BRUCE WILLS will shortly step down as Federated Farmers president after the normal three years in the job. Let’s be frank, he’s achieved a helluvva lot. He was elected, with his board, to change the image of the federation. Many members had grown weary of the ‘out there’, somewhat confrontational style of his two predecessors. They wanted change and quite deliberately at Rotorua three years ago a group of them engineered this: Bruce Wills, William Rolleston and Anders Crofoot in particular were central to that movement for change. Wills, the banker turned farmer and now farmer politician, was given a mandate to make Feds mainstream and win back credibility lost with the public, politicians and others in agribusiness. This was no easy task: Wills and his team had to walk a tightrope – being seen to advocate strongly on key issues for members, but not to get into unseemly public debates in the media with groups that didn’t share farmers vision for the future. Wills came across as a person of reason and willingness to listen and get sensible outcomes. Wills has done all that was asked of him and more. In three years, Federated Farmers has again become recognised…

HAVING ALL animals on a farm growing at the same pace could result in big risks for drystock farmers, delegates at the final Finished in 20 Months beef seminar in Northland heard last month.

HEREFORD BREEDERS are enjoying a strong sale season and have reclaimed some market share against other beef breeds says PGG Wrightson national genetics manager Bruce Orr.

RURAL RETAILERS are backing government's safety message to farmers.

OCEANIA DAIRY'S staff have moved into the office building at the company's new Glenavy processing plant.

THE COUNTRY'S bee industry could soon be represented by one body, following a mandate given at the NZ Apiculture Industry conference.

LARGE VOLUMES of unlabelled irradiated Australian tomatoes are hitting local shelves, says Tomatoes New Zealand.

TWO OF LIC bulls have taken out this year's sire of the season awards from Jersey and Holstein-Friesian breed societies.

CANTERBURY FARMERS Mark and Devon Slee have won the National Winner title in the 2014 Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

RABOBANK is predicting global dairy price will recover in six months.