This week on The Farmers Weekly Podcast: Richard Rennie reports from China on Fonterra, Zespri and trade trends; Beef + Lamb NZ’s Alan Thomson on global climate talks; and Federated Farmers’ Brendan Attrill on new share farming workshops. Plus — could US sheep farmers drag Trump into a lamb tariff fight?


News Wrap | China Check-In: Fonterra’s future and Zespri’s kiwifruit crackdown
1:44 – Senior reporter Richard Rennie wraps up his recent visit to China, where he attended one of the biggest trade shows on earth and visited Fonterra’s innovation centre in Shanghai. He also headed west to see how Zespri is dealing with the thousands of hectares of illegal Sungold kiwifruit being grown.

Feature | NZ’s ag strategy: the split-gas initiative explained
16:05 – Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive Alan Thomson tells Bryan about how a group of red meat producers reached agreement on a campaign pushing for a split-gas approach to be adopted globally. He says while it is accepted here, that’s not the case in other countries.

Feds Focus | Workshops for share farmers and contractors
28:37 – Federated Farmers share farming chair Brendan Attrill outlines what to expect at the series of workshops Feds is running on getting the best out of share farming and contracting. The workshops are being held over the coming weeks around the country.

The Final Word
36:30 – American sheep farmers have taken aim at our sector, asking the Trump administration to increase tariffs on the lamb we sell there. At first glance one would think Trump doesn’t have time for what is, in the scheme of things, a small quibble. But with US farmers doing it tough and sky-high prices at the checkout, is the president about to turn his attention to agriculture?