YOUR OLD mate would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the recent Primary Sector chief executive’s bootcamp conference, coming as it did in the wake of the Fonterra’s clostridium botulinum and nitrate contamination incidents, not to mention Alliance’s labelling lapse and Westland’s own nitrate niggle.

A giant 1,018m² rug made with more than 3,000kg of pure New Zealand wool is headed for the Guinness Book of Records as the largest single-piece rug ever made.

FONTERRA MAY soon own its first dairy farms in Australia. The Australian newspaper reports Fonterra is teaming up with state-owned China Investment Corporation to buy Van Diemen's Land (VDL), Tasmania, in whole or in part.

PRAISE FOR Fonterra and the Government’s handling of the false-alarm food safety recall has come from an unexpected quarter – A2 Corporation which is launching its own infant formula brand in China in November.

CONCERNS ABOUT food safety in parts of the China market underlie a plan by the Chinese infant formula maker Yashili to build a $220m plant at Pokeno, just south of Auckland.

THE WORLD’S largest milk powder drier, at Fonterra’s Darfield site in Canterbury, started production last month.

AS WIDELY reported, the combination of lower milk prices, higher input prices and adverse seasonal conditions meant that the total production volume for 2012-13 finished down 2.9% on the prior season. 

DAIRY FARMERS have been on a rollercoaster of late – especially given the daily misfortunes of Fonterra and its botulism debacle. To see their industry ‘in lights’ in the international media, and being described as less than perfect, has been distressing.

Fonterra's second farming hub in China will be located at Ying County, Shanxi Province and  it is looking to secure strategic partners in the development.

The Dalrymple brothers, Hew and Roger, farming just out of Bulls, have a second pair of eyes looking over their property.  Actually the word is ‘i’ – as in smartphone technology. Peter Burke reports on the technology in use and the savings that result.