THIS OLD mutt has always been suspicious about our cousins from across the ditch.

THE HOUND – like many – was rightly critical of Fonterra chairman John Wilson’s invisible-man act and unwillingness to front during last year’s not-botulism scare.

YOUR OLD mate is well aware of the struggles the ag sector has in attracting young people.

YOUR OLD mate would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the recent Primary Sector chief executive’s bootcamp conference, coming as it did in the wake of the Fonterra’s clostridium botulinum and nitrate contamination incidents, not to mention Alliance’s labelling lapse and Westland’s own nitrate niggle.

FEDS’ SO-CALLED news mag National Farming Review is out, looking like a compendium of junior-high school essays – written by every Feds’ policy analyst.

THE HOUND was unsurprised to see Green MP and former paid mouthpiece of the organic lobby Steffan Browning latching on to the latest claims by the doomsayers at Pesticide Action Network Aotearoa New Zealand, saying that New Zealand rivers are full of pesticides and we are all going to die.

THE HOUND questions whether the recent use of DNA sequence technology by farmer cooperative Livestock Improvement (LIC)

THIS OLD mutt notes that the Greens have been accusing the current Government of playing crony politics and/or looking after ‘their mates’.

ANOTHER RAG’S claim in its May 7 issue, to have “broken” the latest round of PKE biosecurity stories with a report on March 19 left your old mate gobsmacked.

EVER BEEN to a conference where a speaker goes on and on and on and won’t stop? The Hound has learned a way of cutting that person off on cue.