Rabobank cuts loan rate
Rabobank New Zealand will reduce the variable base rate on its rural loans by 0.5%, effective from 16 October 2024.
A rosy outlook on sheepmeat needs to be slightly tempered by market realities, one meat company suggests.
A Rabobank report by animal proteins analyst Blake Holgate says prices to late-season October as high as mid $8/kg can be expected. And possibly even higher.
Alliance general manager livestock and shareholder services Heather Stacy says prices are firm in their key markets.
“But we need to be mindful of issues such as Brexit coinciding with our chilled lamb programme for the UK and the wider potential for volatility with foreign exchange levels,” she told Rural News.
“As a cooperative, it is important to us that sheepmeat price levels are sustainable for farmers over the long term.”
Beef + Lamb NZ’s chief economist Andrew Burtt says broadly they agree with Holgate. But BLNZ is a bit more conservative than his “at least as high as the mid $8 mark per kilo we saw last year” for the remainder of the season.
“Our view is that prices will be about $8.40/kg on average for all lambs during the fourth quarter of the meat export season, ie July-September,” Burtt told Rural News.
“We are in the process of preparing our New Season Outlook which considers the factors.”
Holgate says restricted global supplies and strong international demand are set to keep sheepmeat prices at elevated levels,
Holgate said in a recent podcast — New Zealand sheepmeat – Mid-year Outlook — that strong market fundamentals during the current season had given sheep farmers healthy returns in recent months. These fundamentals are set to persist for at least the rest of 2019.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the relationship between New Zealand and the US will remain strong and enduring irrespective of changing administrations.
More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.
The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) says securing more China label registrations and developing its own nutritional manufacturing capability are high on its agenda.
Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.
As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.
Livestock can be bred for lower methane emissions while also improving productivity at a rate greater than what the industry is currently achieving, research has shown.
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