Moxham Family's Organic Milk Now Comes as Gelato
Horowhenua organic dairy farmers Ange and Wayne Moxham have taken their business to a new level.
Fonterra has responded to recent jumps in global dairy prices and lower domestic milk collection by lifting its forecast milk price mid-point by 50c/kgMS.
The co-operative’s new forecast farmgate milk price range for this season is $6.50 to $8/kgMS.
Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell says the improved outlook reflects both supply and demand dynamics.
“Here in New Zealand we’re forecasting collections to be slightly below last season, while aggregate milk growth in key export countries is expected to be below average for FY24,” he says.
“The El Niño weather pattern may have further impacts on supply, and this could be driving recent buyer sentiment.
“On the demand side, we have seen increases in recent Global Dairy Trade events. While this has been encouraging, it is not yet clear whether the stronger demand from China will be sustained. For other key regions, customers remain relatively cautious in terms of their forward purchases.
“It’s still early days in terms of the proportion of our FY24 sales book that we’ve contracted, so we still face significant exposure to volatility in commodity prices.”
Dairy prices on GDT rose for the third consecutive time last week with flagship whole milk powder price rising nearly 5% in the last auction.
Hurrell says exchange rate volatility is another factor to keep in mind.
“Our foreign exchange hedging strategy is designed to help lessen the impact of this, and also supports a higher Advance Rate level than would be possible without hedging.
“We’ll continue to let our farmers and the market know as soon as we can when we think things have materially shifted,” says Hurrell.
Oamaru-based livestock handling specialist Te Pari has bought Combi Clamp, the New Zealand manufacturer of Combi Clamp manual sheep handlers.
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has admitted that a scheme bringing workers from Pacific nations to work on orchards has become too hard to navigate but says changes are coming.
A new app designed in New Zealand aims to help sheep, beef and deer farmers capture, analyse and use body condition score data more effectively.
Canterbury farmer Andy Macfarlane has been appointed to the board of AgriZeroNZ, the public-private partnership designed to accelerate the development and deployment of emissions reduction tools for New Zealand farmers.
For over 50 years Mel Ewers has been supporting the apple sector navigate through compliance and quality assurance issues.
The apple sector is enjoying a bumper harvest season.
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