The weak NZ dollar is providing an unexpected windfall for the country’s sheep and beef farmers.

Every meal we eat costs the planet 10kgs of soil, 800 litres of fresh water and 1.3 litres of diesel fuel, says science writer Julian Cribb.

Wool markets remain steady with the latest sale seeing increases of 1 to 2% overall, says NZWSI general manager, John Dawson.

Farmers planning to meet new milk cooling regulations from 2017 are offered a new means of doing so.

The world's cheese business was worth US$216 billion last year, and in four years should be worth US$237b, says market research company Canadean. 

A Chinese-Russian joint venture plans to build a 100,000-cow dairy farm in northern China, but one analyst has serious doubts the project will achieve such scale.

Chinese-owned independent processor Oceania Dairy will be exporting infant formula from its Glenavy plant in South Canterbury by the end of this year.

Oversupply is still the underlying weakness affecting dairy prices, says ASB rural economist Nathan Penny.

Jittters over the Chinese stock market were behind the 10.7% drop in the overall Global Dairy Trade price index last week, giving some hope of a minor bounceback, says one economist.

In the first quarter of this year New Zealand’s beef exports were worth NZ$1 billion, according to meat industry blog MeatExportNZ.