DairyNZ lifts breakeven milk price forecast to $8.68 for 2025/26 season
According to DairyNZ's latest Econ Tracker update, there has been a rise in the forecast breakeven milk price for the 2025/26 season.
The COVID-19 pandemic may change the way farmers attend discussions long term, according to DairyNZ.
With face-to-face discussion groups gone for the moment due to COVID-19, DairyNZ has been quick to embrace the virtual world and tailor webinars and other online tools to assist farmers during the crisis.
DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle says about half their normal discussion groups are now online Zoom discussions. But he says not all farmers want this and some have said they would prefer to wait until face-to-face discussion groups are possible in the future.
He says before DairyNZ runs a discussion session on-line, they consult the local farmers to see if they want to operate in that way. But he says there are some interesting trends with those on-line group discussions that are taking place.
“One interesting thing, and it’s only anecdotal, is that there has been change in the type of people that turn up on-line: some people and groups that tune in are different to the ones that come to the face-to-face meetings.
“There seems to be a slight lift in the number of owner-operators and decisions makers who are participating, which is interesting.
“Whether it’s because they want to know what’s going on or whether it’s because of the shorter format we don’t know, but it’s something that we will tease out,” he says.
On-line webinars in the evening is something that is appealing to some farming couples. While some want to switch off all things farming, others want to switch on and connect with experts offering new information.
“To a great degree a lot of this depends on the topic,” says Mackle.
“We had a ‘smart wintering’ webinar recently and it attracted 350 people online. We also believe there could have been more than one person watching and in some cases it may have been the whole farm team, so that was quite a success.
“In my view, targeted topics with a quality guest speaker is the way of the future. It appears that many people favour a ‘crunchy hour’ in the evening and so we plan to be flexible and deliver whatever our people want and in a format that suits them,” he says.
Mackle says the aim is to get as many people engaged in discussion sessions of one sort or another.
Newly elected Federated Farmers meat and wool group chair Richard Dawkins says he will continue the great work done his predecessor Toby Williams.
Hosted by ginger dynamo Te Radar, the Fieldays Innovation Award Winners Event put the spotlight on the agricultural industry's most promising ideas.
According to DairyNZ's latest Econ Tracker update, there has been a rise in the forecast breakeven milk price for the 2025/26 season.
Despite the rain and a liberal coating of mud, engines roared, and the 50th Fieldays Tractor Pull Competition drew crowds of spectators across the four days of the annual event.
Nationwide rural wellbeing programme, Farmstrong recently celebrated its tenth birthday at Fieldays with an event attended by ambassador Sam Whitelock, Farmers Mutual Group (FMG), Farmstrong partners, and government Ministers.
Six industry organisations, including DairyNZ and the Dairy Companies Association (DCANZ) have signed an agreement with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to prepare the country for a potential foot and mouth outbreak.
OPINION: It's official, Fieldays 2025 clocked 110,000 visitors over the four days.
OPINION: The Federated Farmers rural advocacy hub at Fieldays has been touted as a great success.