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.

A drought is expected to be declared in the Waikato this week after brief showers did little to help parched farms, and the Hawkes Bay is expected to follow suit.

Patchy showers have fallen in the central, northern and eastern North Island this morning, but barely enough to top up water tanks and penetrate dry soil.

The big dry has parts of the country firmly in its grip. The Government has declared a drought in Northland and is expected to do so in Waikato.

The rural sector drives our economy. Yet there are surprisingly few opportunities for townies to invest in it. It is, of course, possible to buy a farm. This, however, is out of the financial reach of most investors.

Editorial: Since the 1980s, scientists have been warning about the declining water quality in lakes around Rotorua, some of the country's most beautiful and popular.

A dairy farmer convicted of breaking cows tails, in the worst case of its kind animal welfare authorities had ever seen, has been banned from owning cows for five years.

A landmark deal that has ended one of the country's longest and largest environmental battles is now being touted as a template to help clean up our waterways.

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

Evidence showing cattle getting into rivers and anecdotal stories of animals being slaughtered next to streams have renewed calls for the introduction of a bylaw to exclude stock from Hawkes Bay's waterways.

Natasha King has already written her own obituary. Although it was only part of a management course run by her employer, Meridian Energy.

Poachers and stock rustlers are being warned by Federated Farmers to find a different line of work.

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.

Fonterra's Trading Among Farmers (TAF) share trading scheme received its final, albeit retrospective, seal of approval at the annual meeting yesterday.

More than 20 sheep were killed after a car ploughed into a stray flock northeast of Wairoa.