Editorial: Agri's mojo is back
OPINION: Good times are coming back for the primary industries. From sentiment expressed at Fieldays to the latest rural confidence survey results, all indicate farmer confidence at a near-record high.
Beyond Massey University’s cheeseboard at Fieldays was the objective of promoting sheep milking.
Associate professor Craig Prichard, a driving force in promoting the new industry, spent all his time at Fieldays handing out samples of an ever-popular smoothie made from sheep milk.
He says Massey is trying to get people used to sheep milk as a food.
“There is an historic gap in New Zealanders’ palette in respect of sheep milk,” Prichard told Rural News. “That’s why we have been doing a smoothie, which is a very popular food.”
And people were able to add their own flavours, which was popular.
Spring Sheep Dairy, which runs a big sheep milking farm in the central North Island, was also on the stand talking to farmers about setting up to milk sheep.
“Sheep dairy is no longer a novelty but we need to build supply now,” Prichard says. “While we have proven markets, NZ still has only 16 significant sheep milk farmers. This this is just a pimple on the side of the dairy industry and we need to ramp that up.”
He says chefs are excited about sheep milk and how it can be used as an ingredient for other dishes, hence the need to think of sheep milk beyond the cheese board.
NZers are good at eating cheese, but getting cheese into foods and developing it as an ingredient is also important, Prichard says.
Questions are being raised about just how good the state of the dairy industry is - especially given that the average farmgate payout for the coming season is set to exceed $10/kgMS.
A leading financial and banking advisor says he doubts if most dairy farmers fully understand the dynamics of banking.
Dairy farmers are shoring up their balance sheets, with almost $1.7 billion of debt repaid in the six months to March 2025.
Virtual fencing company Halter is going global but for founder Craig Piggott, New Zealand farmers will always remain their main partners.
A former Fonterra executive is the new chair of the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ).
New Federated Farmers national dairy chair Karl Dean is looking forward to tackling the issues facing the sector.
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