Westpac Urges Farmers to Prepare Now for El Niño Drought
Westpac NZ is calling on farmers and growers to start preparing now for the possibility of a dry summer, as likely El Niño conditions raise the risk of drought across parts of the country.
Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction prices were largely unchanged last week.
Overall prices were down 0.1%, while key whole milk powder (WMP) prices were up 0.1%.
Looking at January as a whole, dairy prices have started 2023 on a soft note.
Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny nots that cumulatively over the month, overall and WMP prices have fallen 2.8% and 1.2% respectively.
"By product, most price movements were also small," he says.
"Of the five products we monitor, four products posted price changes of less than 1% either way.
"The outlier was cheddar, which saw a 4% price lift overnight. This result was largely in line with futures market expectations."
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
For Canterbury dairy farmers Sian Meijer and Rick Wobben, wearable technology has become one of their most valuable on-farm tools - helping manage 1850 cows across an expansive, high-performing dairy operation while improving efficiency, mating outcomes and day-to-day decision making.
Fonterra has unveiled its annual results for the 2026 financial year, posting $27 billion in revenue and close to $20 billion returned to New Zealand farmer owners and unit holders.
The first major update to the Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare in more than a decade has been released, marking what DairyNZ describes as an important step in ensuring animal welfare standards continue to evolve alongside scientific evidence and on-farm realities.