Westgold Unsalted Butter won Food for Chefs Champion Butter at the prestigious New Zealand Champions of Cheese awards on Tuesday.

A social worker talking to young farmers isn't what you would call a traditional event at a young farmers conference, but Sally Blackler isn't your average social worker.

Onfarm cash income of farmers from all milk production this season will be under $4/kgMS, according to DairyNZ.

Recently there has been a lot of negative news and comment about economic conditions in China – the slowing growth, a volatile stock market and the decrease in dairy imports.

Westland Milk Products is dropping its forecast payout for this season.

Bucking public perception of dirty dairying – fanned by environmental groups and mainstream media reporting – West Coast dairy farmers have played a big part in cleaning up the biggest waterway in the region.

Another year has almost passed us by – again – and it is time for the annual review of 2015's good, bad and ugly in regards to the primary sector as seen by the Rural News editorial team...

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.

Westland Milk Products chairman Matt O'Regan says it's very hard to predict a payout price given the volatility of the international market.