Survey gets a fix on dairy water use

Posted on 10th May 2013 09:07 | By Anonymous Author

It’s been called our “competitive advantage” or “blue gold”. By any name, freshwater is the basis of our agricultural production. But it’s under increasing pressure. Summer droughts, seasonal water shortages and competing demand for the resource mean efficient water-use is more important than ever. DairyNZ, for...

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Risk assessed interest rates a good thing

Posted on 10th May 2013 09:02 | By Anonymous Author

Financewith Don Fraser Fraser Farm Finance On the farm interest rates are now linked to your balance sheet results. It has become clear that banks are now completing a risk assessment on every farming business. I have identified the following four points as being key issues the banks consider:1. Analysis of your annual accounts profit and loss...

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Where are our young leaders?

Posted on 10th May 2013 08:51 | By Anonymous Author

Mike ChapmanNZKGI Chief Executive Every industry needs to identify and nurture its future leaders. Most industries do very little to make this happen. Horticulture is fortunate that HortNZ, our industry organisation, runs and supports many leadership development programmes. For kiwifruit to do its part, New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated...

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Rural subdivision gets harder still

Posted on 10th May 2013 08:49 | By Anonymous Author

Brent TrailManaging DirectorSurveying Services Ltd When proposed changes to rural subdivision rules were announced more than two years ago I was not surprised at the tightening of the rules in an attempt to slow down the number of lifestyle blocks. Council had been challenged by the sheer number of blocks being cut off the frontages of larger...

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Get Brain Smart - Get Change Smart

Posted on 10th May 2013 08:47 | By Anonymous Author

Wendy MacphailEmployment Law Services Change is hard. Our brain resists change. Understanding how our brain reacts to change is helpful not only in our work environment, but also in our personal lives. When anything tries to change us we push back and try to maintain our current way of doing things. Even when our livelihood is at risk, change...

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Three days between peace and revolution?

Posted on 12th Sep 2012 11:27 | By Anonymous Author

Financewith Don Fraser Fraser Farm Finance On the back of rising food demand and falling or stagnant food supply, prices of food are rising to record levels. If you look at Egypt, Libya, Iran, Syria, the uprisings there were in part, caused by soaring food prices and a lack of food security. Governments are now realising that food security and...

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Hard questions to follow fly discovery

Posted on 12th Jun 2012 15:59 | By Anonymous Author

Mike ChapmanNZKGI Chief Executive Bio-security is the hot topic at the moment with the Fruit Fly find in Auckland. The question everyone is asking is: how secure are our borders from bio-security risks from other countries? After all it was only in November 2010 that we found we had Psa and then in May fruit fly. First some facts. Initially...

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Time running out for Hauraki subdivisions

Posted on 10th May 2012 08:26 | By Anonymous Author

Brent TrailManaging DirectorSurveying Services Ltd It has now been eighteen months since Hauraki District Council publically notified their Proposed District Plan and we are still largely working under the old rules.  This is good news for those wanting to subdivide or carry out any development conceived prior to this notification, or when...

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Stop the blame game

Posted on 9th May 2012 08:57 | By Anonymous Author

Financewith Don Fraser Fraser Farm Finance “Be responsible for your actions’’ is another of my simple messages and related to last month’s philosophy called “A rural handshake no longer means enough”. We often think that things are covered or presume somebody else has taken responsibility for our detail. A...

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Farm forestry still a good investment

Posted on 8th May 2012 09:23 | By Anonymous Author

Tree Talkwith Peter HaringtonWoodmetrics Regional Manager The Woodmetrics team will be at Mystery Creek in June, as we are every year, catching up with old clients and talking to people about their forest harvesting needs. The Mystery Creek Fieldays are a great opportunity to see a lot of farmers in one place at one time. This year will we again...

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