Misguided campaign
OPINION: Last week, Greenpeace lit up Fonterra's Auckland headquarters with 'messages from the common people' - that the sector is polluting the environment.
PRICES FOR dairy products were down 8.9% in the Global Dairy Trade auction overnight.
Whole milk powder was down 8.4% to US$4022 per metric tonne, its lowest level in more than a year.
Skim milk powder was down 9.6% with an average price of US$4126 per metric tonne.
Butter was down 11% to an average price of US$4040/MT.
Other results were: anhydrous milk protein, down 11.3%, average price US$4,062/MT;
butter milk powder down 15%, average price US$4,211/MT; cheddar down 3.5%, average price US$4,438/MT; MPC70 down 4.3%, average price US$8,436/MT; rennet casein index up 5.5%, average price US$11,105.
There were 201 bidders with 167 winners in 11 rounds and 39,653 tonnes of product sold.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).