Environment Canterbury is standing by its decision not to fine or prosecute Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias and her businessman husband Hugh Fletcher after photos emerged of their cattle drinking out of a North Canterbury lake.

Dairy farmers are bracing themselves for still more falls in product prices at tomorrow's Global Dairy Trade auction.

Asia's biggest economy looks to limit manufacturers to three labels and impose stricter safety procedures.

Synlait Milk has revised its forecast milk price for the 2015 / 2016 season from $5.00 per kilogram to $4.20.

Banks say more heavily indebted New Zealand dairy farmers will be asked to sell up as non-performing loans increase.

Dairy Farms NZ - likely to list on the NZ stock exchange, has been given permission to buy up South Island farms.

Leading international credit rating agency has downgraded its outlook for New Zealand's economy.

Dairy prices finished the year on a slightly firmer note at this morning's GlobalDairyTrade auction, the GDT price index gaining by just 1.9 per cent.

Nearly 200 countries strike deal on how to combat climate change, but it's what the energy companies do next that could make or break the agreement.

Grabbing a bottle of milk from the supermarket was once a simple task.

Fonterra has maintained milk price at $4.60 per kilo, but scrapped a farmer support scheme.

Pressure is mounting on Fonterra to cut its farmgate milk price forecast at this week's board meeting, but it's looking like a close call.

Animal welfare group SAFE placed a graphic advertisement to shame NZ's dairy industry in the Guardian newspaper.

China is taking steps to genetically engineer its own food supply rather than growing it the boring old traditional way.

WATCH: Waikato farmer's impassioned defence of his fellow farmers following an expose on the "dark side of the farming industry".

Fonterra, Federated Farmers, the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Government need to take urgent action to stop cruelty in the dairy industry, writes Catriona MacLennan.

International dairy prices are at a "particularly bad" part of the cycle, but are expected to improve substantially in the first half of next year.

The August-September price bubble has popped, according to a dairy broker.

In 2014/15, dairy companies processed 21.3 billion litres of milk containing 1.89 billion kilograms of milksolids.

There's some good news from the dairy sector today, with Fonterra saying its financial performance is improving.

Consumer and food service came in at $408 million, up 216 per cent on the previous year's.

Reserve Bank has asked the country's five biggest rural lenders to conduct a "stress test" of their exposure to dairy farm debt, and had encouraged them to set aside provisions .

Farming is largely a long term intergenerational business. But what could that future look like?

New Zealand has about 720,000ha of land under irrigation, but about half that again could be sustainably irrigated by 2025, an industry body says.

Any chance of an upgrade in Fonterra's farmer payout became more remote today after a big drop in world dairy prices.

Farmers might have to pay for their emissions like everyone else under a revision of the Government's main climate change policy.

Silver Fern Farms shareholders have voted strongly in favour of a 50/50 joint venture with China's Shanghai Maling Aquarius