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Fed Farmers president Katie Milne.
Government policy settings are presently farmers’ biggest worry, says Federated Farmers president Katie Milne.
She told Rural News at the Feds recent conference in Wellington that farmers are concerned at the possible effects on their farms of the Zero Carbon Bill and water policies.
They are worried about not knowing what they have to do and about how policies will impact on them, Milne said.
“We also don’t think the regulatory impacts and cost benefit analyses have been properly done on a lot of these things, in particular the flow on effects they will have.”
Milne sees the farming sector as flat at present despite commodity prices being pretty good. A key objective of the Feds conference was to try to help the public and decisionmakers to better understand farming.
Feds joined forces this year with a commercial conference organiser which staged the event at Te Papa Museum, Wellington.
Their aim was to do something different and bring primary industries into Wellington to give attendees closer connections and enable collaboration and connections between politicians, academics, officials and agribusiness people.
“It’s gone really well. Very good feedback from everybody shows this format has worked,” Milne said.
Federated Farmers says new legislation replacing the Resource Management Act will cut red tape, unlock investment and help grow New Zealand's export-led economy, after the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill passed their third reading in Parliament yesterday.
Leading figures from the major political parties will be questioned on their primary sector policies at the Rural Issues Debate at Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, on 30 September.
Will the good times last? That's one of the key issues to come out of the latest Federated Farmers confidence survey.
Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chair, Bevan Lill, said Beef + Lamb NZ data indicated that for the last six years, the average arable return on investment was about 0.8% while inflation ran about 4% - so the average arable farm was going backwards at about 3% a year.
For the first time in a quarter of a century, Federated Farmers has something positive to say about the Labour Party’s climate change policy leading into a general election.
Synlait has swung to second-half profit as operations stabilise, but the dairy processor still posted a $75.4m annual loss.
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
For Canterbury dairy farmers Sian Meijer and Rick Wobben, wearable technology has become one of their most valuable on-farm tools - helping manage 1850 cows across an expansive, high-performing dairy operation while improving efficiency, mating outcomes and day-to-day decision making.
Fonterra has unveiled its annual results for the 2026 financial year, posting $27 billion in revenue and close to $20 billion returned to New Zealand farmer owners and unit holders.
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