Despite reports, comments and rhetoric on how farmers are destroying New Zealand's waterways, a step change has occurred within the primary sector, writes John Donkers.

A large chunk of residential land for sale will enable the building of hundreds of new homes as the Auckland Council tries to solve the city's housing crisis.

French food giant Danone has entered an agreement to buy New Zealand dairy processing firms Sutton Group and Gardians.

Home owners, sitting on a near tripling of house prices over the past 20 years, are largely immune to warnings that the housing market is overheated.

Farmers are being cautioned to prepare contingency plans amid early signs of a large El Nino climate event this year.

The FMA is investigating whether the sales and marketing of interest rate swaps by major banks to rural customers may have breached the laws.

New Zealand's milk production growth is likely to be constrained over the next five years as the ability to change land use will become more difficult and expensive.

Fonterra's farmer members will be offered two opportunities to lock in the price paid for a percentage of their milk in the 2014/15 season.

A popular farming publication wants farmers to lock out fishers and hunters over what it calls an anti-dairying attitude by their governing body.

A 'really, really sore' Waikato farmer had to walk 45 minutes for help after she was stung at least 50 times in the head when she stepped in a 'big hole of wasps'.

Dairy pervades the economy and the cultural landscape - our obsession with flat whites, free milk in schools and even our political scandals, as witnessed last week.

Parts of the Waikato are as dry or drier than during last year's severe drought.

John Morell is one of a rapidly dying breed - rural owners who train their own racehorse from a farm.

How do you stop truckloads of unsaleable food from going to the dump - and turn it into something useful? Put a few thousand piggies in the middle.

National calls for debt relief as mounting toll of big dry ruins businesses and suicides rise among farmers.

Federated Farmers chief executive Conor English said he would not rule out a career in politics when he steps down as chief executive of the farmers' group in July.

My heart sank when I heard about Fonterra's idea to reduce the dairy industry's impact on our environment, writes Sue Kedgley.

Economists say a combination of rising international dairy prices and favourable farming conditions bode well for New Zealand's economic growth.

So little sunlight is being shone on how we are dealing with water and emissions ...

Fonterra has raised 1.25 billion renminbi in its second Chinese currency denominated bond, which it will use to repay debt and expand operations in China.

We must work together and prioritise the restoration of waterways over short-term commercial gain, writes Dame Anne Salmond.

All commercial users of water should face a charge, writes Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons. This would acknowledge public ownership of the rivers and create funds to invest in repairing them.

"Somehow he got flattened." The wife of a Tihoi farmer who suffered "bumps and bruises" after being sat on by a cow is still unsure how the accident happened.