Fed Talk

There are many topics I could talk about this month but the main one keeping me busy right now is once again winter grazing.

As I write this on June 13, North Otago is still in the middle of a drought.

That infamous first Saturday in May has since past, which is always a great reunion of family and friends.

It’s an honour to be elected Federated Farmers Southland president.

There is an endless stream of consultations under way at the moment, and I feel like a broken record continually encouraging farmers to “have your say”.

Years ago at polytechnic, I learnt an important lesson about making sure you had support before you put your head above the rest of the crowd and speak out.

Happy new year.

Hard to believe another year is about to wrap up, and plenty won’t be sad to see the end of 2023.

There is so much going on the ag sector at the moment and a lot of it can feel quite overwhelming.

Regardless of your opinions about the election result, most are assuming there’ll be changes to regulations that have been piled on the farming sector.

Many in the agricultural sector in Otago will already be across the proposed changes to the Otago Regional Council’s (ORC) land and water plan that were released in mid-September.

As winter is coming to an end, I thought I would write about how we farmers have adapted to the new winter grazing rules and consents so well.

Most of us will remember the nursery rhyme ‘‘This Little Piggy’’ which always ended in a laugh.

When a giant tree falls so deep in the forest that nobody hears it crash, did it still fall?

Almost two months into my provincial presidency role here in North Otago I’m starting to see some common battles we have across a range of organisations we deal with.

In the past week we have heard murmurs of a possible fert tax, writes Federated Farmers Otago president Luke Kane.