Neal Wallace

South Canterbury Finance has been placed on a negative credit watch by ratings agency Standard and Poor's just a month after the company had a rating downgrade from BBB- to BB+.

Wool prices at last Thursday's South Island wool sale fell by up to 6% in response to the strengthening exchange rate.

One of the few remaining textile research centres in the southern hemisphere is watching with some concern for signs the wool industry can achieve unity now farmers have voted no longer to pay a sector levy.

Silver Fern Farms has extended by three weeks the deadline for its share exchange and cash issue offer, but concedes the $12 million in new shareholder capital confirmed as of Thursday night, was "at the low end of what we envisaged".

The median sale price of southern farms has fallen significantly in the past year, substantiating anecdotal evidence that dairy farmers have put their chequebooks away.

First there was carbon foot-printing, then food miles, and soon the world's consumers will be told how much water was used to produce their food.

Fine wool growers are in for a tough 12 to 18 months as the recession sees the auction price for some wool types $4 to $5 a kg less than a year ago.

A high exchange rate looks to be taking the cream off what should be a profitable year for farmers.

The New Zealand lamb industry had the choice of taking a leadership role and enjoying the benefits of supplying affluent customers or being just another player in the lamb-export scene.

Diet and pre-slaughter management have been well documented as influencing the taste and tenderness of lamb, but research is under way to look also at the effect of genetics.

A leading sharebroker has wiped more than a third off its valuation of listed rural servicing company PGG Wrightson, saying unanswered questions in its full-year result had created uncertainty.