PHENOMENAL GROWTH of the Dairy Women’s Network in the last year had caused some “speed wobbles” executive chair Michelle Wilson admitted at the annual meeting last week.

STORIES EMERGED last week at Stratford as the colourful history of the New Zealand Sharemilker of the Year competition unfolded during opening celebrations of the event’s 25th anniversary.

TARANAKI IS now a billion dollar milk producer, thanks mostly to small, well-managed farms, says DairyNZ chairman John Luxton.

FARMERS WERE initially wary of the Milk for Schools scheme because they thought it was charity, Fonterra’s chief executive Theo Spierings told Dairy News.

DAIRY ENTREPRENEUR Peter Cullinane, principal of Lewis Road Creamery, Mangatawhiri, believes Jersey is to milk what Angus is to beef.

FRENCH INTERNATIONAL dairy giant Danone’s third quarter update said it expects Fonterra’s botulism scare to cost it over $1bn in lost sales and extra costs.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA cries of crisis over the so-called buttermilk lake near Taupo again shows how far our townie cousins are from the real world. A lake of buttermilk seems to be perceived as a national environmental disaster up there with the MV Rena.

CALF REARING is not for the fainthearted. It is fraught with risk, hard work, aggravation and distress.

DAIRY NEWS journalists Peter Burke and Pam Tipa were among winners in the 2013 New Zealand Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Communicators awards.

THE OPTIMISM about dairying fuelled by high milk prices is likely to prompt businesses to expand. While it is important that growth options are constantly evaluated, experience has taught me that new investment should only occur after careful consideration so an appropriate balance between growth and consolidation is maintained.