THE RABOBANK GLOBAL cattle price index has risen by 6% since June, driven by lower-than-expected beef supply in the main exporting countries and strong Asian demand.

FARM SALES WERE up 47.3% (133 farms) for the three months ending November 2013, compared to the same period in the previous year, says the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

NEW ZEALAND FARMER confidence has continued to edge higher, with the latest quarterly Rabobank survey showing more than half of the country's farmers are looking forward to a 'happy new year' in 2014.

FARM SALES WERE up 47.3% (133 farms) for the three months ending November 2013, compared to the same period in the previous year, says the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ).

PRICES RECEIVED BY New Zealand producers, as measured by the output producers price index (PPI), rose 2.4% in the September 2013 quarter, Statistics New Zealand says.

MEAT INDUSTRY Excellence (MIE) chairman John McCarthy says his group wants sheep and beef farmers to return to supplying their meat to the co-operatives 

PLANNING AND flexibility are the key to succeeding despite severe weather and economic disasters, attendees at a Northland Beef and Lamb field day were told recently.

VISITORS AT the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards’ 2012  supreme winner’s field day last month may well have felt somewhat ‘blown away’, in more ways than one.

IN THE year 2000, the 805ha (270ha effective) Whatawhata Hill Country Research Farm run by AgResearch was providing no more than 2% return on capital. There were significant erosion problems and its dense, 20km network of streams carried sediment, nitrogen and E.coli to the Waikato River. What remnants of native woodland remained had low biodiversity and bare ground underneath from animal access.

FEDERATED FARMERS Dairy chairman Willie Leferink says he can understand Japanese dairy farmers’ opposition to free trade.