Federated Farmers and Dairy NZ have been holding around the country aimed at helping farmers, particularly sharemilkers, through the downturn.

Dairy farmers are the most optimistic group in New Zealand's agricultural sector for the coming year, according to a Federated Farmers poll.

The Reserve Bank has warned defaults on dairy loans will be likely as cash-flow shortage estimated at $1/kgMS.

A businessman, 60, is alleged to have acted alone in blackmail scare that said infant formula would be poisoned.

I like to see the glass half full, and I have the facts to back that view. If you still want to see the glass half empty - you're the loser, writes Mike Hosking.

Farmers don't expect special treatment from this year's Budget, but some recognition of the impact that the drought has had on farm finances would be a welcome move.

Fonterra's strategy has to start delivering or its market share will shrink further, says Federated Farmers Otago dairy chairman Stephen Crawford.

Authorities are no closer to saying if the threat to poison baby formula with 1080 was a hoax, or who wrote the blackmail threats - even with 30 staff on the case.

Police are testing infant formula after a number of tins were found with pin-pricks in packaging lids.

Dairy companies are confident security measures at their facilities are tight enough to prevent a 1080 contamination.

Fallout from this week's baby formula contamination threat weighed heavily on the New Zealand dollar yesterday, with news of curtailed orders from China driving the currency lower still.

The Government was right to say nothing until discreet inquiries had failed and there is a chance a public appeal might help police catch him. The interval appears to have permitted the industry to be well prepared.

Dairy exports may already be stuck on Chinese wharves as a result of a new import requirement that products be tested for 1080 contamination, says an industry group.

Federated Farmers is questioning the need for a National Party proposal for a compulsory ban on dairy cattle from all waterways.

Rogue dairy farmers exploiting migrant workers have no place in the industry, a senior farming leader says.

Labour's Shadow Minister of Finance David Parker looked the part in delivering his party's monetary policy.

A judge who fined Fonterra $300,000 over the events leading to last year's botulism scare says New Zealand's reputation as an exporter was "shaken" by the incident.

Fonterra Australia has been selected as the preferred supplier to process Woolworths "Own Brand'' milk in Victoria for the next 10 years

Fonterra has posted a 53pc drop in interim net profit as high dairy commodity prices hit the dairy co-op's margins.

While the timing of this is far from ideal given last year's events, this voluntary recall came from Fonterra's own testing, writes Willy Leferink.

Many city-dwellers may still peg rural women as domestic types, but modern farming women are on the land or in the office, running big businesses and driving the exports that are the backbone of NZ's economy.