The West Coast is a challenging place to live and farm. High rainfall is a feature of the region and it has always struggled to develop a strong economic base. Isolation is another issue.

Westland Milk Products chairman Matt O'Regan is a burn and bred West Coaster.

Synlait founder and former Purata chief executive Juliet Maclean have teamed up with two former colleagues to create NZ's first technology-based health and safety system for farmers.

The importance of strong country of origin labelling reform has been highlighted by a recent international health scare, with four cases of hepatitis A being linked to frozen berries.

Opportunistic buyers taking advantage of low prices were probably behind last week's 3.6% overall rise in the GlobalDairyTrade (GDT), says Rabobank research analyst Emma Higgins.

With the silly, busy season about to happen – and with margins tighter than ever – it might be worth considering a few salient points to save fuel in the trusty farm tractor.

A North Otago red meat producer and a Marlborough green-lipped mussel grower have both won Lincoln University Foundation's South Island Farmer of the Year competition.

The recent slowdown in Chinese demand for live dairy heifers has many NZ exporters and traders questioning if the boom period is over.

The Fieldays 2015 Economic Impact report reveals the events contributes $166m to the GDP of New Zealand and $53m to Waikato.

"We already have low-emission climate-friendly farming practices – it's called organic farming," says Marion Thomson, co-chair of Soil & Health.