ANZ has admitted misleading conduct over interest rate swaps and up to 178 farmers will now have to decide whether to accept their share of $18.5 million from the bank.

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

National is set to have two former tobacco industry lobbyists standing for Parliament this year with the selection of Todd Barclay in the safe seat of Clutha-Southland.

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.

A genetics company which provided defect bull semen to farmers last year has received a warning from the Commerce Commission about its marketing.

"Was the Fonterra milk scandal caused by New Zealand being 'hostage to a blinkered devotion to laissez-faire market ideology'?" asks Bryce Edwards.

"There will be a reckoning, but now is not the time." Federated Farmers breaks its silence on the infant formula contamination scare.

Leaky homes, free market devotion and a 'festering sore' of a tourism campaign - New Zealand is coming under fire in the state-sanctioned Chinese media.

Federated Farmers says news that FrieslandCampina of the Netherlands had taken a 7.5% stake in Canterbury's Synlait Milk could herald a shakeup for the NZ dairy industry.

A new deal between New Zealand and China to promote agricultural cooperation between the two countries is an important step forward with the export destination, says Federated Farmers.

Maori-controlled, with a Vietnamese connection, one of the country's newest dairy companies does things a little bit differently from the big boys, discovers Jamie Gray.

A climate expert believes summers like this one will become the new norm for New Zealand. Droughts have already been declared across much of the North Island.

The drought is working its way down the country, and with with no change predicted until at least mid-March, farmers from Northland to Southland are suffering.

Big dry forces stock selloffs, but Aucklanders can still water gardens, wash cars thanks to Waikato River supplies