Silver Fern Farms roadshow highlights global demand
The second event in the Silver Fern Farms ‘Pasture to Plate Roadshow’ landed in Feilding last week, headed by chair and King Country farmer, Anna Nelson, and chief executive Dan Boulton.
Your old mate reckons former Silver Fern Farms sales manager Grant Howie has done a poacher-turned-gamekeeper conversion since he left the meat company to do business on his own account.
Howie in his former life was the chief salesman of red meat products on behalf of SFF. However, earlier this year the former meat man took over the The Craft Meat Company in Dunedin and has recently hit the supermarket shelves with a plant-based ‘No Meat Mince’’ with ingredients such as mushrooms, tomatoes, almonds, coconut oil and soy protein. Howie, a 30-year food industry veteran, said the rise of alternative proteins was arguably the biggest trend in Western food. This old mutt wonders what Howie’s ex-colleagues and former farmer suppliers at SFF think of his new venture.
The Government is set to announce two new acts to replace the contentious Resource Management Act (RMA) with the Prime Minister hinting that consents required by farmers could reduce by 46%.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change would be “a really dumb move”.
The University of Waikato has broken ground on its new medical school building.
Undoubtedly the doyen of rural culture, always with a wry smile, our favourite ginger ninja, Te Radar, in conjunction with his wife Ruth Spencer, has recently released an enchanting, yet educational read centred around rural New Zealand in one hundred objects.
Farmers are being urged to keep on top of measures to control Cysticerus ovis - or sheep measles - following a spike in infection rates.
The avocado industry is facing an extremely challenging season with all parts of the supply chain, especially growers, being warned to prepare for any eventuality.

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…