Overbearing?
OPINION: Dust ups between rural media and PR types aren't unheard of but also aren't common, given part of the job description of PR is to grease the wheels and ensure clients get good media coverage.
OPINION: It seems wokeness is now well and truly infecting the brains trust at The New Zealand Merino Company, which now wants farmers to give lambs pain relief during tail docking.
According to the NZ Merino Company's Dave Maslen, by June 2025 farmers will have to "administer pain relief for castration, tailing, and any severe shearing injuries on farms".
"This is a step we need to take as pain mitigation is quickly becoming a non-negotiable for some markets and it is already a requirement of other internatinal ethical wool standards," Maslen claims.
However, Federated Farmers Toby Williams says while it did not have a problem with farmers meeting animal welfare requirements for pain relief during tail docking and pain relief was not a requirement under animal welfare standards.
MPI says no pain relief was needed on lambs younger than six months.
Questions are being raised about just how good the state of the dairy industry is - especially given that the average farmgate payout for the coming season is set to exceed $10/kgMS.
A leading financial and banking advisor says he doubts if most dairy farmers fully understand the dynamics of banking.
Dairy farmers are shoring up their balance sheets, with almost $1.7 billion of debt repaid in the six months to March 2025.
Virtual fencing company Halter is going global but for founder Craig Piggott, New Zealand farmers will always remain their main partners.
A former Fonterra executive is the new chair of the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ).
New Federated Farmers national dairy chair Karl Dean is looking forward to tackling the issues facing the sector.
OPINION: Dust ups between rural media and PR types aren't unheard of but also aren't common, given part of the…
OPINION: The Hound hears from his canine pals in Southland that an individual's derogatory remarks on social media have left…