This season's lamb crop is expected to fall by 5.7 per cent compared with last year, says Beef and Lamb New Zealand in its latest season outlook.

Shanghai Maling Aquarius is understood to have a $300 million war chest to back its bid for a slice of the Kiwi meat co-operative.

Pre-tax profits for an average sheep and beef farm in New Zealand will increase to $109,900 this season - 9.6 per cent more than last season, but 3.1 per cent below the five-year average, Beef and Lamb New Zealand says in its 2016/6 season outlook.

China government backed Bright Food is understood to be the party in talks to take a stake in Silver Fern Farms.

Ownership of at least 30 to 40 per cent of New Zealand's biggest meat processor, Silver Fern Farms, looks set to pass to Chinese interests in a $100-million deal, say sources.

Will a Kiwi white knight emerge to fully recapitalise Silver Fern Farms, or will Chinese interests emerge as 50-50 partners with a New Zealand consortium to take the company forward?

Deal would increase dominance of New Zealand's biggest meat exporter but erode farmer control of the industry.

Crunch time is fast approaching for the farmer-funded industry group, Beef and Lamb New Zealand.

About one thousand meatworkers at eight Affco plants in the North Island have voted to strike for two days.

Silver Fern Farms says the group agitating for change at New Zealand's biggest meat processor has misled shareholders.

Silver Fern has enlisted the services of investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise it on possible equity raising options as it seeks to reduce debt.

More taxpayer money could be spent on a controversial demonstration farm in Saudi Arabia but nothing is planned at present, Prime Minister John Key says.

The drain on ACC will continue as long as Talley's continues to insist its' health and safety scheme is working, writes Dita De Boni.

Silver Fern shareholders are seeking to force a special meeting to discuss the benefits of a merger with Alliance Group.

An Angus sirloin was last night crowned the Grand Champion of steaks in New Zealand. Catherine Smith was one of the lucky judges.

Sheep meat prices have fallen by about 10 per cent over the past two months, driven by a drop in demand in China and difficult conditions in another important export market - Britain.

Representatives from the Five Nations Beef Alliance are in Maryland this week pushing for beef trade liberalisation through the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal.

Prosecutions of 15 butchers and three company directors over illegal chemicals found in raw meat shows a "dereliction of duty" by the Ministry for Primary Industries in its failure to monitor food, the Labour Party says.

Dry weather and weak dairy prices underpinned higher beef slaughter rates in the first quarter, driving prices lower, but they remain strong by historical standards, Rabobank said in its quarterly....

Anzco Foods, New Zealand's third-largest meat company, said profit halved in 2014, a year in which it bought out shareholder Itoham Foods' half stake in the nation's only large-scale cattle....

The theory that AFL Collingwood pair Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas could have eaten beef contaminated by clenbuterol has been rejected.

Rationalisation of the New Zealand meat industry could take place through collaboration in processing and freight, rather than through mergers and acquisitions, says Silver Fern Farms chairman Rob Hewett.

The industry body that helped fund a major study to reform the red meat sector has damned with faint praise the result, saying it overstates problems in the industry

A report into New Zealand's meat industry has come out heavily in favour of a single co-operative business model similar to Fonterra's to deal with decades-old issues of overcapacity and too much....

The New Zealand dollar's record-breaking run against the long-suffering euro has hit the local venison market hard because of its high exposure to Europe, but strong deer velvet prices have provided....

Resolution of industrial action at ports along the West Coast of the United States has come as a relief to New Zealand meat producers who have been shut off from a lucrative market.

A decline in demand from China and the Middle East, combined with dry conditions in parts of NZ, has depressed lamb prices which is likely to rekindle talk of meat industry reform.

Dunedin-based Silver Fern Farms will be looking to raise around $100 million in new equity next year to repay debt, upgrade plant, and to accelerate its "value added" product strategy.

Keith Cooper headed up New Zealand's biggest meat company, Dunedin-based Silver Fern Farms, for eight years before stepping down in October.