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One of the New Zealand dairy industry’s strengths is its ability to grow relatively cheap grass, which makes up the bulk of our cows diet. However, if we breakdown the components of what is in our grass, this is not a complete nor balanced diet and is often missing minerals, traces, vitamins, as well as starch.

Summer was challenging for the horticulture industry, with drought conditions – which were particularly severe in the Nelson/Tasman region – and biosecurity risks in Auckland with finds of Queensland fruit flies and Bactrocera facialis fruit flies in different parts of our biggest population centre.

Over the past few months there has been a lot of activity around BMSB, including a number of identifications of BMSB which have found their way into homes, gardens and businesses. The number of bugs being intercepted at the border is increasing all the time, and Steve Gilbert, MPI’s Director of Border Clearance says that by February this year, there had been nearly double the number of live finds compared with 2017/18.

There are number of diseases carried by livestock that can affect humans. These include leptospirosis and salmonella which can be debilitating.

Research shows that certain types of plants can help protect properties from being destroyed by fire. And several New Zealand farms are now directly benefiting from these findings.

Farmers looking to reduce their losses to the environment can use a powerful new tool to make it easier to plan, cost and put in place the mitigations to do the job.

At one time or another most of us have lost a gumboot in the mud.

With Winter fast approaching, now is a good time to start preparing for the healthcare challenges that winter inevitably brings.  Most importantly, we wanted to highlight what you can do now to protect yourself, your family and your staff through the cold and damp of winter.

Peel Forest postie Matt Searles is a very busy man and delivering mail along NZ’s longest single road mail run is only one of his many daily tasks.

The Acland family is renowned for the energy and breadth of enterprises throughout Canterbury and beyond, and newly elected Ruralco director Kate Acland is bringing even more fizz to the family empire.