Rabobank Launches HortPathways for Emerging Hort Leaders
Twenty-eight emerging leaders from across the horticulture sector spent two days last month learning valuable skills and connecting with industry experts.
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.
Hamilton-based agritech company Aimer Farming has completed a $3 million capital raise to support its next stage of growth, including a beef farming product due to launch in 2027.
When dairy manager Miriam Lauridsen learned the farm, she was joining held weekly health and safety meetings, she initially thought that was “a bit over the top”. Experiencing that culture changed her mind.
Nominations are open for the 2027 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year Award.
Keeping up with pasture moisture demands is likely to be the key challenge for dairy farmers during this season’s El Niño weather pattern, says Blue Skies Weather & Climate Services meteorologist Tony Trewinnard.
Farmers have until the end of this week to help shape DairyNZ’s future focus.
Wayne McNee, chief executive of AgriZeroNZ, has resigned and will leave the organisation on 15 January 2027.