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.
PULPIT ARCHIVES
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.
PULPIT: Heading for a TB-free future
19 November 2018
Ospri Chairman Barry Harris says New Zealand farmers can be proud of the progress of the TB Plan towards eradicating the infectious livestock disease bovine tuberculosis.
PULPIT: Less effective killers cost more
13 November 2018
Glyphosphate, commonly sold as Roundup, has been in the news again, this time because of a link to antibiotic resistance.
Canterbury University’s Professor Jack Heinemann has done some interesting work in the laboratory. He has also acknowledged agar plates in controlled conditions are a very long way from field use.
PULPIT: Picking rams made easy
29 October 2018
October is the time most sheep farmers start to think of buying their rams to replace those that have passed their use-by date.
The vast majority of these farmers are very loyal to their ram suppliers, with some buying from the same source for decades.
PULPIT: Legislate to stop calf deaths
24 October 2018
Ngongotaha calf rearer Patricia Hosking has written an open letter to Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor to voice her concerns about the health of calf offered for sale.
PULPIT: Nation still relies on farming
16 October 2018
Just as a farming season flies past so does the political year.
PULPIT: More lamb loss research needed
8 October 2018
Severe lamb losses in recent weeks, as a result of spring storms, have sparked a fresh debate about what more our farming sector can or should be doing to prevent deaths on such a scale.
PULPIT: UK farmers have edge on kiwis
20 September 2018
Over the past 12 months I’ve visited numerous farms and agricultural companies throughout Britain.
That insight provided an opportunity to observe New Zealand agriculture from an outside perspective and get a clear comparison with those on the other side of the world.
PULPIT: Fonterra’s future up to farmers
5 September 2018
The dairy industry is full of commentators who seem expert at expounding their view of what is wrong with the industry but offer very little in the way of constructive opinion on the way forward.
