Category: Rural

Source: Radio New Zealand

For many rural children, spring means calf club time – a much loved tradition where children raise a young farm animal and show them off for ribbons and prizes.

In the Waikato community of Pāterangi, Janet Macky’s calf club has been going for almost four decades.

The 67-year-old still remembers every child who had joined her club, and many stayed in touch.

She spoke to a photo taken almost 30 years ago.

“This young fella is [now working] on a big, big farm, absolutely awesome with stock, bloody hopeless with machinery. This lady, she is an architect over Tauranga way. She’s a nurse, married and got one child. And it’s really nice when the kids keep in touch, even if they call in out of the blue.”

Macky also remembers her first calf, when she was just five-years-old.

“I had this black woolly calf (crossbred). I called it woolly aphis. I won fifth for leading, which was a white velvet cloth ribbon. Calf chewed the end on it. And I can remember that clear as.”

It’s a common experience for country kids to raise their own calf, but Macky’s club means “townie” children from places like Te Awamutu can also join in.

Staci Wilson was one of them, and she still helps at the farm today. She said before joining the calf club, she had barely stepped foot on a farm.

“When I was a child and had a calf out here, every kid came lived in town, Janet opened it up for the kids at Pātarangi School to be able to have a calf. I moved back to the area as a mum, and we send our kids here because Janet gets them in line and they listen to her.”

“Because imagine trying to do this at home with your kid by themself, after a couple of weeks they get sick of it. But here it’s social, but it’s also they get to work really hard and it’s a bit more of a competition because they sort of look at their mate’s calf and go, Oh s**t, is mine a bit dirtier than theirs?”

The club is free to join, Macky said it’s a “social but serious” activity and it requires children to commit everyday after school and some weekends, for a few months.

The commitment is one that many children are happy to make.

Twelve-year-old Hamish Sexton has been coming to the club for six years.

He said his mother is allergic to animal fur so they cannot have pets, and he’s grateful for the opportunity Macky’s club provided him.

“It gives me responsibility and something else to love and an opportunity to have a pet.”

He’s starting the club by brushing his calf, Phoneix.

“So, I’m just brushing really hard to get all the hair out to come off because when the judges come down here (behind the forearms) and like push up, all the loose hair will come out.”

Staci Wilson’s son Loki Hanley is raising his fourth calf at Janet’s club and he still gets to see some of the bovines he helped raise.

“I’ve always just liked the Herefords and the different types of beef breeds. Last year, I had a calf called Danger Zone. She was a Jersey calf and she got a very bad infected ear. So I had to get a boy Hereford, Janet’s leftover calf. I ended up getting some pretty good ribbons. It’s name was Lasagna.”

At the club, the children learn about every aspect of their animal’s life.

Twelve-year-old Jade Guise told me everything about her calf, Toblerone.

“She was born on the 13th of July, and she is a Friesian Jersey crossbreed. And she drinks 4.5 litres of milk a day with water, grass, and hay. She’s had 5-in-1 vaccine, pour on for worms, and vex for Lepto. She can’t eat the whole avocado tree, rhododendron, and tutu trees.”

After about 40 years running her calf club, Macky is planning to retire and she hopes someone will take up the baton.

She’s loved seeing kids and calves growing up together.

“If a child’s got a little bit of a learning disability, especially those children, to see them grow with their calf it’s amazing. It changes them. The parents and the teachers have noticed the change in them.

“By doing something that they wouldn’t usually have the chance to do, they pick the calf, they name it, they teach it to lead, they groom it, we wash it before the group days. So they get really involved, and at the end when we let them go, there’s tears.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The first stage of the 67km Waimate Trail – Te Ara Waimatemate is nearing completion. It will pass through native forest, limestone rock formations, tussock tops, river flats and valleys.

It’s hoped the shared-use trail will be a world-class visitor experience that celebrates heritage and South Canterbury’s varied and spectacular scenery.

The aim is to open the full trail early next year and sponsors are being sought for an accompanying art project.

Cosmo Kentish-Barnes spoke to the trail’s project manager Jo Sutherland.

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Learn more:

• Find out more about the trail.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Ever wondered about the origins of the ride-on mower or the humble pair of longjohns? Then Te Radar and Ruth Spencer have the book for you.

The couple have partnered with Harper Collins to publish their new book Kiwi Country: Rural New Zealand in 100 Objects.

It tells the stories of the often-overlooked items that make up the rural experience.

Spencer told Country Life she’d gained a new appreciation for such objects after learning more about their stories.

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The book’s 10 chapters explore 10 objects from different aspects of a traditional farm or homestead, including the paddock, orchard, livestock, shed, cowshed, creek, backblocks, smoko and the road.

The homestead covers things used inside the rural home like meat safes, mangles, dunnies and Aunt Daisy’s Book of Handy Hints.

The research was a lot of fun, Spencer said.

“It takes time but it’s wonderful discovering things. It’s kind of like gold mining. You turn up a nugget here or there and it takes you on a journey somewhere else.”

She said the objects chosen – by no means an exhaustive list – reflect changes to rural life and society more generally over time.

“There are some massive changes of course. We brought a lot of amazing innovation in.”

It also highlighted the resilience and adaptability of rural New Zealanders, she said.

The book is also quite personal, with the couple both weaving in memories and funny anecdotes of their own rural experiences.

Spencer drew heavily on the Blue Mountain sheep station’s shearers’ quarters den in Marlborough where she spent holidays as a child with her family.

“It was just kind of paradise for kids. There’s lots of that place in the book.”

She struggled to choose just one example to exemplify rural experience, emphasising it was not only a book about farms or just for farms.

“This is a book about the rural experience across the board – I mean people who go fishing on a wharf, who have been to a wild hot pool, these are people who have a ride-on mower, have a lifestyle block or just drive in the country and see an honesty box.

“It’s not just for people who have experience on farms. It’s for people who have experience in New Zealand – you’re never very far away from rural life in New Zealand.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Department of Conservation (DOC) is on the lookout for one of the world’s most endangered wetland birds, and asking local farmers and landowners to help.

The native kakī or black stilt birds mostly call Mackenzie Basin’s braided rivers and wetlands home, but conservation staff expected they could be on the move following the recent storms that affected South Island riverbeds.

Spring marked mating season for the endemic bird considered “nationally critical”, a DOC classification for birds considered the most severely threatened and facing an immediate high risk of extinction. It was a taonga species for Māori.

Kakī were vulnerable to habitat loss, changing or unseasonal weather and predators.

DOC asked farmers and the public to report any sightings of the black bird with notable red legs, that may be on the hunt for a new riverside home.

Recovery programme lead, Claudia Mischler said they were mostly found around the Mackenzie Basin, but had been spotted in South Canterbury’s Waimate and as far north as Marlborough.

“There’s a lot of time and energy that goes into trying to save this species,” she said.

“We’re only at about 150 adults in the wild at the moment, so there’s actually fewer kakī out there than there is kākāpō and Kiwi, so they are incredibly rare.”

Conservation staff would seek out kakī nests as part of the recovery programme, then take the eggs into captivity where they were incubated, hatched and later released from captive breeding aviaries, in efforts to protect the young against common predators, stoats, ferrets and hedgehogs.

Mischler said historically the birds had been forced onto farmland when rivers had flooded, as they always sought still water where they could find insects to eat.

“Anywhere there’s water that might last for a while is fair game, that includes just muddy, freshly ploughed paddocks or just paddocks with short grass.

“Basically you’re just looking for a very beautiful, totally black bird with a long bill and red pinky, long legs loitering around the edge of the water.”

She said finding them was not always easy.

“Sometimes it just feels like looking for a needle in a haystack when we’re out there trying to find these pairs in these nest, so the more eyes on the ground we have out there the more useful it is for us… they’re pretty special.”

Mackenzie locals were encouraged to keep an eye out for any leg tags on the birds, but any sightings would be welcome at twizel@doc.govt.nz.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The head of Fonterra says it has been difficult for its brands to compete in global markets after shareholders voted in support of the the sale of its major brands, including Mainland and Anchor, to French dairy giant Lactalis.

More than 88 percent of the votes cast at a special meeting backed the $4.2 billion sale to French dairy giant Lactalis.

The deal includes multi year contracts for Fonterra to supply Lactalis raw ingredients.

It is estimated farmer shareholders will get an average tax free payout of about $392,000.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters’ has strongly criticised the decision and threatened more regulation for Fonterra.

The sale to Lactalis is the final step in Fonterra’s transition to a slimmed-down New Zealand-based supplier of raw ingredients and high-value products to other manufacturers.

Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell told Morning Report they were up against multinationals in large countries that have greater populations and can get products out to markets quicker.

“We are sub-scale down here in the south Pacific and as a result [of] our small population, you’re always going to be hand-strung by what you can grow at.”

Hurrell said the consumer business is about seven percent of Fonterra’s total milk. He said the sale gives Fonterra the ability to put more of its milk into high-value ingredients.

“When you deal with multinationals that have very deep pockets and a global reach far beyond ours, and at the same time as they’re growing in certain markets, you grow with them,” he said.

“Yes, you’re not talking directly to the consumer on the supermarket shelf, but you are talking to multinationals that have a range of products in a range of categories, far beyond what we ever would have. It gives you better insight, I’d argue, in growing with companies that are growing faster then what we would ever grow at.

“For us, it’s about getting closer to those multinationals.”

Addressing concerns that Lactalis could cut Fonterra out of the deal in 10 years time for cheaper milk, Hurrell said it’s “simply not going to happen”.

“They’re not spending $4 billion on these brands to try and dumb them down, remove the good quality milk that we make in New Zealand and put some inferior pricing. You wouldn’t spend this kind of cash on these brands to do that to it.”

It is estimated the sale proceeds would be worth about $4.5b to the economy, with farmer shareholders receiving an average tax-free payout of about $392,000 if the sale went ahead.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

At 106 metres long and 30 metres wide and with room for up to 120 cows, the Livestock Improvement Corporation’s new methane research barn is the largest facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

The multi-million dollar build is the latest in several programmes the farmer co-operative is leading to help reduce methane emissions.

Lactating dairy cows emissions could be cut by up to 5% of the government’s reset 2050 biogenic methane target of 14 – 24 percent below 2017 levels as a result of the research, according to estimates.

What is methane and why is it such a challenge for agriculture?

Country Life spoke to LIC’s senior scientist Dr Lorna McNaughton to learn more.

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Methane is produced by bugs in the rumen digesting plant matter. The rumen is the largest of the four-chambered stomach in ruminant animals like cows and sheep.

“Contrary to popular belief most of the methane is in the cows’ breath,” Dr McNaughton explained.

Though it has a shorter life than carbon dioxide, methane is “more potent”.

The greenhouse gas accounts for more than 70 percent of New Zealand’s agriculture emissions and 43 percent of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

Since 2020, Dr McNaughton has been working to see if there is genetic variation in how much methane an animal produces, and if so, how that can be exploited to create “more climate-friendly cattle”.

The work to date has largely focused on methane traits in bulls – all of LIC’s Jersey, Holstein-Friesian and Holstein-Friesian-Jersey-cross bulls get measured.

“There’s usually as much variation within a breed as between breeds.”

The “early stage research” focused on measuring how much methane they emit.

“We have a nifty little machine called the green feed. It’s like a giant fan on wheels and it’s also got a big treat box on top of it.”

Animals put their head in and their EID (Electronic Identification) tag is read – if they haven’t eaten in a while, it will drop feed for them to eat and measure the amount of methane in their breath over a three to five minute period.

Animals are allowed to visit five times a day and the data is then collated and averaged.

“It’s really important we measure the feed intake alongside methane because a lot of the variation in methane is just how much they eat. We want to make sure that by selecting for lower methane we’re not selecting for animals that just don’t eat very much and therefore could have negative impacts on productivity.”

They’ve developed a “daughter population” of 400 heifers from these bulls, and have seen a difference in those from high- versus low-emitting bulls.

Dr McNaughton said they hope to know by late 2026 if they can release a methane breeding value.

“It’s looking very promising at this stage,” she said.

The research is now shifting to see if a low emitting animal is also a highly productive animal and if it impacts fertility.

The new barn will help by allowing the team to measure methane emissions from milking cows.

“Genetics is a big numbers game so we need to start investigating how we can get cow measurements.”

Earlier this month the government announced new, lower methane reduction targets of between 14 to 24 percent below the 2017 levels by 2050 – and dropped plans for a farmer emissions tax.

Dr McNaughton pointed to other tools being developed to help address methane emissions, including different feed types and commercial methane inhibitors.

“If genetics is an option it’s nice for the farmers in that they’re not having to make on-farm management changes. They’re probably going to be enough of them coming down the pipeline for other challenges.”

LIC has also been involved in work around breeding more heat-tolerant cows, after the “slick” mutation was discovered in a Caribbean-based beef breed named Senepol.

It gives cattle a short, sleek hair coat which significantly improves their heat tolerance.

“We know they’re more heat tolerant. On hot days they’re about half a degree to a degree cooler in terms of rumen temperature.”

Dr McNaughton said the challenge was trying to bring in the Senepol’s slick genes without bringing in the beef characteristics.

They hope to have slick genetics available for farmers in 2029.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Alastair Reeves’ father taught him that farmers can use genetics to solve problems.

The Waimai Valley farmer is carrying on the line of Romney sheep his father started breeding in the 1950s.

“They’re still here probably because they are fit for purpose. They suit our environment, they’re hardy, they produce meat, they produce wool and that’s essentially what’s paid the bills over the last six years so that’s a testament to the breeders that have gone before us,” he told Country Life.

But Reeves has also turned his eye to new sheep traits sought after by the modern farmer.

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He and his wife Ann run the 800-hectare farm, finishing bull beef and running a sheep genetics business. Their children are the fourth generation on this bit of whenua, north of Raglan.

“Dad had a huge focus on ezcema tolerance. He was one of the first breeders to start doing that.

“That was just an issue within Waikato and the Upper North Island, that’s just spreading down the country now.

“What we learned with the whole eczema trait is that genetics can actually solve problems.”

Another trait he’s begun breeding for is low methane – a greenhouse gas produced in the rumen, part of the four-chambered stomach of ruminant animals like sheep and cattle.

Reeves said methane emissions are a complex issue facing the sector.

“All I know as a geneticist is I’m here to produce the best genetics for my clients. I want those genetics to make them as profitable as they can receive.”

While methane reduction boluses and vaccines are in development, Reeves sees these as another ongoing expense for farmers.

Genetics is a “green way” of mitigating the impacts of methane, but one that he says takes time.

“If we can reduce the methane and at the same time improve the productivity of our livestock, that would be a really positive thing and so that’s what we’re trying to do.”

In 2020, Waimai Romney became one of the first flocks in New Zealand to methane test its rams, running 192 rams through AgResearch’s Portable Accumulation Chamber (PAC) trailer.

Since then, they’ve cut methane emissions by 3.2 percent while improving productivity.

Over the past 10 years, they’ve also been developing their own breed – the Waimai Charablack. It’s a mix of the French Charolais – which has good marbling and makes “lovely” eating – and the Hampshire, an “old traditional breed”.

They’ve focused on good growth as well as a good “marbled lamb product” equivalent to the “wagyu of lamb”. Alastair said this meant farmers could get premium prices, adding value to the same quantity of lambs.

Reeves said there had been a lot of changes on farm since his father and grandfather’s day.

It had been a tough couple of years for the sector, with farmland being converted to forestry putting pressure on rural communities, especially hill country and sheep farmers.

But there were positive signs too, with wool prices improving and strong global demand for protein, and in spite of the challenges, Reeves still loves what he does.

“It’s a phenomenal product. It’s grass-fed and the world wants it.”

Learn more:

• You can learn more about the farm here.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The big work table in Eketāhuna’s former 1800s-era school is laden with curiosities from the past – an old pair of lace-up boots, opera glasses, a threadbare red coat, a wooden coffee grinder.

Around it sit volunteers – brushing, waxing, sorting and puzzling as they delve into the town’s history and prepare displays for the town museum’s spring reopening.

Large new display cabinets and new blood have helped revitalise the establishment, which grew out of a private collection set up by the daughters of two of Eketāhuna’s original Scandinavian pioneers.

The northern European settlers’ story is told through items like the “very good” collection of saws and tools, according to volunteer Ian Day.

“Eketāhuna’s first business was timber, long before it was farming, and so you’ve got the broad axes and pieces like that that nowadays people just don’t know how to use.

“In those days, the men went out to cut timber, the women tried to run the farm as the land was cleared,” he told Country Life.

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Eketāhuna – or Mellemskov, as it was called in the late 1800s – was part of a heavily forested area known as 70 Mile Bush which stretched from northern Wairarapa to Hawke’s Bay.

In the early 1870s, Scandinavians sailed from their homes with the promise of land in New Zealand if they helped to clear the bush and open the area for pastoral farming.

Many of them were skilled woodsmen, seen as hardy types, and suited for the daunting task.

Chris Petersen is descended from one of the original families, the Syversens. He and partner Bruce Laurence are now in the museum’s driving seat after retiring to the area following long careers in hospitality.

“From Covid, the museum hadn’t really reopened … partly due to lack of funding, but also lack of volunteers,” Laurence said.

They were invited to a meeting four years ago and left in charge of the whole collection.

“And what a job that’s been,” Petersen said.

“But anyway, we’ve enjoyed it, and it’s been a voyage of discoveries.”

One such discovery, a crudely made cot, looked like “a heap of old sticks”, he said, but is very likely an example of “Depression craft” – rough hand-made items for the home crafted out of necessity due to hard times in the 1930s.

“Most of rural New Zealand was just hanging on,” Day said.

“You just had to turn your hand to whatever you could do. And with that cot, they might have made it and tried to sell it, or they might have made it for for their family. They might have needed it.”

Before he retired, Day worked in small museums around New Zealand and in Australia. With his toolkit and knowledge, he is a valuable addition to the team.

“One of the reasons why I choose to work in small museums is because the treasures that you come across can be breathtaking.”

In a bigger place, with thousands and thousands of items, you wouldn’t get to see as much, he said.

“Here you can actually trace [them] back down through to the families, to the individual family members, and it often gives you a really good insight into the human dynamics of these small communities in the early days.

“You see it in very simple things like invoices from the local businesses, and you can actually trace the business through the years.”

But the challenges are numerous, not only lack of volunteers and skills, he said.

“Funding is always a major issue that’s combined with visitor numbers. A lot of these small museums, they struggle to get visitors. They think they’re doing well if they get, say, 30 people in a week.

“They’re just doing the best that they can.”

With costs like $100 per box to keep antique clothes in an acid-free environment, running a museum is not cheap.

“It’s one box per costume. We could do with at least 50 more,” Laurence said.

He said they had recently found a new volunteer who has the know-how to access the funding available.

There’s also the cost of refurbishing the building so that items stored within it stay fit for another century, Petersen added.

Preserving the town’s history may not be quite as daunting as the tasks facing the Scandinavian pioneers, though, with new volunteers like Bridget Ferguson who was drawn to the building when she came to live in Eketāhuna last year.

“It’s just constant learning and it’s a treasure hunt. We all say that, and that is a lot of what this museum is about, being the keeper of the community’s stories.

“This is a place where I find connection and community.”

Learn more:

• Find out more about the Eketāhuna/Mellemskov Museum here.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Increased farmer confidence and spending has seen the country’s largest rural supply store, Farmlands, back in black.

In its annual results released last week, Farmlands reported a profit after tax of $2.8 million for 2025.

It comes after the co-operative reported a loss of $9.3m last year, with revenue down $68m.

Farmlands chief executive Tanya Houghton said it was an exciting development, driven by a number of factors.

“I’m very cognisant of the fact we are coming into a period of stronger commodity prices which means that in general the rural sector has more confidence than it had in 2023 and 2024 so that obviously plays an element.

“I think more importantly it is a reflection of the result we’re seeing from a really focused effort on delivering our strategy.”

She said it was a sign that strategic changes made were paying off.

“Getting back to profit is a major milestone for us. Our stronger balance sheet means we can continue making smart investments in the areas that are most important to farmers and growers; while continuing to drive down their input costs and building the resilience we need to handle whatever volatility may come our way.”

Houghton said having its own manufacturing sites and an integrated supply chain would enable farmers and growers to better manage running costs.

She said strategic investment had helped deliver this year’s strong financial result.

Last year, Farmlands purchased animal feed company SealesWinslow from Ballance Agri-Nutrients. Since then, production volumes have increased 20 percent.

“Farmlands now has direct ownership of a national manufacturing footprint in its animal nutrition business. This gives the co-operative greater control over product specifications and quality, and ensures a steady, reliable supply for our members, many of whom are also selling their products to us to be used in our nutrition lines,” Houghton said.

Energy was another area it had invested in through joint ventures Fern Energy and Farmland Flex – the largest purchaser of solar and batteries for commercial and industrial use in New Zealand.

“Our energy strategy gives farmers and growers new solutions for one of rural New Zealand’s highest costs – energy. They are an exciting development, and the numbers stack up. It’s all about putting the control back into the hands of our farmers and growers and putting more money back into their pockets too.”

Houghton said the focus was now on building on this year’s momentum and delivering a “consistent performance year after year”.

Farmlands will not be paying a distribution to shareholders this year.

Key numbers:

• $2.55b in turnover
• $847.3m in revenue
• $33.5m in operating EBITDA
• $2.8m net profit after tax
• $26.1m in operating cashflow

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Technology company Halter has replaced around 30 tall transmission towers vital to its virtual farm fencing systems, after they were knocked down by last week’s storms.

By Labour weekend, there were 70 South Island farms affected by disruptions to the virtual, fence-less systems for livestock, mostly in Canterbury, Southland and Otago.

The system works by cows wearing collars that took information like the animal’s location, temperature and weight, and sent it to nearby transmission towers – that were up to nearly 10 metres tall – so farmers could view and control the “breaks” or boundaries in the paddock from their cell phones.

Director of communications, Colin Espiner said it was working with the three remaining farms still experiencing connectivity issues, after repair crews got to work over the long weekend.

“We had around about 70 farms impacted in total, mostly in the South Island, and of those we probably lost around about 30 towers, just being smashed by the sheer force of the gusts of wind.

“We jumped in a couple of trucks in Auckland and drove all the way down to Southland with replacement gear for the farmers that have been impacted over the long weekend, and helped get them set back up again.”

The storm threw areas Canterbury, then Southland and Clutha into a state of emergency, as thousands lost power, slips cut off roads and highways, and many faced widespread damage from falling trees and buildings.

Was your farm affected? Let us know monique.steele@rnz.co.nz

Espiner confirmed outages did not result in virtual fences dropping out, and said there were multiple “fail safes” for when power and cell networks went down.

“When those things happen, the farms have the option of either just holding in place, so the cows remain within their virtual breaks – or if the farmer wants to move them, he or she can simply switch to manual mode and then he or she can move the cows the old fashioned way.”

He said it had been a “pretty wild spring”, so when there had been recent outages, the systems would switch to battery back-up mode so farming could continue as normal.

“So when the power goes out, the entire Halter system switches to battery mode, and we have battery backup for at least two to three days. So in most cases that can bring the farm through.”

Espiner said the data that was essential to farmers was in most cases automatically backed up for a certain amount of time after the system went down.

“We can hold their data for I think anything less than about 20 hours worth of outage, it doesn’t actually have a major impact.

“I’m pretty happy that we actually managed to get almost all of those farms back up within those 20 hours.”

Espiner said for those who had lost data, it may only be one heat lost, but its algorithms could help catch them up.

“So in most cases, farmers won’t have lost any crucial data from our mating systems.”

He said twelve farms in affected regions were mid-mating on the day of the storm, and 23 were scheduled to start in the next couple of weeks.

“In some parts of the country, it is mating season, and Halter obviously helps farmers know when the cows are going to be in the heat as well, so it’s really important for us to get the data back online for them really quickly because they need that data in order to spot when their accounts are going to be in heat and cycling.

“We really prioritised them because that data is just essential for them in order to make informed decisions about mating.”

More than 1,000 farms nationwide had Halter’s virtual fencing and pasture management systems in place.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand