FONTERRA CHAIRMAN John Wilson says a decision to defer capacity adjustment charges will help drought-stricken farmers.

THE MAORI dairy company Miraka, at Taupo, stole the limelight on John Key’s trade mission to China last week in Shanghai when it signed a joint venture deal to produce UHT milk for the new owners of the Crafar farms, Shanghai Pengxin.

DROUGHT RAVAGED farmers are turning to ANZ for financial relief and assistance.

UP TO 60,000ha in Wairarapa could be irrigated within a decade if plans by Greater Wellington Regional Council and other parties come to fruition.

PRIMARY INDUSTRIES Minister Nathan Guy says though much of the country is now in a ‘green drought’ phase, overall the drought has been very ‘patchy’.

PAHIATUA DAIRY farmer David Swansson says farmers need to be better prepared to deal with events such as droughts, floods and storms. After getting caught a few years ago he vowed never to let it happen again.

RECORD ENTRIES in this year’s Dairy Industry Awards, which wrapped up late last week with the West Coast/Top of the South region, were achieved despite a record low in Otago.

CAN CANTERBURY repeat its clean sweep of the Dairy Industry Awards come the national event in Wellington in May? That question was posed at last week’s Canterbury / North Otago regional final awards night in Ashburton, prompted by the region’s representatives having taken all three titles last year.

NEWS THAT Miraka has signed a multimillion-dollar, joint-venture deal with Shanghai Pengxin to produce UHT milk shows how smart our small, entrepreneurial companies can be. 

MOST DAIRY farms are only slowly emerging from the drought that has been a sharp shock to farm management plans this summer. For most farms the production season has ended abruptly, and prospects for autumn and winter have been affected dramatically.