Farmers cautiously welcome local government reforms – Ag First

He says, at a high level, most farmers seem to be comfortable with simplifying the burden of multiple layers of bureaucracy, but he adds that it will be some time before there is clarity around what the changes will look like.

He says while regional councillors may disappear, the functions performed the regional councils won’t go away.

“At the end of the day, regional councils have a role to play in managing a whole lot of things, including environment, and that role won’t go away,” he says.

Meanwhile, Allen says overall dairy production around the country is going well. He says the North Island is pretty good, with just a red flag around Hawke’s Bay which is experiencing very dry conditions.

“But in reality, there are not many dairy farmers in that area,” he says.

Allen says the storms in Southland did cause problems but overall the impact of these will not have a massive effect on total production. He adds however that some of the farms around Hurunui in Canterbury will have problems given the damage to their large irrigators.

“There will be isolated farms that will be severely impacted but it’s going to come down to the individual farm rather than total NZ dairy production,” he says.

Allen says the mood of most dairy farmers is still positive. He says the drop in the milk price was not unexpected, most people saw it coming, so it came as no great surprise. He says overall farmers are in a good frame of mind and he notes that in the Waikato there’s been some good rain, so pasture growth rates are pretty good and so is the quality of the grass.

“What we are seeing is that a bit more late silage is being made, which is good sign,” he says.