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DairyNZ general manager of farm performance Sarah Speight.
Dairy farmers are seemingly more upbeat than they were three months ago but how long this positivity remains seems to depend on what the new Government does in the coming months.
So says Sarah Speight, DairyNZ's general manager of farm performance. She says the election of the new Government is playing a big part in the positive mood of farmers, along with the stabilisation of world dairy prices. But at the same time, she says farmers are particularly worried about the way that the new freshwater regulations are being implemented by regional councils around the country.
She says the limit setting process that is coming through from councils is a big worry - especially in places such as Southland, Canterbury, Manawatū, and Waikato.
"Some of these things are unworkable for farmers. There is a real hope that the incoming Government with its strong agricultural understanding around the caucus table will help with that and sort it out. But while farmers are positive they are wary about how much the new Government can get done in a reasonable timeframe," she says.
Speight says she's not sure that some of the councils know what the limit settings are going to mean for farmers and that is a worry. She says Northland, Southland and Otago are high on the radar for DairyNZ.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
OPINION: The dairy sector has been told that it cannot afford to rest on its laurels.
The dairy industry cannot rest on its laurels despite providing one in every four export dollars earned by the country, says DairyNZ chief executive Campbell Parker.
Increased competition for water means the whole community is looking at how irrigators use water.
Analysis of decades of research has revealed the implementation of good farming practices plays a critical role in reducing nutrient losses to improve freshwater outcomes.
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson says his party – NZ First - isn’t opposed to the “trade element” of a free trade deal with India.
The managing director of a company seeking to build a solar farm in Canterbury says receiving fast-track approval is a “really positive outcome”.
Retiring MP and dairy farmer Mark Cameron is blasting the Green Party for proposing to ban the use of synthetic fertiliser and cutting cow numbers.
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Wayne and Ange Moxham of Horowhenua have just been named as Fonterra's top organic performer for milksolids. As well as providing organic milk to Fonterra, the couple also sell Udderly Organic milk to more than 100 outlets in the region and are embarking on another exciting venture producing organic gelato. Reporter Peter Burke went along to see their farming operation.
Certainty and a clear understanding of the needs of rural communities is a critical outcome in the series of government reforms that are taking place at present.
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