There is a certain type of contractor who is shaped as much by place as by trade, and on the West Coast that shaping tends to be uncompromising.

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.

The humble rake rarely receives the same level of attention as a mower, baler or forage harvester, but anyone involved in making quality conserved feed knows it can have a major influence on the final result. 

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. 

Some contracting businesses are built around a single machine or a single season. Others evolve by steadily adding capability over time until they become deeply embedded in the farming systems around them. Williamson Contracting falls firmly into the second category, and after more than three decades operating across Northland, the business has become one of those names that many local farmers simply associate with getting the job done. 

Spray equipment contamination is one of the most underestimated causes of crop damage in agriculture.  

That’s the sobering message from Pieter Van Der Westhuizen, UPL New Zealand’s technical market development manager and adjuvant expert. He says a classic example is a maize crop that was sprayed for broadleaf weeds with a highly selective post emergence herbicide. Unfortunately, the maize was also taken out. The culprit? Clethodim residue in the tank.  

After establishing itself quickly on Farmlands shelves, AgStar is continuing to broaden its footprint with a series of additions that extend the range beyond its original pastoral focus and into horticulture as well as home and garden applications.

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.

Manitou Group, a world reference in the handling, aerial work platform and earthmoving sector, announces the launch of the new MLT-X 738 telehandler.

When a mower goes down mid-job, there is very little time to scroll through a 200-page manual or wait for support over the phone. For contractors and large-scale farmers, downtime is measured in lost income, not inconvenience.

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 a certain rhythm to the relationship between a machinery brand and its dealer network, and in markets like New Zealand, where distance, conditions and expectations all sharpen the edge of performance, that relationship tends to show itself most clearly through the people on the ground rather than the logos on the shed.

For South Canterbury farmer Peter Collins, the loss of two consecutive wheel loader transmissions in a short period of time stalled an operation that relies on daily movement and accuracy.

There is something steady about a family contracting business that has been built over time, not through rapid expansion or outside investment, but through a series of decisions made around the kitchen table and tested out in paddocks, on job sites and across seasons that do not always go to plan.

There is a point in every livestock system where feeding becomes the single biggest driver of both performance and cost, and it is in that space that mixer wagons have moved from being a convenience to becoming a core piece of infrastructure.

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