Fonterra shaves 50c off forecast milk price
Fonterra has dropped its forecast milk price mid-point by 50c as a surge in global milk production is putting downward pressure on commodity prices.
OPINION: Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has thrown a spanner in the works as far as Fonterra’s proposed capital structure is concerned.
He wants unspecified “alternative measures” otherwise Parliament won’t pass regulatory changes needed for the new structure to become effective.
O’Connor’s stance is going against the wishes of Fonterra’s 10,000 farmer shareholders, who have helped the board draft the capital structure proposal so that it remains 100% farmer owned and controlled.
But O’Connor was singing a different tune when Westland Milk, located on his home patch, was sold to a Chinese buyer two years ago.
He was unhappy with the co-op being offloaded to an overseas buyer and even wished Fonterra had bought the Hokitika-based business.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change would be “a really dumb move”.
The University of Waikato has broken ground on its new medical school building.
Undoubtedly the doyen of rural culture, always with a wry smile, our favourite ginger ninja, Te Radar, in conjunction with his wife Ruth Spencer, has recently released an enchanting, yet educational read centred around rural New Zealand in one hundred objects.
Farmers are being urged to keep on top of measures to control Cysticerus ovis - or sheep measles - following a spike in infection rates.
For more than 50 years, Waireka Research Station at New Plymouth has been a hub for globally important trials of fungicides, insecticides and herbicides, carried out on 16ha of orderly flat plots hedged for protection against the strong winds that sweep in from New Zealand’s west coast.
There's a special sort of energy at the East Coast Farming Expo, especially when it comes to youth.
OPINION: Dipping global dairy prices have already resulted in Irish farmers facing a price cut from processors.
OPINION: Are the heydays of soaring global demand for butter over?