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Recent Posts
- Sequestration rules will change
- Moving forward with methane levies
- Agricultural GHG bullets are firing randomly
- Key methane technologies misfire
- Simon Upton, methane and forestry
- Voluntary sequestration schemes create opportunities as well as confusion
- Carbon credits are not created equal
- Dairy is fundamental to New Zealand’s future but it needs an informed debate
- Carbon farming rocket has taken off
- Mega changes announced to forestry and carbon policies
- Climate Change Commission pours reality on HWEN proposals
- Wrestling with methane metrics
- The methane issue is far from settled
- Can agriculture meet its methane targets?
- The future for sheep
- Fonterra’s new capital structure gets closer
- Are pine trees the problem or the solution?
- He Waka Eke Noa is now the main game in rural politics
- HWEN submission
- Forestry rules about to be upturned
- He Waka Eke Noa caught in crosswinds
- Carbon farming is back in the melting pot
- Agriculture’s greenhouse gas proposals need a reset
- The carbon price marches on
- 2022 will be tumultuous for New Zealand’s primary industries
- Economic storm clouds lie ahead
- Managing inflation will be painful
- Crunch times ahead for agricultural methane and nitrous oxide
- New twists to carbon farming
- Dairy is a key to New Zealand’s future
- Wrestling with forestry decisions
- The COVID trajectory has taken off
- New Zealand needs a COVID reset
- Post-1989 forest owners face complex decisions
- Fonterra moves on strategy and stucture
- The ETS is both a goldmine and a minefield
- Carbon farming will determine the future of sheep, beef and production forestry
- Institutional investors outgun Government at carbon auction
- Food-derived opioids are a medical frontier
- Carbon farmers need to understand the ETS
- Carbon-farming economics are also attractive on easier country
- Carbon farming steps forward on the North Island hard-hill country
- The big picture with sheep
- Sheep remain dominant on South Island hill and high country
- Intensive sheep and beef provide cash but wealth depends on capital gain
- Searching for the future on the North Island hills
- Fonterra’s restructure proposal risks the co-operative
- Fonterra heads towards a new capital structure with scope for unintended consequences
- Sheep and beef farms are getting squeezed
- A2 moves from a brand to a category
Category Archives: Dairy
Moving forward with methane levies
Split-gas breaks the link to charging methane emissions based on contentious carbon dioxide equivalence. It opens the door to a levy based on research, development, extension and education (RDE&E) needs rather than simply a tax In my last article I … Continue reading
Posted in Dairy, greenhouse gases, Meat Industry, Uncategorized
12 Comments
Key methane technologies misfire
Methane technology breakthroughs cannot stop cannot ruminants from doing what comes naturally Reducing methane production from pastoral agriculture lies at the heart of efforts to make pastoral agriculture more climate friendly. If only sheep and cattle could be made … Continue reading
Dairy is fundamental to New Zealand’s future but it needs an informed debate
The key message of this article is that dairy is of fundamental importance to the future of Aotearoa New Zealand. However, the journey to get there is not straight forward and it will be controversial. First, I set out the … Continue reading
Posted in Dairy, greenhouse gases, Uncategorized
6 Comments
Climate Change Commission pours reality on HWEN proposals
Industry groups now need to decide how to manage the HWEN stand-off with the risk of being left outside the tent Big decisions are now required, both by rural industry groups and Government, following the Climate Change Commission advice on … Continue reading
Posted in carbon farming, Dairy, forestry, greenhouse gases, Uncategorized
15 Comments
Wrestling with methane metrics
The methane debate is more about politics, policy and value judgements than it is about science In my previous article, I explained how there is much controversy about how methane should be compared to carbon dioxide in terms of global … Continue reading
Posted in Dairy, greenhouse gases, sheep and beef farms, Uncategorized
7 Comments
The methane issue is far from settled
Big methane decisions lie ahead that will affect all New Zealanders In late May, the eleven rural-industry partners in He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) reached internal compromises that were sufficient for all to sign-up to a joint greenhouse gas (GHG) … Continue reading
Can agriculture meet its methane targets?
New Zealand agrculture is required to achieve a ten percent reduction in its methane emissions by 2030. This is set down in legislation. The subsequent 2050 target, also laid out in legislation, has been set in the range of 24-47 … Continue reading
Posted in Agribusiness, Dairy, sheep and beef farms, Uncategorized
21 Comments
Fonterra’s new capital structure gets closer
Fonterra’s new capital structure brings its own risks, designed for choppy seas but not for a storm The Government has been wrestling for many months as to how to respond to Fonterra’s proposed new capital structure, which its farmer-members voted … Continue reading
Posted in Dairy, Fonterra, Uncategorized
1 Comment
Agriculture’s greenhouse gas proposals need a reset
Refocusing agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions from CO2e to a genuine split-gas approach requires a reset of thinking, with big decisions ahead The coming weeks are crucial in sorting out the long-term charging framework, right through to 2050, for agriculture’s … Continue reading
Crunch times ahead for agricultural methane and nitrous oxide
New Zealand must quickly come to grips with how agricultural-sourced methane and nitrous oxide are going to be managed within the ‘Zero Carbon Act’, more formally called the ‘Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act 2019’. This Act brings both … Continue reading
Posted in Dairy, greenhouse gases, sheep and beef farms, Uncategorized
4 Comments