Southland's Mataura Valley Milk has embarked on a major project to fully electrify its plant near Gore onto "100% renewable energy" by November next year.

China's sway over what New Zealand dairy farmers get paid for their milk has been on display this year.

Former Fonterra director Donna Smit's six-year tenure on the board can be best described as a game of three halves.

Open Country Dairy suppliers will receive $9.37/kgMS for milk supplied between June and September this year.

Dairy Dairy commodity markets were weaker again in October 2022.

Despite the challenges over the last 30 months, worldwide sales of agricultural tractors and machinery have remained buoyant – albeit with disruptions of raw materials, components and shortages of staff.

With the rescheduled National Fieldays only a week away and the woes of Covid-19 largely behind us, the organisers are pushing a message of positivity for the rest of 2022 and beyond.

With only two weeks before the rescheduled National Fieldays, organisers are hoping to put the woes of Covid-19 behind them and take a positive slant into the end of 2022 and beyond.

Weaker demand for dairy, particularly in the key Chinese market, is being blamed for the continued slide in the forecast milk price.

OPINION: In 1984, the last time farming was declared a sunset industry, the newly elected Labour government began the deregulation of what had been a highly regulated pastoral economy.