Latest Ruralco News

A closer look at Autumn sown arable crops, Barley grass control in Pasture and Weed control in Lucerne

Celebrating more than 50 years in the bull breeding business, Mt Somers’ Okawa Poll Hereford Stud remains wholly committed to producing bulls that perform under commercial conditions producing well-grown, easy-care, profitable offspring.

It is very easy to think of beer as simply a hazy combination of water, malt and barley, but that would be leaving out the quiet heart of a good brew - the hops.

For a 26 year old Sam Juby has done much with her life, and her biggest challenge yet awaits as she kick-starts her own goat farming operation in the Waikato this season.

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.