Farming

Specialty dairy company A2-Milk (ATM) is looking to take a majority stake in struggling Southland processor Mataura Valley Milk as it looks to expand its infant formula supply. ATM has made a non-binding offer of about $270 million for a 75.1 percent stake in Mataura, and has been given exclusive ri

Telford is partnering with DairyNZ to offer free entry-level training for career changers whose employment may have been impacted by Covid-19 and are serious about pursuing new opportunities in the farming sector. The GoDairy initiative is planned as a 3-week programme, introducing people to the dai

An online programme to enhance positive interactions between pigs and stockpeople and minimise handling-related stress in pigs is being adopted across New Zealand’s pork sector. The ProHand Pigs Stockperson training course, developed by the Animal Welfare Science Centre at the University of Melbourn

Loyal shareholders in Alliance Group, New Zealand‘s only 100 per cent farmer-owned major red meat co-operative, have been rewarded with a $5 million distribution. The quarterly payments have been made to Alliance’s Platinum and Gold shareholders who supply 100 per cent of their livestock to the comp

Millions of dollars’ worth of production is at risk if the government doesn’t allow agricultural machinery operators into New Zealand, Federated Farmers claims. Lobby group Federated Farmers said a survey by Rural Contractors NZ found that 57 contractors urgently needed 206 skilled operators. Driver

Hundreds of thousands of dead animals risk being left uncollected on farms because of a collapse in the price of leather. Farmers have been told they will have to pay to have the corpses collected, but don’t want to do that. The Ministry for Primary Industries is trying to negotiate a compromise. Fo

Farmers are invited to attend Alliance Group’s 2020 Annual Roadshows over September and October. Twenty-three meetings will be held across the country, starting out in Omihi on 22 September and finishing in Cromwell on 20 October. Alliance Group chief executive David Surveyor said the roadshow is an

Fonterra no longer has to accept milk as a matter of course from anyone wanting to get into dairy farming. Legislation has just been passed in Parliament amending the 20-year-old Dairy Industry Restructuring Act. It was put in place when Fonterra was formed to overcome issues around a monopoly. The