DAIRY
Rain relief for the top half of the north has eased drought fears but with pasture quality easing with the arrival of seedheads, grazing rotation lengths should start to be extended.
In the deep south and west of both islands October rainfall has been plentiful and warm temperatures have seen NZ’s milk production 5-6% ahead of last year.
Dairy NZ advisers are encouraging managers to feed young stock well, use plenty of bulls after AB is finished, and watch lowering moisture levels to ensure early feed management decisions are made.
Most irrigators appear to be fixed in Canterbury and are operating full on as Show week marks the traditional start of hot drying north westers.
The University of Otago has developed a new product for the control of mastitis in dairy cows and farmers will eagerly await it’s end of next year’s release.
This disease causes big productivity losses and adds a considerable cost to animal health bills so a new approach that lowers the incidence will be very welcome to dairy managers.
On the back of the rising global supply of dairy commodities, auction prices fell to a 3 month low led by a big drop for whole milk powders.
These price levels are however still 40% ahead of last year and with an increasing amount of product sold forward projected price prediction still appear sound.
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However Fonterra has announced a $157 million loss provision for its key added value products such as cheese and casein because of the strong milk prices, and units in the Fonterra Shareholders Fund dropped to yearly lows.
The conflict often talked about when the outside investment issue was discussed is coming to fruition, on the balancing act of paying full value for the price of milk for farmer producers and ensuring a good return is paid for investors in the added value side of the business when milk prices are strong.
Optimism abounds for dairy’s future in Mid Canterbury where a record price of $45,000/ha was paid for a 200ha border-dyked irrigation farm to be used for dairy support.
And in Australia, Fonterra buys Tamar Valley Dairy in a continuing expansion push.
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