Every year around 30 per cent of crops worldwide are destroyed by pests and diseases, but scientists from three New Zealand universities have teamed up to develop a product that will enable farmers to detect diseases much earlier.

The amount of productive New Zealand land in foreign hands is probably around 10 per cent — and growing.

This year hasn't been kind to the US agricultural sector, just ask John Deere, the world's largest manufacturer of farming machinery.

The field of robotics has well and truly taken off in the past few decades, boosted by increasing innovation and a significant drop in the cost of materials.

We've been the butt of sheep jokes for generations, but New Zealand's flock is in decline.

As prices for iron ore are projected to slip, cattle is becoming more attractive to Australian mining companies.

Conservatives leader Colin Craig has won an eleventh-hour High Court scrap over his exclusion from a televised political debate.

Prime Minister John Key made an assurance no more than 2 per cent of New Zealand's farmland was foreign-owned.

Overseas sale of 13,800ha station would be a tragedy, says Conservative leader

Chinese company Shanghai Pengxin confirmed it is aiming to buy a $70 million North Island farm, which would be second-largest foreign purchase of New Zealand land.

The old Sony factory in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture is up and running again. But this time it's an indoor farm that is the largest of its kind.

The National Policy Statement (NPS) for freshwater may not have razzmatazz, but it arose from that exercise in consensual collaboration called the Land and Water Forum.

Hollywood A-lister Reese Witherspoon is joining a flock of celebrities lining up to cover their faces in Kiwi sheep placenta.

Labour Leader David Cunliffe says a Govt he led would invest up to $200 million over four years in development projects aimed at resuscitating flagging regional economies.

Farmers in the UK are upset that a large supermarket chain is promoting New Zealand lamb over locally sourced sheepmeat.

The world's appetite for chicken is growing faster than any other meat, while pork consumption is slowing, according to an OECD report.

The Green Party has dismissed the new bottom lines as "weak" and argues the measures mean rivers will only have to be clean enough for wading or boating.

Landcorp, New Zealand's largest corporate farmer, is having a serious look at milking sheep.

Fieldays is over and tens of thousands of visitors to Mystery Creek have witnessed the future of dairy farming.

US beef prices are up 74 per cent since 2009 to the highest on record, after a seven-year decline in the herd left the fewest cattle in at least six decades.

As James Hemopo lay injured and helpless while a bull charged at him, Fonz, his farm dog, fended off the beast.

It's a long way from netball hoops to jumping through the hoops of doing business in China but farmer Mike Wilkins is aiming as carefully as his former Silver Fern wife.

A 4WD track featuring steep slopes, a waterfall, boulders and pools of water is one of the attractions at this year's National Fieldays in Hamilton.

American scientists are attempting to breed chickens that can cope with scorching heat as part of a series of government-funded programmes.

Rogue dairy farmers exploiting migrant workers have no place in the industry, a senior farming leader says.

Thousands of sheep in Australia are believed to have died after eating a poisonous plant that makes them “bash their heads on posts and rocks until they crack open”.