Neal Wallace

A recent flurry of international investments by dairy giant Fonterra has raised questions about its longer-term intentions, especially in Australia.

Shareholders have met the required threshold and plan to call special general meetings of two meat co-operatives in the next four to six weeks to again push for a meat mega merger.

Crown negotiators are including higher rents in tenure-review calculations despite the new rent-setting methodology being the subject of a court case later this year.

Competition has forced fertiliser co-operatives to move from six-monthly to quarterly pricing, but one company is worried farmers may lose out.

Farmers may not feel it, but New Zealand's primary industry is viewed with envy by its counterparts around the world.

The Government is to pump an extra $5.3 million over the next four years into controlling pests and weeds on public land.

The world food crisis is prompting a rethink about the way New Zealand land is managed and its use prioritised.

A meat industry leader is advocating the creation of two dominant processing and marketing companies that would compete in New Zealand but co-operate in selected markets.

Fonterra has reopened the capital structure debate but appears to be adopting a different approach to its earlier proposal that failed.

Up to a dozen dairy farmers could be considering a class action against Fonterra, claiming advice company staff gave them about cashing in their shares cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

PGG Wrightson has sold part of its wool business to specialist fine wool marketer New Zealand Merino, in a move viewed as further restructuring of the ailing wool industry.

High country farmers are once again seeking taxpayer assistance in the battle with rabbits.

Wanaka Agriculture, the country's largest export earner, could disappear under a sea of costs by 2025, under the Government's proposed emissions trading scheme, a report warns.

Up to 600 sheep farms nationally are expected to convert to dairying in the next 15 months, increasing the nation's milking herd by more than 300,000 cows.

Quad bike accidents cost New Zealand $8.3 million in 2007, new research has shown.