THE FIRST OF THIS season's New Zealand avocados have started hitting the supermarket shelves in Japan in a buoyant start to export sales there, and opening prices in Australia are at their best.

FEDERATED FARMERS and Horticulture New Zealand are talking up the outcome of the High Court decision on Horizons Regional Council, despite having lost – technically at least.

AFTER TWO years of little news, the proposed Hunter Downs Irrigation scheme in South Canterbury is back in the headlines with Government funding and farmer meetings.

THE TENDER Tips packhouse is a hive of activity in the season’s full swing. Asparagus comes through for washing, grading and packing, then off to supermarkets and, of course, Japan.

MASSEY UNIVERSITY has completely revamped its No 1 dairy research farm to try to find new ways to farm more sustainably and profitably and produce high quality milk. 

SCIENTISTS JACQUELINE Rowarth (Rural News July 16) and Doug Edmeades (Rural News August 20) have criticised Albrecht’s base cation saturation ratio (BCSR) theory being used to make fertiliser recommendations. 

‘STOP THE boats’ has been the mantra of new Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott since he was first elected Opposition leader in 2009.

ASK VETERINARIAN and Waikato farmer Ian Scott what he thinks of new pasture cultivars and, off the record, you’re likely to get a four-letter-word answer.

YOU CAN’T prove cause and effect, but it seems more than a coincidence farmers using New Zealand’s leading farm decision support tool make more money than average.

FEDERATED FARMERS wants the Primary Production Select Committee to consider tweaking the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill so privacy laws don’t prevent getting help to suffering animals and farmers.