athletes for the Young NZ Rural Sportsperson of the Year title, an award which acknowledges up-and-coming kiwi youth participating in professional rural sport. In 2016, Jordan won three underhand open wood chopping world titles and is hoping to add more accolades to his belt this year.
“I’m aiming to compete in three events in Australia and 10 to 15 in New Zealand this year and I’m training hard for them every day. Husqvarna has been really supportive in helping me achieve my goals – they provide gear to help me practice and funding for travel costs which really starts to add up after a while!” says Jordan.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (the College) and Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network are calling for investment in a proposed new training pathway for rural GPs, warning that many rural practices are struggling to recruit while a large share of the existing workforce nears retirement.
Federated Farmers has called on Central Otago District Council (CODC) to drop or vote down a plan to truck sludge from Alexandra and Cromwell to farmland near Lauder, warning it would compound an "outrageous" situation created by a separate council's decision weeks earlier.
Synlait has swung to second-half profit as operations stabilise, but the dairy processor still posted a $75.4m annual loss.
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.