Colyton School Student-Led Bike Track Earns Rural Funding
Rabobank launched its Good Deeds Competition back in 2017 with the aim of supporting and celebrating the incredible efforts of rural communities in enhancing their local areas.
Farmer confidence has taken a slight dip according to the final Rabobank rural confidence survey for the year.
But it's not all bad news according to the bank's NZ chief executive Todd Charteris.
The survey shows that 40% of farmers were now expecting the performance of the broader agri economy to improve in the year ahead – down from 51% in the previous quarter, while the number expecting conditions to worsen had risen to 12%.
Previously this was 5%.
Charteris said the dip in sentiment this quarter had been driven by lower confidence among dairy farmers.
He says however it’s important to put the latest result into context.
“The confidence readings across the first three quarters of the year have been incredibly high and, while confidence has come back a bit since September, it’s important to note the latest result is still very strong,” he says.
Charteris says positivity remains the dominant sentiment across the sector with four in ten farmers expecting conditions in the broader agri economy to improve across the next 12 months.
Wool Impact and ASB have signed a new partnership with the bank set to provide financial backing to support the revitalisation of New Zealand's strong wool industry.
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Last week marked New Zealand Sign Language Week and a South Canterbury tanker operator is sharing what it's like to be deaf in a busy Fonterra depot.
As fuel and fertiliser prices rise and with uncertainty in the future, farmers are being urged to go over their budgets with a fine-tooth comb.
Federated Farmers says reforms of local government announced last week will be music to farmers' ears.
Hinehou Timutimu, the 2026 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year, says she feels privileged to have won the award.

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