Your old mate sympathises with the plight of the country’s dairy farmers and how the falling payout is impacting their financial stability.

The Hound notes that many commentators and armchair critics are all down in the mouth about the prospects of agriculture and farming at present, especially because of tumbling dairy prices.

Australian farmers are throwing their support behind TPP despite last month’s failure by trade ministers to seal a deal.

The Fonterra Cooperative Support ‘loan’ to be made available to shared-up farmers shows the co-op is optimistic prices will come back, Fonterra chairman John Wilson says.

Fonterra is significantly reducing quantities it will offer on the GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) auction for the next 12 months including a shift away from whole milk powder.

Stu Chapman started his working life as a dairy farmer in Waikato but after contracting leptospirosis he was advised to get away from cattle. That sent him to the other side of the ag sector – the commercial side. 

Standards and Poors has placed Fonterra's 'A' long-term and 'A-1' short-term ratings on creditwatch negative, citing debt issues.

Rural News editor David Anderson asks New Zealand’s special agriculture trade envoy Mike Petersen about what happened at the TPP talks, whether a deal is ever likely and what this would mean for NZ.

Fonterra is brushing off calls to suspend its online dairy auction as a means of arresting the decline in milk powder prices.

KMPG's global head of agribusiness Ian Proudfoot believes the flow-on effects of the present dairy crisis could run into the next decade.