Opinion

LIFE STYLE

Spray resistant flies and employment resistant Kiwis

Posted: 03 Feb 11 | What a frustrating first month to the year it was. While the silver lining was that La Nina blessed us with much needed rain, the flip side was that the stifling humidity and high temperatures that began earlier than usual – the end of the previous year – created the perfect environment for a prolific influx of dirty, persistent, dinner taxing, mood changing, animal and human antagonising flies. |

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Lighter days and sleep less nights

Posted: 24 Sep 10 | Where do I start? First I think I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the inconsiderate Helen Clark for implementing an early start to daylight savings. |

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Southland spirit holds strong

Posted: 10 Sep 10 | South Island residents have been to hell and back the past few weeks. First South Canterbury Finance going into receivership and then the Earthquake which rocked the region. |

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Doing our bit for good pasture health

Posted: 27 Aug 10 | THE rainfall has certainly given us significant indication as to which paddocks require more drainage and we are waiting for a good spell of dry weather to spray on a new product which is a more natural, plant available form of nitrogen. |

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Holding bureaucrats accountable

Posted: 13 Aug 10 | Why can councils discharge sewerage into rivers, yet I’ll bet that the local farmers will be fined and blamed entirely for the state of the Manawatu River? |

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Stop this barbaric practice now

Posted: 03 Aug 10 | While watching the evening news, I was disgusted to see some New Zealand farmers still carrying out the practice of inducing their cows. |

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It's time National focused on farmers

Posted: 22 Jul 10 | With Chinese investment in Synlait and Hong Kong-based NZ Natural Dairy planning to open a milk processing plant and own a large amount of dairy farms in New Zealand, don’t you think it is time that the government perhaps started acting like a true blue National government and looking at how to support its Kiwi farmers? |

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'ETS: It’s just a crock of S*&!'

Posted: 28 Jun 10 | I RECENTLY attended the Mystery Creek Agricultural Fieldays determined to keep an open mind and listen to both sides of the debate over the Emissions Trading Scheme. |

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Rain a welcome relief

Posted: 31 May 10 | THE 140ml in our rain gauge is a welcome sight. While there is flooding in parts of the country, our farm has so far soaked up the rain. |

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Researching effluent storage

Posted: 25 May 10 | THIS year’s trip to the Fieldays will be warranted by – not only working at our site – but also the mission of researching effluent storage, with the bush telegraph suggesting that within the next couple of years, because of more strict effluent management coming into place, we will need storage capacity for 60 days of effluent. |

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Friend or foe?

Posted: 19 Apr 10 | Regional councils are created to serve their communities, and those in their community should trust their council. However, beliefs sounded far from this when I was recently speaking on the phone to a Waikato farmer. |

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Good to see some action on welfare front

Posted: 30 Mar 10 | Go Paula Bennett. Finally we have a government willing to attack the political nightmare of New Zealand’s welfare dependency. |

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So what's the best way to care for cows?

Posted: 18 Mar 10 | I shouldn’t go on about it, but I’m back to the subject of housing cows. I recently had a conversation with a friend who is involved with installing certain plant machinery in cowsheds and travels to the United States for business. |

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Praying for rain

Posted: 08 Mar 10 | The farm is dry, production is dropping and what rain that hits our region seems to fall in a horse shoe fashion right around our farm completely missing us. As I write, the promise of thunderstorms looms and we wait in hope. |

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Pig farming from farmer's perspective

Posted: 11 Feb 10 | I would like to congratulate Sam McIvor and Ian Walker on their responses to one-sided views taken on pig farming. It is high time the general public heard more from the side of the farmers and learnt how easily things can be manipulated. |

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Some attitudes need adjusting

Posted: 05 Feb 10 | Attitudes of some New Zealanders are worse for tourism than housed herds, and imposing land tax could create more factory farming as farmers try to make their livelihoods viable in this day of point-the-finger and tax. |

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Is factory farming really inhumane?

Posted: 27 Jan 10 | While there has been much said lately about factory farming in New Zealand, I would be keen to hear your views. |

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Looking at the big picture

Posted: 08 Jan 10 | This season any extra cows that are milked on the property will be milked with little financial gain, rather seeing a large cheque sent to Fonterra for more shares. |

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Renovation surprises

Posted: 16 Dec 09 | We were trying to become accustomed to the idea that we wouldn’t get any hay cut until after Christmas. However as I write the sun has graced us with its presence, the rain has abated and we have taken our chances and cut the lot. Will keep you informed how that goes. |

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What a wonderful world we live in . . .

Posted: 04 Dec 09 | There have been comments that my previous blog wasn’t balanced. Well, it is a blog, not meant to be an informative article based on fact. It is more of a rant of the week from our farming household. |

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Stephanie Maunsell blogs on life as a working mother of twin babies and a teenager, a dairy farmer, and as editor of New Zealand's top lifestyle block magazine, NZ Lifestyle Farmer.