Strong Dairy and Beef Prices Lift Confidence Across New Zealand Farming Sector
New Zealand farming is riding a high, with strong prices, full feed covers and improving confidence lining up at the same time.
ANZ says the latest cut to its floating rates will be welcome news to many of its business and agri customers still feeling the effects of high inflation and interest rates.
ANZ NZ managing director for business and agri, Lorraine Mapu says most business and agri customers are on floating rates so changes should flow to them “fairly quickly”.
Following the Reserve Bank’s decision to cut the official cash rate (OCR) by 50 basis points this morning, ANZ cut its business floating rates a further 40-basis points, resulting in a total 55-basis point cut for the month after the bank earlier trimmed rates by 15-basis points.
“Since rates started to drop – both wholesale and the OCR – we’ve announced 135-basis points in cuts to our business and agri customers,” says Mapu. In that time, the OCR has fallen by 125-basis points.
Mapu says most of ANZ NZ’s business and agri customers were on floating rates so the changes should flow through to them relatively quickly, giving some debt relief and helping with cashflow.
Matt McRae, a farmer from Mokoreta in Southland who runs a sheep, beef and dairy support business alongside a sheep stud, has been elected to the Beef +Lamb NZ Board as a farmer director.
Ravensdown's next evolution in smart farming technology, HawkEye Pro, was awarded the Technology Section Award at the Southern Field Days Farm Innovation Awards in February 2026.
While mariners may recognise a “dog watch” as a two-hour shift on a ship, the Good Dog Work Watch is quite a different concept and the clever creation of Southland siblings Grace (9) and Archer Brown (7), both pupils at Riverton Primary School.
Philip and Lyneyre Hooper of the Hoopman Family Trust have tonight been named the Taranaki Regional Supreme Winners at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
We are not a bunch of sky cowboys. That was one of the key messages from the chairperson of the NZ Agricultural Aviation Association (NZAAA) Kent Weir, speaking at an education day at Feilding aerodrome for 25 policymakers and regulators from central and local government and other rural professionals.
New Zealand's dairy and beef industries say they welcome the announcement that the Government will invest $10.49 million in the Dairy Beef Opportunities (DBO) programme.