Pink and blue bales highlight cancers
Agpac will continue its efforts to raise awareness of breast cancer in rural communities.
The rules on waste disposal by farmers and growers are changing: the traditional options of burning and burying are no longer allowed.
The Plasback recycling service collects plastics from farms and sends it for recycling.
Plasback is a government-accredited product stewardship scheme owned and operated by Agpac Ltd, New Zealand’s largest supplier of crop packaging products.
It collects such plastics as balewrap, silage covers, twines, drums and polypropylene bags. Plasback operates a bin and liner system for collection. The liner system keeps the plastic cleaner and allows it to be collected in large bags -- easier to collect and bale than loose plastic.
Plasback owns six recycling balers that handle the large bags of waste plastic. Once baled, the plastic is sent away for recycling.
Since its start in 2006 the scheme has recycled 10,000 tonnes of used plastics.
Plasback is now working with Astron Plastics, Auckland, to recycle farm silage plastic into Tuffboard, a plywood-replacement product with many uses on farms. Using new dry-clean technology, silage plastic is heated and treated to clean the shredded film before it is made into pellets.
Tuffboard is strong, easily cleaned and hygienic. The deer industry uses it in upgrading velveting barns to new hygiene standards. Tuffboard is also used by pig farmers to replace plywood – pigs do not eat the plastic sheet.
The Tuffboard range has been expanded to both a recycled and virgin plastic. The recycled plastic is black and the virgin a natural colour.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the relationship between New Zealand and the US will remain strong and enduring irrespective of changing administrations.
More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) says securing more China label registrations and developing its own nutritional manufacturing capability are high on its agenda.
Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.
As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.
Livestock can be bred for lower methane emissions while also improving productivity at a rate greater than what the industry is currently achieving, research has shown.
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