A rollercoaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
New Zealand dairy farmers are benefiting from the global food demand to a greater extent than their Australian counterparts, says Mark Bennett, head of Agribusiness ANZ Regional Australia.
Bennett said at the National Fieldays that dairy farmers in Australia had not captured farmgate returns to the same extent as in New Zealand in the last year and, as a result, confidence was lower.
"After improved seasonal conditions and a return of irrigation supplies, Australian dairy farmers are still pondering what it might take to capture the much-talked-about food demand explosion - particularly in Asia," he said.
Confidence is down following recent price outlook for the 2013 season, which could see returns in export production fall by around 10% to 15% in 2013.
"While dairy farmers in southern states have been able to produce surpluses over the past two years that allowed debt reduction and consolidation, it has not been enough to stimulate investment and demand for expansion," Bennett said.
Bennett added that land prices in all dairy regions in Australia appeared to have softened somewhere between 5% and 20% and that it would take an improvement in farmgate prices (which could still be driven by a lower AUD), and continuing good seasons, to help turn things around.
Agriculture is extremely important to the economies of both countries, and is one of ANZ's priority global sectors.
Bennett said his visit to the fieldays was a great opportunity to connect with ANZ New Zealand colleagues.
"ANZ is the biggest banker to agribusiness in Australasia, and we want to continue to leverage our skills and knowledge in agriculture and link up our business on both sides of the Tasman.
"This will help us to better support our clients doing cross-border trade both here and throughout Asia-Pacific."
China’s Ambassador Wang Xiaolong says bilateral economic and trade cooperation between China and New Zealand has made significant and rapid progress.
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.