The New Zealand Emissions Trading scheme (ETS) has taken a big step towards forward, yet remains the harshest treatment of any agricultural production system on Earth.

THE UNITED Nations general assembly in December 2009 declared 2012 to be the International Year of Cooperatives in recognition of the contribution of cooperatives to global, social and economic development.

Progressive Meats Managing Director, Craig Hickson is the 2012 Allflex/Federated Farmers Agribusiness Person of the Year.

Don't expect any "free stuff" from Government, the Minister of Finance Bill English told Federated Farmers.

NITROGEN IS up and DAP down in the two main fertiliser cooperative’s latest price list revisions.

Parts of coastal Rangitikei are reaping the rewards of the Animal Health Board's (AHB) moves to eradicate bovine tuberculosis (TB) from New Zealand.

There are signs the dairy market could be stabilising. At the recent global dairy trade auction, prices somewhat maintained the sharp gains made in the prior auction.

The prime cattle keep rolling into the works in the North Island which is keeping a lid on prices. Last week, 300kg prime steer was $4.15/kg on average

A MERE 0.5% drop in overall prices in last week’s GlobalDairyTrade auction is being hailed as a good result by commentators given the previous sale’s 13% price jump and continued economic uncertainties.

THOSE WHO have been around a while know that one of the certainties of business life is change. That has taken on a new dimension with the volatility of compressed business cycles accentuating positive and negative swings. An obvious example is the recent softening of dairy prices which has cast an unexpected shadow over 2013 and beyond.