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The fund will provide advisory services that usually cost $5000.
A new $500,000 fund aims to help farmers and growers better prepare for droughts.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says the fund will provide advisory services that usually cost $5000 to better equip rural businesses with professional and technical advice to help them recover from and prepare for future drought.
O’Connor says, despite some recent rain relief, steady rain at the right time is required to get grass growing again.
He says it will take a long time for farmers to fully recover from the effects of current water shortages and low feed availability as a result of drought. For some farmers, he says this may take a year or more.
Meanwhile, he claims the drought has impacted New Zealand’s competitive advantage overseas by changing the colour of our butter.
“One of the unusual consequences of the drought is already starting to be noticed by consumers – that being the paler colour of our butter.
“New Zealand’s unique pasture-based farming system gives our butter a wonderful yellow colour. The shortage of grass and reliance on supplementary feed has meant our butter has started to turn white. A return to yellow will maintain our competitive advantage in our export markets.”
O’Connor says good advice is key to recovery through drought, and that’s why the fund was created.
“But there are also ongoing, acute issues that need to be addressed with urgency. Access to feed is the biggest acute issue so two feed coordinators are in place as of today, one in the North Island and another in the South, to make sure available feed gets from where it is to where it’s most needed.
“So far this year, the Government has invested $17 million to help drought-stricken regions recover from what many are saying is the worst drought in living memory. It has affected all of the North Island and a good portion of the South.”
With adverse weather set to rain down on the Top of the South, the Bay of Plenty and parts of Northland, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says farmers, foresters, and growers need to prepare for possible challenges.
The grass may be growing again in the drought-stricken coastal area of Taranaki, but the outlook for many farmers there is far from rosy.
Limping towards the end of the season is how Richard Walker describes the situation he's facing due to prolonged drought in coastal areas of Taranaki.
Many contract milkers in badly drought affected regions around the country are coming under severe financial stress and farm owners are being urged to help them through a bad patch until the start of the new season.
With much of the North Island experiencing drought this summer and climate change projected to bring drier and hotter conditions, securing New Zealand’s freshwater resilience is vital, according to state-owned GNS Science.
Fonterra has unveiled the first refrigerated electric truck to deliver dairy products across Auckland.
Research and healthcare initiatives, leadership and dedication to the sector have been recognised in the 2025 Horticulture Industry Awards.
Virtual fencing and pasture management company Halter says its NZ operations has delivered a profit of $2.8 million after exclusion of notional items.
Manuka honey trader Comvita slumped to a $104 million net loss last financial year, reflecting prolonged market disruption, oversupply and pricing volatility.
The Government has struck a deal with New Zealand's poultry industry, agreeing how they will jointly prepare for and respond to exotic poultry diseases, including any possible outbreak of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI).
The conversion of productive farmland into trees has pretty much annihilated the wool industry.
