End of war on farming, say farmers
Federated Farmers says changes announced to the Resource Management Act today mark the end of the war on farming.
Feds dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard says the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction needs some CPR to shock it back into life.
"If you look more into the future, forward contracts were still pretty flat. Six months out it was still US$2200/t. We want to see prices get close to that US$3000/t mark so we can get things back to a nice level," he says.
"While everyone has brought their cost of production down, it is still very much hand to mouth at the moment."
He thinks many farmers are getting their costs down to the $3.50-$4/kgMS range.
"The challenge is if you've got $1/kgMS debt, then you are in a hard place," he says. "There are people with more than $1/kgMS debt so that makes the proposition for them extremely tough.
"It didn't fill me with confidence but it's not yet time to hit the gloom and doom panic button.
"It's bumbling along there and I think a lot of people would feel a lot more comfortable if we saw a couple of decent rises to give us more confidence, but at the moment it is not inspiring a great deal of confidence."
DCANZ information showed the North Island was down 5% and the South Island down 22% in June. But it is not an indication of a trend because of the small amount of production in that month anyway.
"Just a few people deciding winter milk wasn't worth it can alter that quite dramatically," he says.
The country’s 4200 commercial fruit and vegetable growers will vote from May 14 on a new HortNZ levy.
Meat processor Alliance Group is asking farmer shareholders to inject more capital in order to remain a 100% co-operative.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
Telco infrastructure provider Chorus says that it believes all Kiwis – particularly those in the rural areas – need access to high-speed, reliable broadband.