Two professional weather forecasters got close to predicting the record hot, dry summer, but a "motivational astrologer" was adrift.

That wonderful quote in our English history should be changed in New Zealand to: 'Water, water everywhere and not a drop is saved!'

Farmers need to adapt for a drier future as events like the 'once-in-a-lifetime' drought become closer to the norm.

Slaughterman Kent Sambells' workload was "hectic" last week as Waikato farmers called him in to destroy ailing cattle and take them away for processing into pet food.

Sheep and beef farm profits are predicted to halve this season, as the full impact of current lamb prices and drought kick in, Beef and Lamb New Zealand says.

After two long days without a single silly photo on his Latin American trade tour, Prime Minister John Key has broken the drought by donning a vueltiao.

An important fertiliser aid has been culled from farmers' chemical shopping lists after it turned up in milk products destined for human consumption.

A trial involving five parties linked to the running of Crafar Farms who face hundreds of charges between them of animal abuse has been postponed.

As 2012 draws to a close there is no such thing as the "good old days" when it comes to water use in town or country.

New Zealand's milk production leaped 11.3 per cent last season, the most productive on record.

"Million-dollar rain" was how Hawke's Bay Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills described yesterday's downpours which swept the region.

Fonterra has signed an agreement to develop two more large-scale dairy farms in China.