If your stance on foreign ownership of prized New Zealand countryside is black or white, the case of Robert "Mutt" Lange reveals issues that are far from clear-cut.

Fonterra chief financial officer Lukas Paravicini rejects the notion that the co-operative is playing safe in keeping this season's farm gate milk price forecast at $4.70 a kilogram of milksolids.

The historic Craigieburn Station, in the central Canterbury foothills, has come up for sale for the first time in 98 years.

Fonterra's board will have reason for cautious optimism when it meets tomorrow to review its farmgate milk price forecast for 2014/15.

Dairy prices posted their fifth consecutive gain at this morning’s GlobalDairyTrade auction.

Livestock Improvement Corp will set off on a "roadshow" in June to sound out its farmer-shareholders about the possibility of raising capital to drive growth.

The jury is still out on the feasibility of cow barns for New Zealand farming, according to a DairyNZ study.

Livestock Improvement Corp, a farmer co-operative that sells bull semen and provides a dairy genetics database, posted a 10 per cent gain in first-half profit on increased demand for its products and....

The Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy, is expected to declare South Canterbury and North Otago drought areas when he visits the rapidly depleting Opuha Dam, near Fairlie, today.

Dairy prices spiked higher at this morning's GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) auction, the GDT price index gaining 9.4 per cent since the last sale on January 21.

Farmers are "battening down the hatches" as they prepare for a low dairy payout this year and as a full-scale drought approaches South Canterbury and North Otago.

Prices continued to improve at this morning’s GlobalDairyTrade auction, the GDT price index gaining 1 per cent since the last sale a fortnight ago.

This will be the year in which New Zealand dairy farmers, companies, investors and their bankers will find themselves consumed by a crucial question - is the White Gold Rush finally over or will....

Summer is hitting full force, with temperatures rising above 27C north of Auckland and farmers bracing for drought.

The international dairy trade has started 2015 on a positive note at this morning's GlobalDairyTrade auction, up 3.6 per cent on last month's auction.

Canterbury is on the verge of a 20th century-style drought with the southern region the driest it has been in a decade, forcing farmers to sell surplus stock and leading to restrictions on irrigation....

A farmer was forced to get rid of a type of cow that was bred by Hitler's scientists because the ultra-aggressive breed tried to kill staff.

Dairy farmers and the Treasury will be looking to 2015 and beyond with some trepidation after a 52 per cent decline in wholemilk powder prices over the past 12 months.

Dairy prices mostly improved at this morning’s GlobalDairyTrade auction, the GDT price index gaining 2.4 per cent.

The medium to long term outlook for NZ dairy farmers remains sound, despite yesterday's payout cut, says rural lender Rabobank.

Fonterra said it had launched a separate milk sourcing subsidiary - mymilk - to grow its market share in the South Island.

Fonterra plans to cut costs and defer some capital expenditure so that an improved dividend can at least partially offset a likely $6b decline in income for the sector.

The industry group DairyNZ estimates that one quarter of dairy farmers will have difficulty paying their bills if Fonterra's reduced farmgate milk price comes to pass.

Fonterra has this morning cut its forecast farmgate milk price payout to its farmers, with its chairman admitted it'll put pressure on farm budgets.

ANZ has admitted misleading conduct over interest rate swaps and up to 178 farmers will now have to decide whether to accept their share of $18.5 million from the bank.

NZ farmers are facing summer water restrictions in some regions as an El Nino weather pattern develops.