Opinion

The Strength of Co-Operatives

OPINION: Is New Zealand ‘Godzown’ or the ‘Last bus stop on the planet’?

Editorial: Now the Hard Work Begins

OPINION: After much wrangling, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between New Zealand and India is a step closer to fruition.

The Cost of War on Our Primary Sector

OPINION: Since the escalation of tensions involving Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, farmers have seen diesel prices pushing closer to $4 per litre.

Half A Brain

OPINION: When Donald Trump returned to the White House, many people with half a brain could see the results for the world might be a bit average, and our boy has been busy trying to prove them right.

Inconvenient Truths

OPINION: Media trust has tanked because of what media's more woke members do and say.

Anger, Fear and Worry Not A Good Mix

OPINION: I have to admit I do miss the swallows when they leave our place for the winter months. And I always look forward to their return every spring.

Editorial: Selling The Indian FTA

OPINION: Political parties in New Zealand have a long history of supporting free trade agreements together.

OPINION: Bouquets this week from the old mutt for Fed Farmers and Groundswell for continuing to resist the proposed Gore District plan and its intention to apply costly "cultural values" across the district and a raft of land classifications that are unworkable and counterproductive.

Waffle Man

OPINION: In what world does old mate Christopher Luxon live?

Creating Certainty In Uncertain Times

OPINION: If there's one thing farmers understand better than most, it's uncertainty.

Digging Deep Into Soil Education

OPINION: "The worst thing that agriculture does is take land from nature."

Editorial: Happy days return

OPINION: After two long years of hardship, things are looking up for New Zealand red meat farmers.

Accept Who You Are

OPINION: There is a lot of truth to this statement I first heard many years ago: 'The energy within is always more damaging than the enemy without'.

Editorial: Fuelling Hype

OPINION: For some of us the threat of a fuel crisis is something we have dealt with before and are still here to tell the tale.

What A Choice!

OPINION: If you ask this old mutt, the choice at the next election isn't shaping up as a contest of good ideas, more like a choice of who's the least bad option.

Your Call!

OPINION: A mate of yours says we're long overdue for a reckoning on what value farmers really get for the $100 million plus they collectively pay in levies to DairyNZ, Beef+Lamb NZ and Deer Industry NZ (DINZ).

Dirty Pool!

OPINION: President Trump's tariff wars have torpedoed the US grain belt's biggest market, China, sending many US family farms to the wall.

Bias Blowback

OPINION: It's no surprise to this old mutt that some politicians are done playing nice with the low rent media pack that hounds them looking for a 'gotcha' moment.

Sorting Fact From Fiction Is An Art

OPINION: Information is everywhere. So are misinformation and disinformation.

From farm to the cricket pitch

Hawke's Bay deer farmer Harry Gaddum organised the inaugural Gumboot Cup. It was a cricket tournament for 12 rural Hawke's Bay teams, their families, and the community. Gaddum says it was a chance for locals to get off farm, have some fun and connect, all for a good cause.

Is the Coalition Government Really Backing Farmers?

OPINION: Many sheep and beef farmers will be worse off under the new environment legislation than they were under the Resource Management Act (RMA), claims Beef+Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) in an email to levy payers.

Silly Season

OPINION: Election years are usually regarded as the silly season, but a mate of the Hound reckons 2026 is shaping up as the ‘stupid season’.

Two-Faced System

OPINION: If farmers poured just a few litres of some pollutant into a stream, the Green Party and the wider wooden bicycle enthusiast community would be on their soapboxes screaming about dirty farmers and demanding a harsh penalty, which regional authorities would be gagging to administer.