KEY POINTS:
Too much drought you say? How about a deluge of water instead.
You can control only so much on a farm, and, unlike many businesses, the great outdoors is the factory floor.
The summer drought that ravaged many parts of the country was estimated to have cost between $500 million and $1 billion.
Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson says warnings from forecasters meant farmers were well prepared for the recent storms.
Some farmers have started lambing and calving, but there have been no reports of large stock losses, Nicolson says.
"Severe weather is a risk that goes alongside the business of farming.
"The self-help ethic is strong in the rural community, and farmers invest considerable amounts of money and effort both individually and collectively into risk-management initiatives such as drainage and irrigation infrastructure, feed and water storage, and flood protection."
Environmental controls set to warm, sunny with occasional showers, please, so that farmers can get on with the job of trying to keep New Zealand Inc afloat as world economies slip into recession.
AG REPORT CARD
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will release its five-year primary sector report card tomorrow.
The Situation and Outlook for New Zealand Agriculture and Forestry 2008 report - or Sonzaf, for those who speak in tongues - covers the trends and performance across agricultural and forestry industries through to 2012.
The ministry's take on what lies ahead will make for interesting reading, with so much of the sector seemingly at watershed moments.
The dairy sector is breaking records and growing; the meat sector is looking to restructure, albeit with off-again, on-again progress; there is a fast rising wine sector; and implications are arising from global biofuel production, soaring food prices, carbon footprints, emissions trading, stalled world trade talks, and so on.
And as for some recent performances, here's the report card:
Well done Dairyton, keep up the good work, go to the top of the class.
Meatly, you're full of ideas and have plenty of promise but you need to focus lad, focus.
Wineston, well done, results worth celebrating but don't pop too many corks because your studies will get harder.
Woolley, very industrious, A for effort but poor results, put your cap on straight and don't forget about the point of your assignments.
DEAL, NO DEAL
World Trade Organisation talks had seemingly gathered pace, were even looking promising but then stumbled and fell.
The talks, aimed at liberalising international trade, were launched in Doha, Qatar, in 2001.
They collapsed last week in Geneva after nine days of ministerial-level bargaining. The problem was that the United States and developing countries, led by India, could not agree on a mechanism that would allow countries to protect farmers when there were surges in agricultural imports.
A deal could have been worth about $1 billion a year to New Zealand - similar to the last round completed in Uruguay in 1994.
New Zealand removed tariffs and subsidies in the 1980s, and farmers know the shockwave such removals can unleash with the need to re-organise and rebuild.
The fact we have already swallowed what can seem a bitter pill and as a result become a more innovative and efficient producer, means we can be both an international example and, more importantly, first out of the blocks when protectionism is reduced.
For now the race is on hold, but the $1 billion prize is still there and the history of world trade talks is that eventually the sticking points get hammered out.
This is the eighth round of multi-lateral negotiations since the war, and if the results did not eventually benefit everyone involved, then the fight would probably have been over even before round two.
Changes of government will come around the world before a deal is struck, most notably in the United States, so the $1 billion prize has been pushed back to probably 2010 at best.
SKY'S THE LIMIT
What wears wellies and comes from outer space? Sky television newbie The Country Channel.
Co-owner, producer and farmer Andy Tyler says the new channel will be beamed around New Zealand on Sky's digital satellite network from October 1 and will not be focused on entertainment but rather agri-business.
"We're not going to have cooking shows and gardening shows," Tyler says. "It's all going to be some fairly serious documentaries."
A six-hour block of programmes will run four times a day from sources including a one-hour, locally produced daily flagship news and information show called Farmgate.
"By running that four times, we can actually vary the time it runs to coincide with the best times for different sectors."
The channel will be free to all Sky digital viewers for the first month and then cost $14.50 a month, with an initial projection of about 20,000 subscribers.
"I think potentially we could be five times that if we look at people in the servicing industries to the rural sector as well," Tyler says.
A total of 100,000 subscriptions would equate to $17.4 million a year in subscription revenue alone.
There is also a reasonable chance it will be tax deductible as a business channel, Tyler says.
Farmgate will include 20-minute sponsored slots available to businesses and organisations.
"For example, fertiliser companies will have a great forum to discuss the benefits of nutrient management programmes or the pressure on world prices, while an organisation like Dairy NZ can quickly reach a wide audience with new information designed to improve on-farm productivity."
FERTILISER SURGE
After a good year, fertiliser co-operative companies Ballance Agri-Nutrients and Ravensdown might just have the funds to take The Country Channel up on its sales pitch.
Ballance's operating surplus for the year ended May 31 was a record $78.6 million, compared with $33.4 million the previous year.
Ravensdown says it has made an annual profit of $40 million on a record turnover of $672 million, up from $496 million, and will return $36 million to shareholders - with bonus shares and a rebate of $15.10 a tonne totalling $27.04 a tonne.
The global demand for food and crops for biofuel is leading to a shortage of basic fertiliser commodities, which is causing a rapid rise in the cost of international farm nutrients, Ravensdown says.
The international commodity price for diammonium phosphate increased during the past 18 months from about US$260 to US$1200 a tonne, potash from US$190 to US$600 a tonne, sulphur from US$45 to US$650 a tonne and urea from US$200 to US$650 a tonne. Ravensdown's price for superphosphate in June was $480 a tonne, up from $264 a tonne in December.
Ravensdown chairman Bill McLeod says the co-operative prices products according to its costs.
"While we have made a good profit, I can assure farmers this is driven by management focusing on reducing costs, a wider product range and the expanded business in Western Australia," McLeod says.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients chairman David Graham says the company has never made or sold so much fertiliser.
Turnover at Ballance was up 31 per cent to a record $651 million, with a combined rebate and dividend return to shareholders of $41.3 million, up 67 per cent on the previous year.
"The only dampener - and it's a major concern - is the current state of the global commodities markets, with all of the input materials we require to make our products now at incredibly high prices," Graham says. "We expect further price increases and a reduction in local demand."
In June Ballance priced superphosphate at $480 a tonne, muriate of potash at $850, nitrogen-rich urea at $921 and diammonium phosphate at $1412.
