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ASB head of rural banking Aidan Gent is encouraging farmers to speak to their banks when they are struggling.
An $8/kgMS farm gate milk price is still on the cards with less than six weeks left to run this season.
Last week's subdued Global Dairy Trade (GDT) event wasn't a surprise, according to ASB economist Nat Keall.
"We'd been anticipating a relatively flat event, so the result has few implications for the current season - already in a well-advanced stage - or our early thoughts on the next one," he says. "In general, dairy prices remain heavily range-bound, with an absence of clear direction evident since prices rebounded from the lows they fell to mid last year."
Keall notes that little has happened to radically reshape the global dairy market, and to the extent that dynamics have shifted, different price drivers have moved to offset one another.
"All-up, we still feel comfortable with our $8/kgMS forecast for the current season and our $8.30/kgMS forecast for 2024/25. Risks to next season's forecast look reasonably balanced in our view for now.
"With 2024/25 milk price futures currently trading around $8.45/kgMS, up from nearer $8 when we launched our forecast, hedging some output at that kind of price could be prudent, given the balanced skew of risks."
Trade Minister Todd McClay says New Zealand has no intention of backing down in a trade dispute with Canada over dairy products.
There have been leadership changes at the Hamilton-based Dairy Goat Co-operative, which has been struggling financially in recent years.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
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Another 16 commercial beef farmers have been selected to take part in the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme designed to help drive the uptake of genetics in the industry.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Kiwi exporters will be $100 million better off today as the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) comes into force.
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