Public articles

Jemima Snook’s Kellogg Rural Leadership project report posed the question of how to generate value and improve sustainability from non-financial farm reporting. We share an insight into her findings.

Protecting our farm businesses for future generations is front of mind for many in the farming world, including when it comes to land use, and freshwater degradation.
Guests Lee Matheson and Tanira Kingi have both been part of Our Land And Water (Toitū te Whenua, Toiora te Wai) research projects, and spoke at the symposium held in May, to discuss ways farmers already are and can continue to protect their greatest asset: the land. Whether this is getting involved in protecting your local catchment, or diversifying land use, the opportunities are out there.

The Whitiwhiti Ora: Land Use Opportunities research project brought farmers and researchers together in Canterbury’s Waimakariri catchment to assess potential farmland diversification use. Mixed arable operation, Taggart Farms, was one of three case studies, with options identified including carbon, edible fungi and hops. Words Rebecca Greaves.

One of the hot topics at the Red Meat Sector Conference this week was the recently enacted EU deforestation regulation, and how this will impact New Zealand meat exporters. Rebecca Greaves talks to farmer and Special Agricultural Trade Envoy for New Zealand, Hamish Marr, and lawyer Sarah Salmond, about this and more - including negotiating the minefield of Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and whether we should join forces with the Aussies.
Then hear from McDonald’s New Zealand's Simon Kenny about what they’re doing to get ahead of the game when it comes to sustainability, meeting their climate obligations and goals with their beef suppliers.

Farm succession is something that affects every farming family at some point - whether it be from parent to child, or outside the family unit, there are many ways to approach it, and definitely no silver bullet.
Hear from three people who know succession’s in-and-outs best:, a farmer currently in the succession process; a rural banking expert; and a family succession planning consultant.

Rural banking is a hot topic. The government says it has heard farmers’ concerns about a disparity between rural and urban bank lending practices, and has requested an inquiry into the state of competition in New Zealand banking, with a particular focus on rural areas.

Hear from those in the industry about why they believe this inquiry is needed, whether the current situation is unfair to farmers, and where personal business responsibility fits into this. Federated Farmers also outline the results of their latest banking survey, and what they hope will come from the inquiry.

The government has announced that agriculture will no longer be included in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for now, but the effects of climate change and the way we might potentially price agricultural emissions are still front of mind for those in the sector. Industry bodies say that New Zealand food producers need to think about how a global demand for sustainably grown and produced food will impact our place in the supply chain.

It’s bull and sheep buying season, and advancements in the genetics space are continuing to develop, to provide sheep and beef breeders with better New Zealand specific data. But how do farmers make the most of this information?

We talk to genetics specialists, Dr Shannon Clarke from AgResearch, Genetics Specialist and Gemma Jenkins from Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Informing New Zealand Beef programme, about projects running at the moment, what data they already have available, and how farmers can start using it in their systems.

Drench resistance is a growing challenge for many New Zealand farms, but it doesn’t have to be a death sentence. Hear about what tools are out there, including adapting farm systems, and being proactive with testing.

Rebecca Greaves talks to Wormwise Programme Manager Ginny Dodunski about what to do if you discover drench resistance onfarm, and Hawke’s Bay farmer Charles Yule, who is farming with drench resistance and wrote his Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme report on this topic.

On-Farm Research is now two years into a project investigating Regenerative Agriculture (RA) and what role this might play in a dryland farming system. Words Paul Muir, On-Farm Research