FROM THE RIDGE: Man makes pre-Christmas promises to wife
10 December 2018
The boss gets very busy at this time of the year and just like last year, to reduce the pressure, has let me file his last column.
OPINION ARCHIVES
PULPIT: Make farm safety a summer focus
10 December 2018
While most New Zealanders are looking forward to the Christmas break there are some jobs where there’s always work to be done like those in hospitals, the emergency services and on farms.
THE VOICE: Farmers have had enough of MPI
10 December 2018
The relationship between Primary Industries Ministry Mycoplasma bovis response director Geoff Gwyn and Mid Canterbury farmers is officially over if the rhetoric from farmers and the resulting actions taken to bypass Gwyn and go directly to new Primary Industries director-general Ray Smith following a tough week of talks is anything to go by.
PULPIT: Lack of meat staff can be fixed
4 December 2018
The meat industry says there is a shortage of about 2000 workers but that is a challenge that goes well beyond simply demanding foreign workers to fill the gap.
Ask any long-term meat worker.
MEATY MATTERS: Alliance puts spin on poor result
4 December 2018
It was a profit but, as Alliance chairman Murray Taggart said “We don’t budget to make $8 million on turnover of $1.8 billion”.
The just-announced 2018 result compared with the previous year’s operating profit of $20.2m though after pool payments the 2017 profit was only 11% higher than this year’s.
ALTERNATIVE VIEW: Only rejected candidates can stand
4 December 2018
I was a little surprised to receive a condescending and fatuous email from Farmlands on its recent board of directors election.
While I congratulate the successful candidates I found the process nauseating in the extreme.
Suicide: Call it what it is
27 November 2018
Suicide affects communities and strong communities are needed to combat the problem of youth suicide rural New Zealand is still experiencing at alarming rates.
Mainstream media have to be careful how they report suicide cases and suspected cases. Their hands are tied by the law.
FROM THE RIDGE: Smoking pipes bring no peace
26 November 2018
I have a gripe with a pipe I’d like to share with you. Not the fault of the pipe but more circumstance.
When the forestry gang turned up here in February, before I knew it, a young fellow was dropping trees in the valley next to where they started, not giving me the chance to salvage my 40mm high-pressure pipe that delivers stock water from the pump next to the creek to the tank on the hill.
OFF THE CUFF: Give yourself a fitness check
22 November 2018
It is always a pleasant sensation to feel the first warm, sunny days on your back after a long, wet winter.
Late spring is an enjoyable time on the farm with loads of green grass, crops being planted and longer days to get all the jobs done.
FROM THE RIDGE: It’s life, but not as we know it
22 November 2018
I was intrigued last week by the reports coming from airline pilots who were flying off the Irish coast and radioed in reports of Unidentified Flying Objects.
