Editorial: Support, don't stifle farmers
OPINION: Ministry for Primary Industries' situation outlook for primary industries report (SOPI) makes impressive reading.
A Mid Canterbury farmer who has already lost his dairy herd to Mycoplasma bovis believes MPI is repeating the mistakes it made last year.
Frank Peters says the region’s farmers are “just bloody up in arms” about the surge in M. bovis notifications.
Peters says MPI was told last year to make sure it had everything done before the change of season, yet here was a surge happening at the start of May.
“Suddenly now they’re hot on the case again? Well, come on, you’re supposed to be on it all the way through,” he told Rural News.
Peters has restocked after destroying 1220 cows last year. Although his farm is self-contained with its own winter grazing, he says the new insecurity for those who needed winter grazing, and for the graziers, was “horrendous”.
Meanwhile, he is still waiting for compensation money “but that seems to be normal practice”.
“That seems to be the worst part about it,” Peters added. “They say compensation is like-for-like, but we will never ever be like-for-like when they finish this.”
Questions are being raised about just how good the state of the dairy industry is - especially given that the average farmgate payout for the coming season is set to exceed $10/kgMS.
A leading financial and banking advisor says he doubts if most dairy farmers fully understand the dynamics of banking.
Dairy farmers are shoring up their balance sheets, with almost $1.7 billion of debt repaid in the six months to March 2025.
Virtual fencing company Halter is going global but for founder Craig Piggott, New Zealand farmers will always remain their main partners.
A former Fonterra executive is the new chair of the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ).
New Federated Farmers national dairy chair Karl Dean is looking forward to tackling the issues facing the sector.
OPINION: A last-minute compromise ensured that the election of the new Federated Farmers national dairy chair wasn't a repeat of…
OPINION: Just as it's healthy for cockies to get out of the shed and off the farm occasionally to get…