News

PGG Wrightson Livestock General Manager Peter Moore joins Mark Leishman on the daily report to discuss how the livestock market is tracking as we wrap up November.

Flystrike is an awful disease, where struck sheep can die within 48 hours. Early signs of flystrike can be difficult to observe, so prevention is your best option. Wairoa-based sheep and beef farmer, Jonathan Neilson relies on Cyrex™ Liquid for the prevention and treatment of flystrike, as it has...

Managing Facial Eczema (FE) requires a multipronged approach that involves reducing spore intake and providing zinc as a prophylaxis and therapy. FE is caused by a mycotoxin produced by the fungus Pithomyces chartarum growing in pasture dead matter. This fungus multiplies rapidly when overnight...

The days of spraying broad spectrum insecticides every time insects are seen in a crop are over. We now have the ability to make informed decisions using an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach and achieve better crops. In previous years if insects were seen in a crop, it was sprayed with a...

Maize gets a number of diseases and they can all affect the final yield, but one of the most damaging is Northern Leaf Blight (NLB) caused by the fungus Exserohilium turcicum. NLB overwinters in infected maize leaves, husks and trash from the previous crop. The NLB fungal spores are produced when...

What is the most important nutrient that a plant needs? The answer to this question is: the one that is the most limiting, also known as the ‘law of the minimum’. This law states that growth is dictated not by total quantity of nutrients that are available, but by the scarcest nutrient. Crops...

PGG Wrightson Livestock General Manager Peter Moore joins Mark Leishman on the daily report to discuss how the livestock market is tracking as we head into Summer.

PGG Wrightson's GM for Real Estate Peter Newbold joins The Country's Jamie Mackay to talk rural property this month. Mackay gets into the discussion of money and where it is coming from, and questioned if there is a Mexican standoff between the banks and the farmers. It was a challenging space as...

Sheep & Beef Shane Gerken - South Island Livestock Manager Finally spring has arrived in the South Island, with the last few days being fine and warm. The store cattle market which is finally starting to generate some interest. This is thanks, in part, to some warmer weather and a visible lift in...

Simon Gourley of Domaine Thomson Wines is the 2019 Young Horticulturist of the Year. From Central Otago, Simon (28) represented the NZ Winegrowers sector at the competition, which celebrates excellence in people aged under 30, employed in the horticulture industry. It’s the second consecutive year...

PGG Wrightson Livestock representative Sam Brown was announced the 2019 champion of the Heartland Bank Young Auctioneers competition at the New Zealand Agricultural Show in Canterbury on 15th of November. The Young Auctioneers competition aims to showcase and develop young auctioneers and improve...

Duncan and Tina Mackintosh have a passion for their farm's environment and are sharing that passion with their community. Wiggy caught up with them in this month's Farmer's Voice to see how they're taking others along with them on their farming journey.

With lambs now on the ground, it is time to plan an effective preventative drench programme to ensure that maximum liveweight gain occurs both pre-weaning and throughout summer. The lifecycle of internal worms in sheep results in pasture contamination with parasite eggs that continue to build and...

The family behind Blenheim’s Hedgerows Hydroponic Strawberries have just started their fourth harvest of delicious, fresh strawberries and are looking forward to another summer of learning and improving their small scale, high quality production techniques. “When we first began, we were completely...

PGG Wrightson Livestock National Sale Manager Matt Macfie joins Mark Leishman on the daily report to discuss how the livestock market is tracking as we head into November.

From 11 November 2019 our Head Office will be moving to a new location at Christchurch Airport. The modern office will home staff across our Corporate, Agency and Retail & Water divisions and will continue to provide accounting, supply chain, marketing, technology, human resources and administrative...

The warmer months are an exciting time in the garden as your spring planting efforts come to life, There is also plenty of summer sun loving crops to plant and it's the perfect time to get your garden into shape for summer BBQs and backyard entertaining. By now your spring planting should be coming...

New pastures are a great opportunity to lift production and fine tune the production dynamics on your farm. After sowing your new pasture paddocks, ensure you monitor them as they emerge. Once the clovers are at the two trifoliate stage, it is a good time to assess the weed pressure. Some paddocks...