
Tony Benny
45 posts
After learning about farming on a sheep farm during university holidays, Tony Benny worked in newspapers, radio and TV news and then joined Country Calendar as a reporter/director and he stayed there for more than 20 years. Nowadays, he’s a freelance farming writer and photographer and shoots and produces video for a range of clients, mostly associated with agriculture.
May 30, 2022
Taking on a dairy farm
When a South Canterbury farmer painted her machinery and fence posts bright pink, the neighbours couldn’t help but…
April 20, 2022
All hands on deck
A devastating flood hit Canterbury last year but rather than sinking a farming family, they are doing swimmingly well.
March 15, 2022
Students inspire Lincoln’s sustainability taskforce
Lincoln University is practicing what it preaches about sustainability, thanks in part to a group of environmental science students who three years ago produced their own sustainability plan for the agricultural education institution.
February 28, 2022
Rural IoT connectivity still a struggle
Adopting technology in agriculture is not always easy as connectivity issues continue to be a problem.
February 14, 2022
Big guns collab for greater good
The Government and industry bodies are working together to ensure the New Zealand agritech sector is a major player on a global scale.
December 13, 2021
Living the life
A trip to New Zealand to gain work experience for a university degree turned into a lifelong journey for a Canterbury farmer.
November 1, 2021
New discovery could could be an infant formula game-changer
An exciting new discovery by an AgResearch scientist will change the composition of infant formulas and has the potential to be a financial boom.
September 14, 2021
Breaking tech barriers
Research shows there are numerous barriers to the uptake in technology by farmers and many of these are interconnected.
Farmers’ reluctance to share data is slowing the adoption of technology that could help transform New Zealand’s food production systems to be more sustainable, resilient and consumer-focused, a study by researchers from AgResearch has found.
September 14, 2021
Red Devon at the heart of an Ashburton farm
Large-scale Canterbury farmers Richard and Chrissie Wright are so passionate about their Red Devon cattle and such is their belief in the quality of their meat, they bought a restaurant in Havelock in the Marlborough Sounds to share it with diners.
The Wrights combined dairying and beef production on their 1850-hectare farm at Ashburton, milking 3500 cows on three separate dairy units.
August 16, 2021
Raising healthy calves
Calf rearing is an important part of the farm business and feeding them enough so they develop to their full potential is essential.
Many New Zealand dairy cows don’t achieve their high-producing genetic potential because they aren’t fed enough as calves and therefore don’t grow quickly enough, vet and sharemilker Nicola Neal says.