Fonterra will be spared having its multimillion-dollar fight with French food giant Danone spilling back into the public arena this year.

Spark New Zealand director Maury Leyland will resign from the telecommunications company's board from the end of next month.

Prices continued to improve at this morning’s GlobalDairyTrade auction, the GDT price index gaining 1 per cent since the last sale a fortnight ago.

Falling milk powder prices have hit consumers' economic confidence in the key dairy regions of Southland and the Waikato, says Westpac.

The international dairy trade has started 2015 on a positive note at this morning's GlobalDairyTrade auction, up 3.6 per cent on last month's auction.

Fonterra's plan to allow non-members to supply it with milk has sparked fears that it could end up eroding the group's co-operative base.

Dairy prices mostly improved at this morning’s GlobalDairyTrade auction, the GDT price index gaining 2.4 per cent.

The Fonterra Shareholders Council is "broadly supportive" of plans for the co-operative to start sourcing milk from South Island suppliers who are not also shareholders.

A $6 billion drop in dairy farmers' incomes this season is a blow to the wider economy, no question, writes Brian Fallow. But it's not all bad.

Fonterra has moved to shore up its supply base by forming a subsidiary that can take in more milk without suppliers having to buy shares in the co-operative.

The medium to long term outlook for NZ dairy farmers remains sound, despite yesterday's payout cut, says rural lender Rabobank.

Fonterra said it had launched a separate milk sourcing subsidiary - mymilk - to grow its market share in the South Island.

Fonterra has this morning cut its forecast farmgate milk price payout to its farmers, with its chairman admitted it'll put pressure on farm budgets.

Neither Fonterra nor the Ministry for Primary Industries emerged unscathed in the final report on the botulism scare that rocked the New Zealand dairy industry last year.

There is one salient comment in the report by Queens Counsel Miriam Dean into the WPC80 incident that ought to give Fonterra's directors and shareholders cause for concern: "A company that is....

Fonterra's workplace culture showed an entrenched 'silo' mentality that robbed it of vital cohesion, a govt report into a botched botulism scare has found.

NZ farmers are facing summer water restrictions in some regions as an El Nino weather pattern develops.

Wholemilk powder prices continued to decline while other products showed signs of improvement at this morning’s GlobalDairyTrade auction.

ANZ's commodity price index fell for the ninth month in a row in November, as milk powder prices hit five-year lows.

Falling dairy prices have begun to undermine one of the foundations of the economic upswing, rising national income from the most favourable terms of trade.

Tomorrow will see the last GlobalDairyTrade auction before Fonterra releases its revised farmgate milk price forecast for 2014/15.

Fonterra says it had started a consultation process to gauge interest in a proposed equity partnership trust for its farmers.