Tractor therapy
While many MPs have been busy taking holidays in maybe exotic places, for Andrew Hoggard it's back to his old job as a dairy farmer during the so-called 'summer break'.
OPINION: A mate of the Hound was invited to a lockup at Parliament on last month’s climate change agreement with the ag sector.
After going through the rigorous security check, he was directed to an area where the briefing was to take place. However, a security guard wouldn’t let him go through.
Calls to the PM’s department and the Minister of Agriculture’s office resulted in the advice “go back to reception”, where he was then told go to the PM’s office with the farming leaders. But when he got there was told: “Sorry this briefing is not for the media”.
Finally, an official from the PM’s department took pity on our mate and swiped him through numerous doors and got him to the briefing.
Your canine crusader’s advice to anyone invited to a lockup at Parliament is: “Be prepared for a stuff-up or a lockout.”
Applications have now opened for the 2026 Meat Industry Association scholarships.
Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) says it is backing aspiring dairy farmers through a new initiative designed to make the first step to farm ownership or sharemilking easier.
OPINION: While farmers are busy and diligently doing their best to deal with unwanted gasses, the opponents of farming - namely the Greens and their mates - are busy polluting the atmosphere with tirades of hot air about what farmers supposedly aren't doing.
OPINION: For close to eight years now, I have found myself talking about methane quite a lot.
The Royal A&P Show of New Zealand, hosted by the Canterbury A&P Association, is back next month, bigger and better after the uncertainty of last year.
Claims that farmers are polluters of waterways and aquifers and 'don't care' still ring out from environmental groups and individuals. The phrase 'dirty dairying' continues to surface from time to time. But as reporter Peter Burke points out, quite the opposite is the case. He says, quietly and behind the scenes, farmers are embracing new ideas and technologies to make their farms sustainable, resilient, environmentally friendly and profitable.
OPINION: The Greens have taken the high moral ground on the Palestine issue and been leading political agitators in related…
One of the most galling aspects of the tariffs whacked on our farm exports to the US is the fact…