News

PGG Wrightson's GM for Rural Real Estate Peter Newbold joins The Country's Jamie Mackay to talk rural property this month. It has been a tough year for selling farms – it started slow in spring and is only just coming into fruition. Mackay notes that in 2008, pre Global Financial Crisis (GFC), New...

Early in 2019 Oliver Edwards of yarn distributor Naturally Handknit Yarns was looking to include an organic NZ grown and NZ made hand knitting yarn to their product range and took his idea to Peter Chatterton of Napier yarn company Design Spun, who then approached PGG Wrightson Wool’s International...

NZ coarse wool innovation on-track to disrupt 78 billion USD global hygiene market. A Wellington-based start up company, founded by a mother and daughter with a multi generation background in farming, has found a new way to add value to coarse wool that could revive the sector and promises to create...

At PGG Wrightson Livestock Genetics we help our clients develop better strategies, design better breeding programs and nurture better bloodlines. Contact us today. Auction results from the season so far: Grassendale Beltex suftex 43/48 avg $1021, ¼ Beltex suftex x 20/21 $1290, ½ Beltex $16163. Nikau...

This week The Country's Jamie Mackay catches up with PGG Wrightson's GM for wool Grant Edwards to talk about the wool industry. Since their last chat, Edwards says that the market has been steady across the board for all wool types. Wool auctions have been at the A and P shows in Hawkes Bay and...

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...