Don't hold back!
OPINION: ACT MP Mark Cameron isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but he certainly calls it how he sees it, holding nothing back when ‘climate scientists’ had a crack at Kiwi farmers recently:
OPINION: Science funding for the bulwark of the nation, agriculture, is in a parlous state and less taxpayer money is shelled out for it every year.
So, imagine your old mate's surprise when he heard that instead of increasing funding for such 'colonial science', more is going to projects like 'research' into whether playing whale song to sick kauri trees can fix kauri die-back.
Sounds ridiculous, and yet the project got the green light, was managed by MBIE, and the actual payments were funneled through Landcare Research.
Officials are still refusing a line-by-line breakdown but, in total, this mātauranga Māori-based 'research' cost taxpayers $4,027,020.
Te Tira Whakamātaki Ltd did the 'work'. It's "co-founder and trustee", Melanie Mark-Shadbolt, is also the co-director of the BioHeritage Science Challenge Science - i.e. the government initiative funding the project!
Newly elected Federated Farmers meat and wool group chair Richard Dawkins says he will continue the great work done his predecessor Toby Williams.
Hosted by ginger dynamo Te Radar, the Fieldays Innovation Award Winners Event put the spotlight on the agricultural industry's most promising ideas.
According to DairyNZ's latest Econ Tracker update, there has been a rise in the forecast breakeven milk price for the 2025/26 season.
Despite the rain and a liberal coating of mud, engines roared, and the 50th Fieldays Tractor Pull Competition drew crowds of spectators across the four days of the annual event.
Nationwide rural wellbeing programme, Farmstrong recently celebrated its tenth birthday at Fieldays with an event attended by ambassador Sam Whitelock, Farmers Mutual Group (FMG), Farmstrong partners, and government Ministers.
Six industry organisations, including DairyNZ and the Dairy Companies Association (DCANZ) have signed an agreement with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to prepare the country for a potential foot and mouth outbreak.