New Zealand appears to have lost its ability to influence global dairy prices, says Rabobank analyst Thomas Bailey.

This morning's announcement by Fonterra to drop its forecast payout will lump more pressure on dairy farmers and they will be counting down the days to end of the season.

Fonterra has dropped its forecast farmgate milk price for the 2015-16 season from $4.15/kgMS to $3.90/kgMS.

The president of Shanghai Pengxin Investments in New Zealand, Terry Lee, says the company's future investment in the NZ dairy industry is being thwarted.

A new training facility for aspiring dairy farmers and herd and farm managers in the central North Island has its first intake of students.

Sixty new dairy process jobs were created when Fonterra opened four plants in the South Island recently.

The world has changed and we need to understand that, says Mike Petersen, special agricultural trade envoy.

The $8.40/kgMS payout was probably the worst thing that happened to the dairy industry, says family corporate farmer Trevor Hamilton.

Former Fonterra director Greg Gent says grass will become fashionable again as the effects of lower dairy prices continue.

The eight organisations that formed a Bobby Calf Action Group at the end of 2015 are well advanced on a range of initiatives ensuring best practice handling and management of bobby calves.