News

Getting your pastures to perform is a proven path to profitability because pasture is usually your cheapest form of feed. How you manage the critical establishment and grazing of your new pasture influences how it regrows and even its long-term persistence. As the ryegrass and clover emerge from the...

Barley is a versatile crop in temperate New Zealand, able to be grown to graze, conserve for silage, or combine harvest for grain to be processed into animal feed, malting or even seed multiplication. Whatever the end use, there is one main driver that is common for any broad acre crop, yield. Yield...

Lambs are the class of stock most at risk from flystrike. In areas where blowflies routinely cause problems, preventative treatments are commonly applied to lambs early in the spring and usually at docking. Research has shown that even relatively small strikes cause a marked loss in appetite in the...

Mark Leishman caught up with Peter Moore, GM of PGG Wrightson Livestock on Country TV’s Roundup on Friday, 23 August. In this interview Peter talks about what’s happening at the moment with feeder calves and bobby calves along with a quick snapshot on what’s happening in terms of prices and demand...

Sheep & Beef Shane Gerken - South Island Livestock Manager Buyers are being very selective with the quality of cattle they purchase, which is typical at this time of the year. Better quality types of both traditional/beef and dairy-beef are available and these are seeing strong competition at both...

It’s that time of the year! Pipfruit growers need to start thinking about pheromone trapping and registering your blocks with Apple and Pear NZ, for Codling Moth sensitive markets during August. Pipfruit growers should firstly identify any production sites which may have fallen into the high-risk...

Mark Leishman caught up with Peter Moore, GM of PGW Livestock on Country TV’s Roundup on Friday, 9th August. Listen to the full interview and find out about the current market conditions, the changes in the landscape for bobby calves, and what’s happening with stock being sold on bidr. Market update...

This month Wiggy heads to Taupo and catches up with James and Elissa Cooper who run a finishing farm and have diversified with Lakeman Brewery. Due to catchment regulations they have turned a negative into a positive and use this water to make their beer.

How are you tracking? Is NAIT compliance weighing heavy on your mind and tracking the right animals consumes valuable daylight? You can take out the guess work and human error with a Tru-test EID Stick Reader. Do you want to keep things streamlined and simple or do you want to dive into the data...

This week The Country's Jamie Mackay is joined by PGG GM for wool Grant Edwards to talk about the end of the 2018/19 season and how the start of the new season is looking.

Rats can cause significant damage on farms, lifestyle blocks, and orchards, gnawing on wiring and getting into animal feed, so controlling them matters. Goodnature is launching their latest trapping innovation, Chirp, a digitally enabled trap that can be retrofitted to any existing Goodnature A24...

Last month Jay Howes introduced Greenlight Grower Management (GLGM), and highlighted how PGG Wrightson is using this decision support software tool to improve agronomic recommendations from Technical Field Representatives (TFRs). This month, I am going to introduce the concept of accessing GLGM...

It is often said that heifers reaching their targets is a good indicator for farming success. Heifers reaching 30 percent of mature liveweight at six months, 60 percent at 15 months (mating) and 90 percent at 22 months (pre-calving) are crucial milestones. “Keep in mind that younger calves have a...

Now that ewes are pregnant, the focus turns to maximising the survival of lambs to ensure profitability of the sheep breeding system. Placental development influences lamb birthweight, which in turn strongly determines survival rates post birth. The development of the placenta between 30 to 90 days...

CLiK™ Extra Spray-On is the gold standard product for flystrike prevention in sheep. Central Otago sheep and beef farmers Dougal and Sarah MacDougall can attest to that, having treated 10,000 to 15,000 lambs with CLiK every year for the last decade. The MacDougalls own Minzion Station at Millers...

Although those in the dairy industry are use to dealing with cows, today on The Country Jamie Mackay wanted to talk to PGG Wrightson Real Estate GM Peter Newbold about elephants. The Country host was referring to the elephant in the room for New Zealand dairy listings - debt. Newbold put the current...

South Island Sheep & Beef Update Shane Gerken - South Island Livestock Manager Winter conditions have been milder than normal especially in the coastal areas of Otago, with some pastures closer to resembling mid-summer rather than mid-winter. The utilisation of crops has meant an abundance of...