McRae Wins Southern South Island B+LNZ Director Vote
Matt McRae, a farmer from Mokoreta in Southland who runs a sheep, beef and dairy support business alongside a sheep stud, has been elected to the Beef +Lamb NZ Board as a farmer director.
We will see a $8/kgMS milk price again – but we will also see $4/kgMS again, says New Zealand special agricultural trade envoy Mike Petersen.
We will see a $8/kgMS milk price again – but we will also see $4/kgMS again, says New Zealand special agricultural trade envoy Mike Petersen.
Market insight and intelligence will be very important in next months, he told an Agcarm conference in Auckland yesterday.
"We shouldn't be surprised by volatility – I have been talking about this for the last 10 years," Petersen said.
Just in time delivery by retailers is one influence. "Volatility is here to stay – we need to come to terms with it," he said.
New Zealand dairy is 30% of all cross border trade, and that is the first to be hit by volatility.
We need to be more resilient, Petersen said, and farmers should set their business up to be more resilient in the face of volatility. Nevertheless he said, the future is extremely bright.
Earlier Jacqueline Rowarth told the conference Beef and Lamb analysis showed we did not market – an example, Wales spend $57 per tonne of product – New Zealand, $11.
Failing to market food at premium quality is costing New Zealand producers dearly, she said.
New Zealand's diverse cheesemaking talent shone brightly last night as the New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) crowned the champions of the 2026 New Zealand Cheese Awards.
Tracing has indicated that the source of the first velvetleaf find of the 2025-26 crop season, in Auckland, was likely maize purchased in the Waikato region.
Fish & Game New Zealand has announced its election priorities in its Manifesto 2026.
With the forage maize harvest started in Northland and the Waikato, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is telling growers of later crops, or those further south, to start checking their maize crop maturity about three weeks prior to when they think they will start silage harvesting.
Irrigation NZ is warning that the government's Resource Management Act (RMA) reform risks falling short of its objectives unless water use for food production and water storage infrastructure are clearly recognised in the goals at the top of the new system.
More than five million trays, or 18,000 tonnes, of Zespri’s RubyRed Kiwifruit will soon be available for consumers across 16 markets this season.
OPINION: The good news keeps getting better for NZ dairy farmers.
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