Strong growth in farm salaries - report
A new report shows farm employers across the dairy, sheep and beef, and arable sectors have continued to invest strongly in one of their greatest assets – their staff.
A glimmer of hope for the country's dairy farmers under siege from a myriad negative challenges including rising input costs, interest rates, state-sponsored regulations and falling commodity prices.
Rabobank senior agri analyst, Emma Higgins told Dairy News that it appears there may be some sort of silver lining coming up later this year and into next year.
Her remarks breathe some hope into a situation where a recent survey by the bank shows that dairy farmers are more pessimistic than ever about the broader agri economy. Higgins says it's not just the high-level issues that are affected dairy farmer morale, but also the problems they are encountering on their farms such as labour issues and adverse weather events.
But Higgins says there are signs of better things to come.
"I think what we are potentially going to see is more positive margins for dairy farmers in the new season, such as respite on the farm input cost side of things. We are seeing, for example, fertiliser prices lower in response to global benchmark prices and we are expecting to see improved commodity prices come through in the second half of this year," she says.
Higgins says there are signs of demand coming from China, but the hope is that overall demand for dairy products will increase as well. But she adds that there are still some potential challenges ahead with NZ, Europe and the USA increasing their milk production.
"What we are seeing out of the northern hemisphere is that they are moving towards their season milk curve so they are really starting to hit their straps over the coming weeks. As a result, we are seeing some improved milk production come out of the EU and the US and so any surplus milk could add pressures on global dairy prices," she says.
The other side of the equation is that grain prices may continue to rise due to the war in Ukraine and that will affect input costs in Europe. But while there is potentially some good news on the horizon, dairy farmers remain down in the dumps, and it will take more good news to lift their morale.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says New Zealand has no intention of backing down in a trade dispute with Canada over dairy products.
There have been leadership changes at the Hamilton-based Dairy Goat Co-operative, which has been struggling financially in recent years.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
OPINION: In recent years farmers have been crying foul of unworkable and expensive regulations.
Another 16 commercial beef farmers have been selected to take part in the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme designed to help drive the uptake of genetics in the industry.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Kiwi exporters will be $100 million better off today as the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) comes into force.
OPINION: Canterbury milk processor Synlait is showing no sign of bouncing back from its financial doldrums.
OPINION: It seems every bugger in this country can get an award these days.