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RNZ News
a day ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Farmers 'going hell for leather' to take advantage of high prices
Rosalind Crickett said it looked like dairy farmers were "going hell for leather" as they took advantage of high milk prices. Photo: 123rf Some milk processing factories are bursting at the seams as huge volumes of milk are trucked to their plants, according to a dairy analyst at NZX. Rosalind Crickett says there was a record collection of milk solids last month - nearly 18 percent more than the same time last year. It was also nearly 12.5 percent higher than the last five years' average. Crickett said it looked like dairy farmers were also "going hell for leather" as they took advantage of high milk prices. Crickett described June's national milk collections as "off to a flying start" with 23,956,000kg of milk solids collected - a record for the month and surpassing expectations. While off a low base, the figure marked a 17.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) leap on June 2024, and a 14.8 percent improvement on the previous record (June 2022). There were 261,000 tonnes of milk collected in June, also a record, with the figure up 14.6 percent YoY and up 9.9 percent on the rolling average of 238,000 tonnes. This month's milk supply was also expected to be up by 10 percent, partly due to lush pasture growth particularly in the South Island, where not as many farmers dry off at this time of the year compared to further north. Butter - getting expensive. Photo: Margaret Jaszowska for Unsplash But would so much milk arriving at processing plants lead to a drop in the price of locally sold butter for consumers ? Crickett said that would depend on how much milk was able to be processed in other countries next month and sold in international auctions at the same time as New Zealand. "If there is not as much in the northern hemisphere, it's because we are seeing drought across Europe impacting their grain production for cattle feed. And we are seeing water supply issues as well. "That will be a price support for New Zealand products because they are going to need to export more to make up for that deficit globally." She said grass conditions seemed to be set up well for the spring flush with an overwhelming abundance of moisture in the ground, but avoiding pugging damage may become a headache for farmers before then. However, the large quantity of milk produced was expected to continue, and Cricket said it would be interesting to see what transpired. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
NZers will need to deal with high butter prices for longer
food money 22 minutes ago A dairy analyst says New Zealanders will have to put up with high butter prices for the time being, until commodity prices and consumer demand subsides. Rabobank senior dairy analyst Michael Harvey spoke to Charlotte Cook. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
