University of Waikato breaks ground on new medical school
The University of Waikato has broken ground on its new medical school building.
Young design and architecture students who spent a weekend in a woolshed in the central North Island have gone away ecstatic about wool.
The students are determined to use it in their projects when they go into the workforce.
The NZ Campaign for Wool arranged for the nine students to visit Ngamatea Station, near Taihape, where they spent time with wool experts. They also got around the station to get an understanding of the wool production cycle.
The station runs 40,000 sheep and produces 180,000kg of strong wool every year.
Gaylene Hoskings, who arranged the trip, says some of the students had farming backgrounds, others had none.
One objective was to make the students advocates for wool and to encourage their colleagues to specify wool in design projects. She succeeded.
Comments from the students included:
- "I didn't realise how aesthetically versatile it is. There are so many scientific reasons why wool works so well but at its core it is simply a beautiful thing.
- "It fascinates me that wool protects a living animal but plant fibres don't; this is why it works so well to protect us in our built environments.
- "The fact that wool absorbs and neutralises harmful volatile organic compounds is so interesting. Especially when synthetics are advertising low VOC levels and we have a fibre that actually neutralises them."
Last year, the Campaign for Wool promoted the product to school children.
Virtual fencing and herding systems supplier, Halter is welcoming a decision by the Victorian Government to allow farmers in the state to use the technology.
DairyNZ’s latest Econ Tracker update shows most farms will still finish the season in a positive position, although the gap has narrowed compared with early season expectations.
New Zealand’s national lamb crop for the 2025–26 season is estimated at 19.66 million head, a lift of one percent (or 188,000 more lambs) on last season, according to Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s (B+LNZ) latest Lamb Crop report.
Farmers appear to be cautiously welcoming the Government’s plan to reform local government, according to Ag First chief executive, James Allen.
The Fonterra divestment capital return should provide “a tailwind to GDP growth” next year, according to a new ANZ NZ report, but it’s not “manna from heaven” for the economy.
Fonterra's Eltham site in Taranaki is stepping up its global impact with an upgrade to its processed cheese production lines, boosting capacity to meet growing international demand.

OPINION: Your old mate welcomes the proposed changes to local government but notes it drew responses that ranged from the reasonable…
OPINION: A press release from the oxygen thieves running the hot air symposium on climate change, known as COP30, grabbed your…