Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today / Tararua news

Genetic engineering (Ge) – not the glow in the dark stuff…

By Sally Dryland
Bush Telegraph·
29 Apr, 2024 09:00 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

What might farming look like into the future?

What might farming look like into the future?

By Sally Dryland, President Tararua Federated Farmers

Opinion

What if:

  • we had a grass that kept the hills green and growing grass no matter what the weather conditions were?
  • wilding pines weren’t an issue as all exotic forest trees planted were sterile?
  • we had a vaccine that stopped ruminant animals producing or reducing methane gas?

What value do we put on those three things?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Tararua Federated Farmers wants to start a conversation with local farmers on genetic engineering.

Te Puna Whakaaronui chief executive Jarred Mair, an expert on these matters, is guest speaker at our AGM.

Feds Tararua Dairy Chair Aaron Passey says Te Puna Whakaaronui is New Zealand’s food and fibre think tank.

“In a nutshell, they monitor and evaluate all the crap that is going on around the world and what impacts it will have for food and fibre producers and exporters based in New Zealand.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“Jarred is an extremely knowledgeable, entertaining and thought-provoking speaker. He is coming to us to talk about genetic engineering in agriculture, what the rest of the world are doing and what the pitfalls and opportunities are for farming in New Zealand,” Aaron says.

It’s time for Tararua farmers to come together to learn more and have a meaningful discussion on where we see GE’s role in our future.

Rates

Horizons submissions closed on April 22. Feds were particularly unhappy about the 30-plus per cent rates increases many farmers are facing, viewing that level of hikes as unsustainable.

Horizons have reduced the Uniform Annual General Charges (UAGC), which all ratepayers pay. This covers basic core costs like meetings. The argument that the reduction is done to protect those on low fixed incomes doesn’t really wash given that many farmers won’t make any money this year. By reducing the UAGC it means the teachers, lawyers, and everyone else on a good fixed income also get the reduction.

Horizons have also slipped in a targeted rate for buses in Tararua in 2025/26 at $10.63 per $100,000 of your property value. To say that a farmer with a property out at Akitio will gain value from this service is creative to say the least.

Advocacy

Federated Farmers appreciated the opportunity to catch up with the Tararua District Council mayor and staff a few weeks back to chat about topical issues. It’s great to hear TDC have been successful in getting a higher contribution from the Government for local road maintenance – 73 cents for every dollar spent. It’s hoped some of this extra funding might be reflected in reduced roading charges per land value.

The Long-Term Plan consultation for TDC starts on 1st May. Let’s hope the inflation increase of 4.7 per cent is a guide as over the last two years rural ratepayers have had 20 per cent increases.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Tararua news

Tararua news

Reminiscing on the old PCC Albion truck

16 Dec 12:00 AM
Tararua news

Tararua School of Dance's family vibe

15 Dec 10:00 PM
Tararua news

Woodville cemetery tours planned

15 Dec 09:56 PM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Tararua news

Reminiscing on the old PCC Albion truck

Reminiscing on the old PCC Albion truck

16 Dec 12:00 AM

Paul Gleeson remembers a truck he wanted to own.

Tararua School of Dance's family vibe

Tararua School of Dance's family vibe

15 Dec 10:00 PM
Woodville cemetery tours planned

Woodville cemetery tours planned

15 Dec 09:56 PM
We say goodbye but hopefully not forever

We say goodbye but hopefully not forever

15 Dec 09:00 PM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP