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OPINION:This old mutt suggests that the election of Kate Acland as chair of Beef+Lamb NZ – after the electoral demise of former chair Andrew Morrison – has seen many people miss the family link to producer board organisations.
Acland’s uncle (by marriage), John Acland, was the chair of B+LNZ’s predecessor Meat NZ back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Meanwhile, John’s father, Sir Jack Acland, was chair of the Wool Board during the 1960s and early 1970s.
It seems the Acland family have had a long association with farmer levy funded bodies over the years, with Kate now the third generation of the family to take the reins.
The Hound reckons Kate will in time probably want to emulate the efforts of John Acland at Meat NZ who left the organisation on his own terms, rather than Sir Jack who resigned after a farmer-led coup against the organisation.
Sound familiar?
OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.
OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."
OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.
OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.
New Zealand's red meat sector says the United States' decision to increase tariffs on New Zealand exports is disappointing.
OPINION: Nothing it seems can be done in the short term to get Donald Trump to change his mind about removing the unfair 15% tariffs that he’s imposed on New Zealand exports to the US.
A charity that connects young people with farmers for two years of on-farm training is reporting 150 student applications for its 2026 intake.
It’s been a long time coming, but the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final is returning to the Naki for Season 58.
The Government has appointed three new members to the board of state farmer Landcorp Farming Ltd, trading as Pāmu.
North Canterbury pig farmer Steve Sterne has been honoured with NZ Pork's Outstanding Contribution Award, recognising his 27 years of dedication to excellence in the sector.
Hawke's Bay's loss is Canterbury's gain with the opening of a new state-of-the-art soil testing laboratory for the Ravensdown subsidiary ARL (Analytical Research Laboratories) at Rolleston.
