Fonterra Lifts Farmgate Milk Price
Good news for Fonterra farmers. The co-op has raised this season’s farmgate milk price mid-point by 25c to $9.75/kgMS.
OPINION: Finance Minister Nicola Willis could have saved her staff and MBIE time and effort over ‘buttergate’ recently by not playing politics with butter prices in the first place.
Despite already knowing, from her time as a Fonterra executive, that international commodity prices drive the domestic price of dairy products, Willis had her staff urgently press officials for international dairy price comparisons in the hours before her meeting with Fonterra’s chief executive.
Emails obtained by RNZ under the Official Information Act show a last-minute scramble for hard data prior to the performative meeting she arranged to “look into” butter prices.
On the day before Willis was due to sit down with Miles Hurrell, the minister’s private secretary John Creech asked the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) for “some facts and figures... so that the Minister has solid info”.
Dunedin-based company MastaPlex, which provides on-farm mastitis diagnostic platform globally, has named a new independent director.
An independent importer says National’s fertiliser security policy will only work if protects all players.
Nesting birds are behind around $1.2 million worth of tractor fire claims every year, according to rural insurer FMG, which is urging farmers to check under the bonnet before starting work.
Having Ravensdown as the naming rights sponsor of the Canterbury A&P Show demonstrates their confidence in the show as a long-term venture, says Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association (CAPA) board chair Sir David Carter.
OPINION: As election day looms, rural NZ seems to have pressed the pause button – held somewhat in limbo on an orange light.
Will drones be the answer to tackling the problem of wasp and hornet nests high up in trees and other inaccessible places?
OPINION: It seems Canterbury processor Synlait is still in the doldrums.
OPINION: Get offside with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters at your own peril.