NEW RESEARCH funded by Ballance Agri-Nutrients that will look at the most efficient use of nitrogen fertiliser for pasture growth.

MICHAEL SPAANS has been elected as the new director on the Fonterra Board of Directors.

ENTRIES IN THE 2014 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are running neck-and-neck with last year.

CANTERBURY FARMER Mike Ryan has taken out the 2013 Mint Lamb Competition, producing the country's best lamb from paddock to plate.

RURAL CONTRACTORS NZ and Federated Farmers may have different memberships and goals, but they share a close and mutually beneficial relationship, says RCNZ president Steve Levet.

PRICES RECEIVED BY New Zealand producers, as measured by the output producers price index (PPI), rose 2.4% in the September 2013 quarter, Statistics New Zealand says.

HUNDRED OF THOUSANDS of farmers in the Philippines whose crops were destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan need urgent assistance to sow new seeds before the end of the current planting season, FAO has warned.

TURN OUT for 22 meetings starting this week will be a barometer of the mood for change in the meat industry, claim organisers.

FONTERRA IS comfortable with putting all its eggs in one basket when it comes to trade with China.

YOUR CANINE crusader reckons farmers had better get used to the idea of bearing a backlash from any new Labour/Green government if they win power next year. Labour is, at best, ambivalent towards the rural sector; the Greens are openly hostile.