It was a case of deja vu for Alex and Ann Restieaux. Until 15 years ago, the Clinton farmers grew 100ha of grain a year on their 375ha farm, but then low prices and better fortunes in sheep prompted them to trim back the cropping area and expand their flock.
Meat companies are absorbing the impact on spending power of the world financial meltdown but say they have not yet altered their forecast prices for prime stock.
Sheep farmers will be hoping meat companies are light with their predictions of $80 for lambs this season, with a farm consultant estimating that it would cost at least that much to produce them.
The shift to market rents was designed to encourage pastoral lessees to enter tenure review, it was acknowledged before the Land Valuation Tribunal yesterday.
PGG Wrightson continues to wait for confidence and stability to return to world equity markets so it can secure funding to meet its financial commitment and form a partnership with meat company Silver Fern Farms.
Land valuers had been taking a "pragmatic approach" by not including amenity values when assessing pastoral lease land for rent, even though the law says it should be, the Crown claimed yesterday.
Fifteen prospective farm sales around the country failed last week because of the escalating global credit crisis, with some buyers walking away from deposits worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The country's largest science company is entering the business of human health and medicine.
AgResearch has gone on the offensive in a bid to ensure it continues with genetic modification research.
The Government's $40 million purchase of St James Station in Canterbury is further evidence the Crown has given away its rights to amenity values on Crown pastoral lease land, farmer advocates say.
The $220 million Silver Fern Farms-PGG Wrightson partnership looks to be over before it started, the victim of the global financial meltdown.
Falling global commodity prices have delivered a setback to the booming dairy industry, with Fonterra revising its forecast payout to farmers for next year down by more than $1 per kg of milk solids.
Obituaries may already have been written about what might have been with the Silver Fern Farms-PGG Wrightson partnership, but the parties are fighting to the end to keep it alive.
Consumers are likely to get some relief from high domestic dairy product prices as international prices continue to plummet.
Farmers are emphasising the need for local government to continue managing the region's waterways.
A court injunction was eventually required to get access to the cows being grazed for winter on an Otago farm.
Farmers are digging in for a long fight in their opposition to the national animal identification and traceability project.
Taieri dairy farmer Geoffrey Wilson has been named the southern district regional finalist for the 2008 New Zealand Young Rural Achiever Award.
The expectations dairy farmers have of those wintering their cows has increased in line with the rising cost of grazing.
Last-minute glitches have delayed the scheduled start of a partnership between the meat company Silver Fern Farms and rural servicing company PGG Wrightson.
