Farming

The question of whether New Zealand has reached peak dairy has been occupying the minds of a group of University of Otago academics.

Lex Morris estimates he has two weeks' capacity left in his dairy-shed effluent ponds, which have been filling steadily because exceptionally wet weather has prevented him from irrigating it on to pasture.

Volunteers will this week deliver food parcels to Otago farmers who bore the brunt of last week's storms and ask what help they need, replicating the relief effort which started in Southland yesterday.

The Government is changing the way it sets rents for pastoral lease farmland, shifting from a system based on land value to one based on productivity and economic conditions.

Taieri farmer wants TrustPower to audit its transmission lines after eight of his dairy cows were electrocuted when a 33kV line taking electricity from the Waipori Dam dropped across his farm.

The seven young men vying in Gore for the title of the county's top young farmer yesterday got their hands dirty showing their practical farming ability.

Fonterra shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing share trading among farmer suppliers, effectively moving the immediate prospective of a sharemarket float off the co-operative's agenda.

It is one of our cultural stereotypes: the rugged, versatile, no-nonsense farmer - the sort of person for whom most regulations are made by townies for townies who have no real understanding of the demands and constraints of a working life in the country

Competitors drawn on the first day of the Tux New Zealand sheep dog trial championships would not be blamed for thinking they had drawn the short straw, as the weather closed in around the Stoney Creek hills, near Gore, yesterday.

Stocktaking of the Queenstown Lakes rural area rules is long overdue, says Wanaka landscape architect Anne Steven. Marjorie Cook reports.

Picture this: potato farms, dairy farms and plantations throughout the Queenstown Lakes district.