Taranaki economy shifts from oil and gas to dairy as leading export
The Taranaki region is enjoying one of the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita figures in New Zealand, thanks to high farmgate dairy prices.
The Ministry for Primary Industries' (MP) head of their On-Farm Support Team, Dr John Roche, says the declaration of a drought or adverse event is a recognition that things are tough in a region such as Taranaki.
He says MPI has been working with other organisations such as Beef + Lamb NZ, DairyNZ and the local Rural Support Trust to run seminars on how to deal with the dry conditions, and social occasions to get farmers to meet and support each other.
Roche says different groups of people are affected in different ways.
"For example, your dairy farmer has a good milk price to look forward to and so does your sharemilker, but your contract milker is depending on the milk coming in to get their revenue. So we are just trying to cater for all the different people who will be differently affected," he says.
He says while sheep and beef farmers have little supplement, they tend to react more quickly, for example, destocking, when the drought starts to appear.
"The idea of a declaration is that it recognises that it has been much drier than a normal summer," he says.
Roche was at the Northland Field Days recently and says conditions are very dry on the west coast of the north.
He says the area around Dargaville is very dry and farmers there have been feeding out for the past couple of months.
Fonterra has increased its 2024/25 forecast Farmgate Milk Price from $10/kgMS to $10.15/kgMS.
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Farmer lobby group Federated Farmers has announced it is supporting a new Member’s Bill which it says could bring clarity to New Zealand farmers and save millions in legal costs.
DairyNZ has announced the date for its upcoming Milksolids Levy vote.
Federated Farmers says climate protest group Greenpeace is manufacturing outrage and attempting to scare New Zealanders with headlines that have no basis in science.
New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) says it is supporting importer Goodfood Group in its decision to recall Food Snob and Mon Ami brand French Brie and Camembert cheeses.
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