Import rules a pig's ear
Pig farmers say the idea that not every pork product sold in New Zealand has to be produced to this country’s own welfare standards is unfair.
KILLING bobby calves with hammer blows to their heads should send shivers down the spine of every Kiwi dairy farmer.
The days of ‘she’ll be right’ are gone, as are the days when ‘what happens on the farm stays on the farm’.
And perceptions held by onlookers are as important as ever. Vast numbers of people now own a camera-cellphone, and social media can spread misinformation at light speed.
Trying to educate the public about farming practices is by-and-large a lost cause because townies, especially in Auckland and Wellington, dwell in another universe.
It may be that farmers now must try to think like an imagined Aucklander -- or a Berliner -- to try to second-guess their perceptions of how farming is and how it ought to be.
The citizens of Grey Lynn and Karori need to know that farmers see no great sport in bashing their baby charges with hammers, nor, for that matter, having their vets induce calves. We acknowledge the public, with the animal ethicists, want animals killed ‘nicely’. (Sentient beings are to be euthanased humanely, not bashed to death.)
New Zealand agribusiness is vulnerable because it pitches its products to the affluent and educated – the high end of the market. The reward is better prices, the requirement is higher standards.
Farming leaders need to get off the fence and lead from the front, personally showing their farms as examples of best practice in animal welfare. One-time airline owner Sir Reg Ansett once said “the speed of the boss is the speed of the team”. Right!
Dairy farmers need to be one step ahead of the consumer and offer new value propositions that show they are leaders not followers of best practice.
A small company which mobilised veterinarians around the country to deal with Mycoplasma bovis was one of the winners in this year's Biosecurity Awards, held at Parliament.
One of the country's top Māori sheep and beef farms is facing a five-year battle to get back to where it was before Cyclone Gabrielle struck just over 14 months ago.
Graham Brown, the executive chef for Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ), is excited about Korea.
One of the country's leading experts on China has praised the NZ Government for its handling of the recent incident with China over that country's cyber attack on two of our parliamentary institutions in 2021.
The world’s largest wool processing facility, badly damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle over one year ago, has re-opened following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project.
Kiwi rugby star Renee Holmes is set for a fruitful year.