$10/kgMS milk price tipped for strong 2025/26 season start
The 2025-26 season is set to start on a high and a $10/kgMS opening forecast milk price isn't being ruled out.
The US trade war with China poses a risk for New Zealand, says ANZ’s chief economist, Sharon Zollner.
Speaking at a business forum last week on the Kapiti Coast, she said the risk for NZ is how much the trade war impacts on the Chinese economy. A possible problem for NZ would be its effects on people’s incomes and their ability to pay for farm products.
And this is occurring at the same time as the Chinese economy is slowing, Zollner says.
“Their authorities have lots of levers they can pull that other countries don’t have, but we are now seeing them loosening up on monetary policy in allowing more lending, and on fiscal policy.
“And they have made a tax cut, so that will support their economy in the near term.
“That is the glass-half-full view; the glass-half-empty view is ‘what are they seeing in their economy that they are trying to offset? and what does that mean for NZ?”
Zollner says in trade terms NZ is more tied to the hip of China than ever before. She says while other markets in Asia are opening up, China remains the most important one for NZ.
She points to dairying’s many challenges – M.bovis, the weather and fluctuations in dairy prices, and she notes the fall in last week’s GDT was the ninth in the last twelve auctions.
“So I guess you can call that a trend,” she says.
A huge challenge facing the dairy industry in the long term will be meeting the Productivity Commission’s proposed low emission regime, Zollner says. With the whole agricultural model set to change, including a reduction in cows, that will make for interesting times.
“The dream is sustainable and profitable but there is a lot of road between here and there,” she says.
Fieldays 2025 opens this week with organisers saying the theme, 'Your Place', highlights the impact the event has on agriculture both in the Southern Hemisphere and across the globe.
Sam Carter, assistant manager for T&G's Pakowhai Sector, has been named the Hawke's Bay 2025 Young Grower of the Year.
The CEO of Apples and Pears NZ, Karen Morrish, says the strategic focus of her organisation is to improve grower returns.
A significant breakthrough in understanding facial eczema (FE) in livestock brings New Zealand closer to reducing the disease’s devastating impact on farmers, animals, and rural communities.
Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.
OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).
OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.
OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…