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Farmer confidence looks to be on the rebound according to the latest Federated Farm Confidence Survey. Photo Credit: Paul Sutherland Photography.
OPINION: Farmer confidence is on the rise.
While concerns remain on farm around high interest rates, poor commodity prices and excessive red tape, the good news is that farmer confidence has risen from last year's record lows.
However, the rural sector isn't out of the woods yet. While Federated Farmers' latest Farm Confidence Survey may show that there has been a positive shift in the rural mood since 2023, when confidence reached its lowest point in the survey's 15-year history, tough times prevail on farm. Farmers are struggling with high inflation, high interest rates and lower commodity prices, and the impact of those on their profitability.
According to Federated Farmers, most farmers are still feeling that general economic conditions are bad, and most are still making a loss.
The survey shows that the four greatest concerns for farmers are debt, interest & banks; farmgate & commodity prices; regulation & compliance costs; and climate change policy & ETS.
The Government, nor anyone else, can do much about farmgate and commodity prices, there's still a lot that can be done to alleviate farmer concerns around banks. An independent inquiry into rural banking would be a good start.
One reason farmer confidence is rebounding is the new Government, which includes a record number of farmers, is talking about a real commitment to roll back some of the more impractical and expensive regulation that's undermined farmer confidence. But farmers want to see action.
Farmers are optimistic they will see confidence continue to lift in the year ahead, helped by an easing of unnecessary regulatory pressure on things like unworkable freshwater rules.
It's all about cutting red tape, making compliance on-farm easier, and getting the primary sector humming again. But for that to happen, the Government must come to the party. The primary sector will be watching closely.
OPINION: Good governance is critical to the primary sector. Whether it is a rural business, a levy-payer organisation or a research body, we need a pipeline of capable directors with a passion for, and knowledge of, the sector.
OPINION: Confidence in the wool sector is rebounding as prices hit levels not seen in more than 15 years.
Farmer confidence has taken a slight dip according to the final Rabobank rural confidence survey for the year.
OPINION: When I moved to Marlborough two decades ago, I found countless lines of tidy vines, neatly mowed and carefully sprayed, with diligent conventional practices interspersed with the odd organic or cover-cropping outlier, like Te Whare Ra.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
OPINION: No one messes around with Winston Peters, more so in a general election year.
OPINION: Staying on Federated Farmers, this week's annual general meeting in Auckland is shaping up to be an interesting one.
