News

Northland dairy farmers are set for a $637 million payout this season but tough economic conditions means most are likely to sue it to pay off debt and carry out vital repair work. Fed Farmers Presidnet Colin Hannah says the payout announced last week by Fonterra is...

Cyclone Gabrielle’s inflicted 140,000 slips on our landscapes, with scientists still counting. Exhaustive analysis has created one of the world’s largest datasets of landslides from a single storm event creating new forecast models for the entire country. Landslides...

A Selwyn dairy farm tested positive for Mycoplasma bovis after the bacteria was found through standard bulk tank milk background screening. In April and August there was cause to celebrate with no known infections. Deputy director general for Biosecurity New Zealand...

New Zealand-based agritech company Robotics Plus has launched Prospr, an autonomous, multi-use, hybrid vehicle designed to carry out a variety of orchard and vineyard crop tasks more efficiently while reducing reliance on labour. The Tauranga based company Robotics...

This week is Mental Health Week and Rural Mental Health advocate Craig Wiggins does amazing work with farmers from all over NZ. He is about to leave for the US to spread the word there with his mantra “Lean on A Gate and Talk To A Mate” Craig joins Mark Leishman on...

It is Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s theme is Five Ways, Five Days, with the Mental Health Foundation providing a set of proven tools to boost mental health when needed. RURAL Mental health is a major issue and by nature farmers are often very isolated,...

A Far North strawberry grower has had to change plans as there is a shortage of strawberry plants. Most of the propagating strawberry plants in NZ are grown in the bay of Plenty which was hit by extremely wet weather earlier in the year destroying nearly 4 million...

Australia has abandoned its fight to eradicate the destructive Varroa mite, responsible for the collapse of honeybee populations across the planet including here in NZ. Desperate to keep Varroa out of the country, authorities destroyed more than 14,000 infected...

Fonterra is reporting a record annual profit of $1.6 billion with the co-ops profit increasing by $994m in the year to the end of July, from $583m the previous year - up 170% and driven by strong margins in its cheese and protein portfolios. The co-op’s normalised...