Not bad
OPINION: New Zealand may be a minnow on the global stage but here’s another example how our ag sector punches above its weight.
Former US agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack has been confirmed to take up to his old role as the head of the US Department of Agriculture.
Following a Senate vote last month, Vilsack returns to the job he held under the Obama administration in new President Joe Biden’s cabinet. His nomination met little resistance in the Senate, which only set aside 20 minutes for debate over his nomination.
While farm groups welcomed the nomination of Vilsack, Biden faces some political headwinds in the US farm sector.
In the first Farm Journal Pulse to gauge support for the Biden Administration, only 14% of the 1,459 farmers surveyed said they approve of the job done by the new administration.
Of those surveyed, 75% said they strongly disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as President.
At his confirmation hearing, Vilsack noted that while he is returning to his former job, the circumstances are very different.
Vilsack served as USDA Secretary for nearly the entirety of the Obama administration, from 2009 until 2017.
After leaving USDA, he was chief executive of the U.S. Dairy Export Council.
Prior to his first stint as agriculture secretary, Vilsack was Governor of Iowa from 1999-2007.
Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand says it backs calls for a review on farm transport rules.
A farm owner and two former Waikato contract milkers were recently fined $27,000 over a lack of feed for 230 cattle and a lack of treatment for cows suffering from milk fever.
Scales Corporation has today reported its results for the first half of the 2025 financial year, revealing what it says are outstanding results from its horticulture and logistics divisions.
Federated Farmers says the final report into banking competition is a significant step forward for rural New Zealand - and a vindication of the farming sector's concern.
Fonterra chair Peter McBride expects a strong mandate from farmers shareholders for the proposed sale of its consumer and related businesses to Lactalis for $3.8 billion.
Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell says the sale of the co-op’s consumer and associated businesses to Lactalis represents a great outcome for the co-op.