Dairy farmers will be bracing for sombre news from Fonterra this Wednesday.

Knee-jerk spending cuts that compromise long-term productivity are a real risk in the face of the $4.50/kgMS payout forecast and probable low opening 2015-16 figure, leading farmers are warning.

Farmers with employees living on their property should be charging them market rates to combat impressions that dairy workers were underpaid, says DairyNZ people team leader Jane Muir.

Farmers should expect “something around $5.00/kgMS” when Fonterra this week announces its opening forecast for the new season.

Farming is a lot more stressful than it used to be, which is why it is more and more important for farmers to know how to keep themselves healthy, according to organisers of the 2015 South Island Dairy Event (SIDE).

Farming innovation of the technology kind will be at the gates of East Coast farmers next April.

As we approach National Fieldays, the foggy season has arrived in Waikato, but it’s not all gloom and doom.

A large-scale dairy farmer, among the first in New Zealand to introduce facial eczema (FE) tolerant genetics into his dairy herd, says they are an “essential tool for dairy farming,” reports CRV Ambreed.

More than 200 people turned up to the field day Maranga Station. Maranga is a typical East Coast hill country sheep and beef property and lies about 30km southwest of Gisborne on the Tiniroto Road.

More bad news for dairy farmers as the latest Global Dairy Trade auction saw the average price index slip by 2.2% to $2,472.