Spotted something in our weekly e-diary newsletters and need to refer to it again?
This page contains this week’s e-diary national notices.
If there’s something you want to know specific to your region, contact your local extension manager – find their details here.
To sign up to e-diaries, create/login to a B+LNZ online account, go to ‘Account settings’ and select the e-diary box – you’ll be asked to pick which region/s you want to receive e-diaries for.
See elsewhere on our website for other e-diary info:
This week’s notices:
Government’s ETS consultations closing today
The two related consultations on proposed changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme close today (Friday). Check out last week’s e-diary story for a link to our pre-written submission template you can use, along with other resources. B+LNZ has been given an extension for our consultation submission – which will seek to find a balance between concern about the scale and pace of whole farm sales into forestry as a result of the increasing carbon price and interest in opportunities to grow income from carbon revenue from on-farm planting – to enable detailed Board consideration. We’ll provide an update when our submission document is available.
Better Beef Breeding Online Workshop
B+LNZ Genetics are running a two-part, online workshop that will help you to understand how to buy better bulls. Learn everything from pre-purchase preparations to interpreting information in bull sale catalogues. More information here.
Artificial insemination precautions
In 2022, a new strain of M. bovis was identified on a dairy farm in Mid-Canterbury. An investigation concluded that use of imported semen was the most likely pathway. The semen used was imported prior to a new Import Health Standard (IHS) being in place. MPI assesses the M. bovis transmission risk associated with bovine semen imported before April 2022 as very low. This risk has been further reduced by measures in the current IHS requiring improved antibiotic treatments or PCR testing for M. bovis. As a precautionary measure, the programme is undertaking more testing of older semen that was imported prior to the introduction of the current standards. To find out more, we encourage breeders intending to use imported semen to contact their breeding centre or importer, or send an email to GermplasmImporters@mpi.govt.nz
Bull nominations for the Beef Progeny Test close 25 August
Breeders are invited to nominate bulls for the across-breed Beef Progeny Test. Don't miss the opportunity to be a part of the ground-breaking Informing New Zealand Beef programme and contribute to the collection of vital New Zealand data to be able to accurately estimate hybrid vigour. Find out more here.