News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Cleaning Up The Sty

Cleaning Up The Sty

An innovative biogas system developed by New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) is making Australian pig farms cleaner and greener as well as reducing the smell. Australian pork industry association,…

Small, Green And Phenomenal

Small, Green And Phenomenal

“What’s small, green, comes from New Zealand and is incredibly popular with Britain’s brewers?” The Independent’s Will Hawkes asks. “No, not Kiwi fruits, although someone will surely make a beer with them sooner or later. The…

Impressive Pest Control

Impressive Pest Control

Sheep, rugby and kiwi were what the director of Canada’s McGill University’s Office for Science and Society Joe Schwarcz associated with New Zealand, not possum, weasel, ferret or rabbit. “I certainly did not connect…

Lucerne Greens Up the Dry

Lucerne Greens Up the Dry

Farmer of the Year Marlborough lamb and beef producer Doug Avery was a guest at the Queensland Agforce conference in September giving Australians tips on drought proofing their properties. The ABC’s Landline executive producer…

Scottish Dairy Venture

Scottish Dairy Venture

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, the largest processor of milk in the world, has made its first move into Europe by forming a joint venture with Scotland-based First Milk, which supplies and markets 15…

Ginseng for China

Ginseng for China

King Country Ginseng growers Maraeroa C Incorporation are working with a Shanghai-based distributor to market their crops in China under the label Pureora NZ Ginseng. “We’re probably the only grower of simulated-wild, natural, organically…

Dealing to Manure

Dealing to Manure

New Zealand has approved the release of 11 Australian species to manage a massive heap of livestock dung. Manure accounts for around 14 per cent of New Zealand’s emissions of nitrous oxide, a powerful…

Back to Business

Back to Business

The New Zealand dairy co-operative of 1,5 farmers, Fonterra, which controls about a third of all internationally traded dairy products, has resumed its operations in Egypt in the wake of political unrest there. “We…

Trail-blazing Tomatoes

Trail-blazing Tomatoes

Auckland-based Status Produce is New Zealand’s largest tomato supplier producing 10 million kilograms of tomatoes each year. Status Produce began as a vision in 1993 by John Becroft, a second-generation tomato grower and Garry…

Organic targets set

Organic targets set

Twenty per cent of vineyards in New Zealand will be farmed organically or biodynamically by 22, according to a new target set by Organic Winegrowers New Zealand (OWNZ). “By 22, even if we only…

Powerful manure

Powerful manure

New Zealand-based company Flotech Inc. will soon open its first biogas upgrading system, which converts manure into natural gas, in Canada at an Abbotsford farm southeast of Vancouver. Flotech has a water-scrubbing system…

Market reforms pay off

Market reforms pay off

Korea should follow the example of New Zealand farmers Special Agricultural Trade Envoy Alistair Polson tells the Korea JoongAng Daily on a recent visit to Seoul to meet Korean agricultural industry leaders. Once highly…

Felapau in Botswana

Felapau in Botswana

New Zealander David Felapau has been appointed chief executive officer of the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC). Felapau began his agricultural career in New Zealand working on sheep and beef stations in the central North…

Ivy League purchase

Ivy League purchase

A 4ha dairy farm south of Auckland has been purchased by Harvard University for US$2.7 million. The Cambridge institution best known for churning out top college graduates bought the farm with 6 cows as…

To India for milk

To India for milk

New Zealand dairy conglomerate Fonterra is in talks with Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. to set up a dairy farm in India. The project may cost as much as 1 billion rupees ($225 million)…

Land Purchase Backlash

Land Purchase Backlash

New Zealand plans to tighten controls on foreign land purchases amid fears that the Chinese acquisition of local farms may not be in the country’s strategic interests, in particular after a fierce public backlash…

Crunching genetics

Crunching genetics

Roger Hellens from New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research has identified the genetic code for Golden Delicious apples meaning growers will be able to produce crunchier, juicier and healthier fruits. Hellens said: “We will…

Real farms promoted

Real farms promoted

A large selection of New Zealand farmland, businesses and property will be on display in North Yorkshire in October, as part of a national road show from real estate company, Bayleys Realty Global. Bayleys…

Stopping the sales

Stopping the sales

New Zealand group Save Our Farms, who say local farms should not be sold to overseas investors, have launched an advertising campaign to stop foreigners buying up agricultural land. The campaign was rolled out…

Woolly takeover

Woolly takeover

Sheep have replaced hobbits at The Shire in Matamata. The rolling green pastures and hobbit houses that provided the backdrop for director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy were originally going to be…

Fruit Ban Overturned

Fruit Ban Overturned

Australia’s 89-year ban on imports of New Zealand apples is illegal, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled, ordering Canberra to comply with international commerce law. In a 548-page verdict, the WTO rejected Australia’s…

Craving more bleu

Craving more bleu

Former sheep farmer New Zealander Alistair MacKenzie moved to Canada 11 years ago with his French-Canadian wife, Karien Piché and made a career change, purchasing a small artisan cheese-making and sheep farming business called…

Wwow What a Wwoof

Wwow What a Wwoof

From their wwoofing holiday in Northland, Californian couple Jacob and Kendall Madden describe their time spent working on five organic farms in the region in a guide about what it means to be a…

Revell’s field day

Revell’s field day

Te Aroha dairy farmer Richard Revell who has developed a fizzy cola-flavoured milk drink in a can, has met with multinational ire, with Coca Cola banning him from selling the beverage at the annual…

Papery puns

Papery puns

Rangitikei artist Andrew Reilly has turned bull dung into paper, “perfect,” reflects Guardian blogger Roy Greenslade “for publishing bullshit”. After harvesting the dung, Reilly soaks it in water for a fortnight, explaining that there…

Missouri Dairy Kings

Missouri Dairy Kings

New Zealander Kevin Van der Poel, 46, remembers the skepticism and suspicion when he moved to Missouri more than four years ago to raise dairy cattle. When Van der Poel started construction on rock…

Green, green grass

Green, green grass

New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra’s “secret weapon is vast acres of clean grass.” “What we’re very good at in New Zealand is growing good, high-quality grass,” says area manager of Fonterra’s South Taranaki site Rod O’Beirne. “We…

Easy in the back paddocks

Easy in the back paddocks

Fielding farmer David Short has invented a battery-powered shearing handpiece that can be used in the yards or paddocks, and for minimal cost. Short has spent four years perfecting the design and now the…

Merino magic

Merino magic

For the fourth year running South Canterbury merino farmers Barrie and Yvonne Payne, owners of Visulea Farm in Maungati, have won the Loro Piana Record Bale Award for the highest price paid for a…

Reigniting the value of wool

Reigniting the value of wool

As Chair of Wool Partners International, Theresa Gattung is at the forefront of a campaign to reignite the value of one of New Zealand’s oldest export commodities on the world stage. Gattung…

Making more milk

Making more milk

New Zealand scientists at AgResearch have discovered some keys to dramatically increasing milk production in the country’s cows. Researchers investigated the potential of epigenetic regulation, or changes in gene expression caused by chemical changes…

Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me

Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me

Massey University scientists have teamed up with the Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research at the University of Melbourne to decipher the genetic code of the dreaded Aussie blowfly. The study hopes to find a successful…

A Kiwifruit A Day…

A Kiwifruit A Day…

Sales of NZ kiwifruit to SARS zone Taiwan have escalated dramatically after two academics proclaimed the fruit’s resistance-building properties in a Chinese daily. Kiwifruit contain twice as much vitamin C as oranges and a…

Land of Milk and Honey

Land of Milk and Honey

The Scotman reports on New Zealand’s “white gold rush” – the scramble by milk producers to find new dairying land as world prices continue to rise, and further impetus given to the industry with…

New Zealand Farmers Have a Talent Rare in Agriculture – They Don’t Whinge.

New Zealand Farmers Have a Talent Rare in Agriculture – They Don’t Whinge.

“But they might allow themselves a slight grouse about the billions of dollars of euros, dollars and yen paid out in subsidies elsewhere as their efficient modern industry faces the challenges of the future”.