Effective pest control has always been a balancing act between efficacy, environmental responsibility and practical application.

For generations, New Zealand farmers and contractors have relied on trusted names like Agpac and Donaghys Crop to help protect one of their most valuable assets – the harvested crop.

As global markets grapple with renewed inflationary pressures, geopolitical instability and the prospect of higher interest rates, New Zealand farmers are better positioned than many international competitors to navigate the challenges ahead.

Gallagher has appointed Rob Clayton as chief executive of its global Animal Management business to lead the next stage of growth across key markets.

Waikato-based agribusiness leader Geoff Maber has been appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the King’s Birthday Honours, recognising a lifetime of service to agribusiness, the rural sector and the wider community.

Rural contractors have been assured by WorkSafe that its focus on support over enforcement is here to stay.

A Central Canterbury business which turns malting barley into a key ingredient in beer making has celebrated its 100% New Zealand-grown status with a special event.

For an export-dependent country like New Zealand, market access is often treated as something we either have or don't have. Secure a trade agreement, meet the required standards, build customer relationships and get on with producing quality food. The reality is far more complicated. 

There is a quiet shift taking place across Hawke’s Bay and it is one that speaks less to machinery or inputs and more to the decisions sitting behind them.

For traditional, rural businesses such as mine, access to reliable and efficient contractors is critical. As much as I’d like to claim that my wife and I ran our Lawrence sheep and beef farm on our own (pre-politics), I’d be kidding myself.

There is a steady confidence that comes with a distributor quietly building depth in its product offering, and in the case of Ag and Civil Machinery Direct Ltd, that confidence is now translating into a more defined presence across both forage harvesting and land development equipment in New Zealand.

There is a tendency in New Zealand agriculture to separate performance from wellbeing, to treat output, efficiency and financial resilience as one conversation and personal health as another, when in reality the two have always been closely linked.

There is no escaping the reality that on-farm diesel remains one of the most significant operational costs across New Zealand’s primary industries.

In a farming environment where input costs are punishing, environmental compliance is tightening and the pressure to lift per-hectare performance has never been greater…

Colin Davidson’s remarkable story about developing New Zealand’s first 4WD tractors has finally been told on television.

Rural contractors will be able to play a role in the revamped agricultural plastic recycling scheme with new regulations due for Cabinet sign-off before this year’s election.

There are moments in every season when frustration spills over into the open and for many in the rural transport and contracting world that moment has clearly arrived. The recent stand-off between industry groups, NZTA and the Ministry of Transport over VDAM settings is not just another policy disagreement, it reflects a growing sense that the machinery of government is drifting away from the practical realities of keeping New Zealand moving.

For rural contractors and large-scale pastoral operations, April and May are among the most operationally intensive months of the year.

There has been a noticeable shift in tone from parts of government over the past year and for rural contractors that change matters, because tone shapes behaviour just as much as regulation does.

There has been a growing gap in recent years between how New Zealand farmers understand their production systems and how those systems are perceived by consumers, both at home and offshore. That gap is not always built on facts. It is often built on headlines, assumptions and overseas production models that bear little resemblance to how sheep and beef farming actually works here. The Making Meat Better initiative exists squarely in that space, not as a marketing slogan but as an attempt to reconnect the story of New Zealand red meat with the realities of how it is produced.