"Environmental champions" Richard and Dianne Kidd are supreme winners of the inaugural Auckland Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

Growing up in urban South Auckland seems a world apart from working with South Island farmers.

Fresh from two years out in the paddock as a dairy farm manager, Josh Verhoek is now back on the Ballance Agri-Nutrients Science Extension Team.

Resilient, innovative and hard-working growers Graham and Marian Hirst are Supreme winners of the 2016 East Coast Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

Global fertiliser prices are slumping – good news for cash-strapped farmers.

Fertiliser maker Ballance says it will continue to absorb the impact of a weaker New Zealand dollar and hold prices for most major nutrients through December.

New Zealand's shift from a pasture-based model to high feed-input dairy farms will come under the microscope in a joint research project.

With predictions the El Nino will continue through summer, Ballance says now is the time to proceed with a pasture and stock feed programme.

Ballance Agri-Nutrients achieved record sales for its financial year ended 31 May 2015.

Soil tests should be the first step for farmers trying to manage budgets while maintaining pasture productivity, says fertiliser co-op Ballance.