Global Dairy Trade Recovery Puts $9.50 Milk Price Within Reach
A solid recovery of global dairy prices this year makes a $9.50/kgMS milk price almost a shoo-in for this season.
New Zealand’s fledgling dairy goat industry is in turmoil.
Milk payout has slumped 30% over the past three years, forcing some dairy goat farmers to sell up.
The infant formula market in China has been changing. Updated regulations governing the manufacture of infant formula in China, which has increased trust in domestically produced products, along with a falling birth rate, have led to a drop in demand for imported infant formula.
Covid-19 had only accelerated changes that had been taking place over the last two-to-three years. Sales of infant formula through the ‘Daigou’ channel - cross border trading by visitors and international students from China - have also dried up over the past three years.
Waikato farmer Kevin Schuler, who milks cows, goats and sheep on adjoining properties, says dairy goat farmers are facing a tough time.
Schuler says everyone is working hard on farm, at the company level (NZ Dairy Goat Co-operative), and at board level.
NZDGC chief executive David Hemara told Rural News that the co-operative was currently meeting and updating shareholders on market conditions.
“We haven’t completed our current trading year or announced a final season payout to shareholders.”
New Zealand's diverse cheesemaking talent shone brightly last night as the New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) crowned the champions of the 2026 New Zealand Cheese Awards.
Tracing has indicated that the source of the first velvetleaf find of the 2025-26 crop season, in Auckland, was likely maize purchased in the Waikato region.
Fish & Game New Zealand has announced its election priorities in its Manifesto 2026.
With the forage maize harvest started in Northland and the Waikato, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is telling growers of later crops, or those further south, to start checking their maize crop maturity about three weeks prior to when they think they will start silage harvesting.
Irrigation NZ is warning that the government's Resource Management Act (RMA) reform risks falling short of its objectives unless water use for food production and water storage infrastructure are clearly recognised in the goals at the top of the new system.
More than five million trays, or 18,000 tonnes, of Zespri’s RubyRed Kiwifruit will soon be available for consumers across 16 markets this season.