News

Cystic Fibrosis NZ benefits from efforts of Waikato couple and Jersey community. An online charity auction with a strong Jersey theme raised more than $20,000 for Cystic Fibrosis NZ recently. Initiated by Josh and Kareena Sneddon of Tahau Jerseys, the auction ran on bidr® on 21 June. Featuring 46...

Born and raised on a Southland sheep and beef farm, Callum McDonald is Livestock Genetics Representative for PGG Wrightson in Otago and Southland. After leaving school, Callum spent a few years in Dunedin, gaining a Bachelor of Science from Otago University. However, he always knew what lay ahead....

Uncertainty around dairy beef recedes as M bovis risk becomes better understood. This year’s feeder calf sale season starts shortly, beginning in Waikato, where significant quantities of calves are likely to go through the sales over the next two months. With risks associated with M bovis now better...

Two-year-old bull sale marks 60 years of breeding and business association spanning the generations. Atahua Angus held its two-year-old bull sale in mid-June, marking 60 years of breeding for the Kiwitea, Manawatu stud. After a presentation from Angus NZ board member Andrew Stewart commemorating the...

A couple of weeks after a reasonable drop of rain in most districts, winter hit the North Island in late June with a strong polar blast dropping temperatures to low single digits. Underfoot conditions became sloppy and the weather caused several road closures. Moisture was particularly welcome in...

More relaxed sale with larger gallery than under Covid last year. Limehills Polled Herefords in Roxburgh, Central Otago hosted one of the first events of this year’s two year old bull sales season on 1 June. After presenting the sale last year towards the end of the Level Two Covid period, Limehills...

Listen now as The Country’s Jamie Mackay is joined by PGG Wrightson’s Mid-South Canterbury Livestock Manager, Joe Higgins, to talk about New Zealand’s livestock market. It has been a month since the Canterbury floods and the recovery has been progressing slowly. Higgins says that some areas...

Watch as Callum Stewart joins Mark Leishman on Country TV discussing the winding up of a successful Bull Sales season. Including bidr® Hybrid Livestream sales.

Coarse wool growers have faced a stark fact in recent times: revenue from wool does not cover the cost of growing, harvesting, packaging, transporting, and selling their clip. Recent price improvements have lifted some growers to either “break-even” or slightly “in the black” levels. This hard truth...

Wool recently became part of the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP), providing the sector a simple process to verify product credentials. PGG Wrightson and wool export subsidiary Bloch & Behrens are among the first to join the NZFAP wool programme, which already covers approximately 95 per...

Pictured above: Sir Palle Petersen and Denmark’s ambassador to Australia and New Zealand Pernille Kardel. Charged with responsibility for leading PGG Wrightson’s wool exports, Sir Palle Petersen has ideal credentials for the role. Growing up in Denmark, on leaving school Palle joined Danish wool...

A Northland couple on a farm that has been in the family since the early 1870s have found an innovative new use for the wool grown by their Romney flock. Sarah Hewlett is the sixth generation of her family on 230 hectare Hewlett Point Farm, on the southern shore of Whangarei Harbour at Mata. As she...

Pictured above: PGW Wool Product＆ Innovation Manager, Jason Everson and National Shearing Circuit chair, Warren White. PGG Wrightson recently renewed its sponsorship of the National Shearing Circuit for the next three years. Pitting the top shearers against each other based on versatility, the...

Through the few months to the end of the 2020/21 selling season wool prices largely recovered from the unprecedented lows they sunk to when the global covid lockdowns first affected the supply chain. Prices for crossbred wools have risen around 55 per cent, back to levels close to the same period...

With drought, floods and tornadoes wreaking havoc in various regions recently, farmer well-being is a vitally important topic. Even at the best of times farming can be stressful, which is where the Rural Support Trust is ready to step in. A team of rural people whose aim is to help those most in...

Last year due to Covid the New Zealand Agricultural Show was cancelled. This year, all being well, the 159th edition will take place in Christchurch in the second week of November. For the past few years the South Island wool sale has left the PGG Wrightson auction room for a single day, to be...

New Zealand’s Virtual Saleyard bidr® will soon start livestreaming both North Island and South Island wool auctions. Offering real-time live auctions online, bidr® was designed with the involvement of PGG Wrightson livestock agents, operations team members and farmers, and went live in mid 2019. To...

When 2020 Fieldays was cancelled due to Covid-19 PGG Wrightson Wool decided that 2021 was going to be bigger and better, and they did not fail to deliver! The PGG Wrightson site was humming with a constant flow of people, our wool stand was extremely engaging with an eye-catching backdrop, a monitor...