HOLDING THE forecast farmgate milk price and lowering the dividend to 10c was a practical decision given the unusual market conditions says Fonterra Shareholders' Council chairman, Ian Brown.

SHOULD YOU be tweaking inputs as you, or your machines, traverse your paddocks?

VETS HAVE called on rural New Zealand communities to work with them to ensure antimicrobial medicines are used wisely.

A COMPULSORY control programme for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) in New Zealand is unlikely in the near future despite a growing number of nations, mostly European, adopting such measures, says the chairman of a national steering committee on the disease.

ELECTRONIC MASS control (EMC) on Kuhn hydraulic-drive Axis fert spreaders, and new GPS-linked technology, raises the machines’ performance at headlands and field corners, says the New Zealand distributor.

A NEW effluent pond stirrer to be released soon will require limited maintenance and carry a two-year warranty – almost unheard of in the dairy industry, says manufacturer Plucks Engineering.

THE NZ TRANSPORT Agency and Police are reminding rural property owners particularly in Canterbury to ensure their properties are adequately fenced to contain their livestock.

THE HUNT IS UNDERWAY for examples of innovation within New Zealand's irrigation sector as industry body IrrigationNZ gears up for its bi-ennial conference in Hawkes Bay.

VOTER APATHY could prove the biggest barrier to sector reform, the Meat Industry Excellence group is warning in the run-up to the meat cooperative board elections.

THE END of milk quotas in Europe from 2015 will add another dimension to the global milk supply, says Fonterra chairman John Wilson.