OPINION: Pastoral farmers stare at the media reports might be forgiven for wondering if they are heading the way of the dinosaurs.

Dairy industry good organisation DairyNZ gets its first woman board chair in October.

South Canterbury dairy farmers were in a tight spot heading into winter because of water shortages through summer and autumn, said the South Canterbury provincial dairy chair James Emmett.

Despite recent rain, drought is forcing Hurunui farmers into some difficult decisions, says Federated Farmers North Canterbury provincial meat and wool chair, Sara Black.

Inflated on-farm costs and low milk payout seems to have become the new norm for farmers, says Waikato Federated Farmers dairy chair Matthew Zonderop.

Farmers are getting more and more data but often struggle to decipher it into strategies, says Watermetrics.

Waikato Milking Systems has unveiled the final production version of its ErgoPOD, a state-of-the-art semi-robotic technology designed to increase milking speed, productivity, and efficiency in the parlour.

"I'm not what you would consider a Formula One farmer, but I must be doing something right,” says Fonterra farmer Francis Smits, who is quick to point out that he and his wife Regina have a simple set up on their Reporoa farm.

Kiwi agri-tech start-up Bovonic, behind the mastitis detection technology QuadSense, has secured a $940,000 capital investment to help get it to dairy farmers sooner.

With farmers facing challenging financial times, a move to deferred grazing is one of many cost-effective systems available to them.