Fonterra's Whareroa Wins Directors Award
Fonterra's Whareroa site took home the prestigious Directors Award at the co-op's 'Oscars of Manufacturing', while Clandeboye led the way with multiple wins at this year's Best Site Cup.
Growth has been debated at the Fonterra board table and the directors’ view now is that the co-op will not see the huge growth of the past, says director Brent Goldsack.
Environmental constraints could be the limiting factor.
“Things around water and nutrients: we will get a very good handle on that,” he told the Northland Dairy Development Trust’s annual meeting in Whangarei last week.
“But as we look at gases – whether methane or nitrous oxide -- that’s much harder.”
Methane may be a little easier but generally it gets harder, Goldsack said.
Over 35 years production has increased threefold but the co-op won’t be getting that growth in the future, he says. With genetics and science he is confident farming will consistently improve.
“As a board I think we are saying [growth] is probably going to be relatively flat — certainly for the foreseeable future.”
Goldsack says he is worried at the prospect of a payout of $7/kgMS or better next year because at that price people start getting ahead of themselves and do things they later regret.
“The Europeans, the Americans… they would much rather be where we are today and this is our third year in the mid $6/kgMS. It’s been a nice spot for the co-op over the last three years.”
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
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.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.