NEW ZEALAND FARMER confidence has continued to edge higher, with the latest quarterly Rabobank survey showing more than half of the country's farmers are looking forward to a 'happy new year' in 2014.

THE COMMERCE Commission's decision to issue legal proceedings against three major banks over their sales of interest rate swap contracts to rural customers is great news, says Damien O'Connor, Labour spokesperson for Primary Industries.

FARMERS NEED to keep pressure on reform in the meat industry, says MIE chairman John McCarthy.

NEW ZEALAND YOUNG Farmers vice-chairman Cam Lewis (right) was runner up at the recent trans-Tasman Rural Ambassador competition in Feilding.

ONLY DAYS ARE left to enter the 2014 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards and collect some of the $710,000 in cash and prizes on offer.

ANOTHER TWO Meat Industry Excellence group-backed director candidates have been elected to a meat company board making it three from three for the reform lobby.

COULD FONTERRA, and indeed other processors, be about to announce a Christmas bonus in the form of a raised payout forecast?

AUSTRALIAN DAIRY co-op Murray Goulburn recently announced plans to alter its structure to allow it to source external equity capital.  As the MG board and management get on the road to explain their intentions and the new features, it is likely this move will be met with some of the traditional resistance.

AGRIBUSINESS EXPERT Ian Proudfoot, KPMG, is sounding a warning about the direction the European countries, especially the Irish, are heading with their dairy industries. 

HOW TO reach a level of performance that matches medal winning athletics and world champion sports teams will be discussed at the Dairy Women’s Network annual conference in March 2014.