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Recent Posts
- 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
- Pastoral Lands Bill hits rocky ground
- The NZ system for GHG reporting will be crucial
- Forestry issues still need much debate
- Zespri faces a China conundrum
- New Zealand’s internal inflation is not benign
- Dairy markets have hit a sweet spot but big challenges remain
- The winding path of COVID-19
- Rolleston Rescue 1968
- Farewell to Sir Bob Elliott
- Pivoting from production to permanent forests
- House-price inflation and interest rates are bound at the hip
- Regenerative agriculture is not redundant but can be misguided
- It’s time for Fonterra to define the new path ahead
- Agriculture will change but pastoral agriculture will survive and prosper
- Reserve Bank drives economic policy
- Green-lipped mussels are becoming heavy lifters
- Composting mootels can transform dairy, but only if we get things right
- Fonterra stabilises finances with back to basics model, selling assets and retaining profits
- Coronavirus border policies need a deeper rethink
- Green vegetables grow at the feet of big mountains
- Big win for Fonterra from latest DIRA amendments
- A resource-based perspective on immigration
- Can strong wool find a new El Dorado?
- Is regenerative agriculture the real deal
- Can low interest rates really stimulate the economy?
- Government’s food and fibre reset report lacks a core
- Seeking new markets in the West
- Quantitative easing floods capital markets
- The ongoing search for new markets – India and beyond
- Rugby’s role in a greater South Pacific strategic reset
- A1 milk predisposes to asthma and lung inflammation
- COVID-19 scenarios are becoming increasingly evident
- Searching for markets within Asean
- COVID-19 is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability
- North-East Asian markets as alternatives to China
- Why and how did China markets become so important for New Zealand?
- Monday’s COVID-19 decision will be a defining moment for New Zealand
- Contact-tracing will be the Achilles heel of the COVID-19 program at LEVEL 3
- Is the Mycoplasma bovis eradication campaign on track?
- COVID-19 decision-makers are flying blind from insufficient testing data
- Can we stamp out COVID-19?
Category Archives: forestry
Carbon farming steps forward on the North Island hard-hill country
In recent months I have been analysing New Zealand sheep and beef farming to try and understand the changing scene. Here, I shift the focus to carbon farming on the North Island hard-hill country where sheep and beef currently predominate. … Continue reading
Posted in carbon farming, forestry, sheep and beef farms, Uncategorized
5 Comments
The big picture with sheep
The sheep-farming retreat will continue despite excellent meat prices, with carbon farming the mega-force. In recent months, I have written four articles focusing on the sheep and beef industries across New Zealand. My main focus has been to identify the … Continue reading
Posted in carbon farming, forestry, sheep and beef farms, Uncategorized, Wool
5 Comments
Searching for the future on the North Island hills
Some weeks back I wrote an article on New Zealand’s sheep and beef farms, focusing on the current situation. I said I would be back as there was more to discuss about both the present and the future. Here, I … Continue reading
Forestry issues still need much debate
Land-use decisions between farm and forest need unbiased information from within New Zealand, without Government screwing the scrum towards foreign investors In my last article on forestry, a little over two months ago, I ended by saying that “there is … Continue reading
Posted in forestry, Uncategorized
11 Comments
Pivoting from production to permanent forests
A fundamental change is occurring in the economics of production versus permanent forests. The policy environment is getting left behind During 2019, I wrote five articles discussing land-use transformation that would be driven by forthcoming forestry investments. One of the … Continue reading
Posted in carbon farming, forestry
14 Comments
Government’s food and fibre reset report lacks a core
The Government’s new food and fibre reset document is PR aspirational fluff. The hard work remains to be done On July 7 Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern released the Government’s document “Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential”. … Continue reading
Posted in Agribusiness, Dairy, forestry, horticulture
6 Comments
The COVID-19 black swans keep bearing down
It’s only fifteen days since I wrote about the coronavirus black swan. In that time, both nothing and everything has changed. In that time there has been no scientific breakthrough of a treatment or vaccine. Shockingly high transmission rates in … Continue reading
Posted in Agribusiness, China, COVID-19, Dairy, forestry, Meat Industry
6 Comments
Carbon neutrality requires permanent forests not production forests
In recent months I have been writing about land-use transformation that will be driven increasingly by carbon trading. If New Zealand is to approach net-zero carbon, then it can only be achieved by a combination of modified lifestyles plus new … Continue reading
Posted in carbon farming, forestry, greenhouse gases, Meat Industry
18 Comments
Government is losing the forestry debate with rural New Zealand
The response of Government Ministers to rural concerns about forestry policy is polarising the debate. Describing rural perspectives as ‘fiction’, and upset rural protesters as ‘rednecks’, is counter-productive. The combination of the Zero Carbon Act and forthcoming Emission Trading Scheme … Continue reading
Posted in carbon farming, forestry, greenhouse gases, Meat Industry
38 Comments
Conversion of farms to forestry is now ramping up
Earlier this year I wrote two articles, archived here and here, about the likely impact and consequences of policies that encourage conversion of pastoral land to forestry. I was particularly concerned about the actions and power of foreign investors, and … Continue reading
Posted in Agribusiness, carbon farming, forestry, Meat Industry
10 Comments
