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.

Kids at Kamo Primary School at the northern end of Whangarei are split down the middle over an offer of free milk from New Zealand's biggest company, Fonterra.

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

World dairy prices have surged to the highest since June 2011 with the prospect of New Zealand production curtailed by drought.

The mystery of how 165kg of cocaine was slipped into a New Zealand shipping container of milk powder remains unsolved, according to an official report.

The hot dry summer in the North Island is helping to push world dairy prices up - but the high kiwi dollar is taking the cream off the top.

In the fifth straight gain, prices in the latest world dairy auction rose 3.1 per cent overnight, takings prices to their highest level in five months.

Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world's biggest dairy exporter, is playing down reports that China's quarantine administration destroyed three different New Zealand brands of milk powder as being nothing out of the ordinary and part of a regular review.

A secret Auckland Council agenda item has revealed the Wynyard Quarter as a possible site for Fonterra's planned new $100 million campus-style world HQ.

When the Fonterra Shareholders' Fund made its debut on the NZX last December, the co-operative was finally able to put its capital structure on a firm footing.

It's always interesting to see how corporations and governments respond to a food safety crisis, writes Sue Kedgley.

Traces of a toxic agricultural substance detected in some Fonterra milk powders has international dairy customers asking for answers.

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

Demand for New Zealand dairy livestock in China appears to be booming, with more than 38,000 live animals leaving our shores for Chinese pastures last year.

A trial involving five parties linked to the running of Crafar Farms who face hundreds of charges between them of animal abuse has been postponed.