A question many strong wool growers have heard is why, for all its strengths and the push for wool products, is wool considered almost worthless? There is one big flaw in that question: wool isn’t almost worthless, it is an active drain on farmers’ businesses. Leo Argent looks at how the strong wool industry came to be where it is today and whether it can make a comeback.

OPINION: For my column this time, I planned to write about the weather event that hit us the night of February 1.

A dream came true for 25-year-old Joanna Fowlie when she won Supreme Champion of All Breeds at the New Zealand Dairy Event (NZDE) in Feilding month.

A new report by Rabobank suggests that 2023 will prove to be an uphill climb for New Zealand agriculture, with the difficulty of the climb hinging on four main ‘wildcard’ factors.

The 2023 kiwifruit harvest season has kicked off with growers bracing for lower yield and poor quality fruit.

The recent presentation of a cheque for $4,500 to the Rural Support Trust, was the result of the Fieldays’ inaugural Tractor Racing Experience that replaced the usual tractor pulling competition.

Use of cow monitoring collars is on the rise, with about 700,000 of New Zealand’s 4.9 million cows in milk now thought to be fitted with them – about 14% of the national milking herd.

The whole horticultural sector has been affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, with words such devastation and almost dystopian being used.

Dairy farmers could save more than a billion dollars over a decade by incorporating plantain into their pastures.

Farmers want the Government to deploy the army to deter crime in rural areas of Coromandel, East Cape and Hawke's Bay.