Election Year Curse?
OPINION: The coalition Government seems to have chickened out when it comes to live animal exports by sea.
OPINION: This old mutt is dumbfounded by the ill-informed claims made by some media commentators that wannabe ACT PM and former Fed Farmers boss Andrew Hoggard will be the Minister of Agriculture in a possible National/ACT coalition government, should they get across the line on October 14.
As one insider told yours truly, these supposed ‘informed’ commentators should spend less time interviewing their typewriters and get out and talk to people in the know.
It is understood that the many rural candidates and MPs in National reckon claims that Hoggard would be elevated straight into the ag portfolio in any Nat/ACT coalition are about as fanciful as Green MP Chloe Swarbrick getting the job.
The Nats are fighting hard to regain the rural vote and are highly unlikely to give their junior coalition partner the gold-plated job of Ag Minister in any government they are part of.
New Zealand's diverse cheesemaking talent shone brightly last night as the New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) crowned the champions of the 2026 New Zealand Cheese Awards.
Tracing has indicated that the source of the first velvetleaf find of the 2025-26 crop season, in Auckland, was likely maize purchased in the Waikato region.
Fish & Game New Zealand has announced its election priorities in its Manifesto 2026.
With the forage maize harvest started in Northland and the Waikato, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is telling growers of later crops, or those further south, to start checking their maize crop maturity about three weeks prior to when they think they will start silage harvesting.
Irrigation NZ is warning that the government's Resource Management Act (RMA) reform risks falling short of its objectives unless water use for food production and water storage infrastructure are clearly recognised in the goals at the top of the new system.
More than five million trays, or 18,000 tonnes, of Zespri’s RubyRed Kiwifruit will soon be available for consumers across 16 markets this season.