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OPINION: Following Beef + Lamb NZ's rather testy annual meeting - and the ousting of former chair Andrew Morrison - the organisation decided to go on a charm offensive in an effort to get farmers back onside.
It has run a number of farmer meetings around the country to get feedback on key issues - including the widely unpopular HWEN.
However, B+LNZ's new 'open and transparent' mode appears to be about as murky as Michael Wood's share portfolio, with media banned from attending the meetings.
B+LNZ claims banning media from the meetings would encourage farmers to be more 'open' about their concerns.
However, as one appalled farmer told yours truly, the ban made B+LNZ "more like the Freemasons by the day".
He believes the reason media attendance was thwarted was because it would have recorded and reported the real discussion.
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.
OPINION: Your old mate's ear has been chewed off recently by farmers voicing their displeasure with the National Party, particularly relating to how they're treating their farmer base.
Craighead Diocesan, Darfield High School and Christchurch Boys' High School took out the three age groups at the Canterbury Clash of the Colleges, which was held at the recent Ashburton A&P Show.
The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM) is expanding its collaboration with TextileGenesis to deliver full traceability for 100% of ZQ certified wool and ZQRX regenerative wool.
According to Federated Farmers, Environment Southland has mishandled the consent process for Waituna Lagoon, leaving the community with numerous bad outcomes.
Metallica's charitable foundation, All Within My Hands (AWMH), teamed up with Meet the Need this week for a food packing event held at the New Zealand Food Network warehouse in Auckland.
After two years, Alliance Group has returned to profit.
According to Zespri's November forecast for the 2025/26 season, returns are likely to be up for all fruit groups compared to the last forecast in August.
OPINION: Winston Peters has described the decision to sell its brand to Lactalis and disperse the profit to its farmer…
OPINION: The Hound reckons a big problem with focusing too much on the wrong goal - reducing livestock emissions at…
