Farmgate prices rise as farmers rebuild confidence
Sheep and beef farmers are cautiously optimistic as farmgate prices continue to firm.
Lamb prices look set to bottom out just below $7/kg as the end of the season nears, according to ASB senior rural economist Nathan Penny.
Prices have fallen more than they normally do at this time of year but, given the record highs reached in the spring, prices are bottoming out at a healthy level, Penny notes in ASB Commodities Weekly report.
Looking ahead, ASB expects prices to peak in spring 2019 in the high $7/kg range.
“The underlying tight supply conditions that boosted last year’s prices look set to continue though weather and therefore feed availability remain swing factors as they normally are,” he says.
“If last year’s peak prices took out the gold medal, it follows that this spring may be in line for silver.”
Demand remains strong in the US and firm in China, but traditional markets like the UK and EU continue to lose importance.
“We will be keeping an eye on how Chinese demand holds up amid hints of a slowdown, with Beijing recently dropping its GDP growth target to 30-year low. But all up, we expect a second-successive season of healthy lamb returns.”
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.