Agsafe Weekly Rural Report
Finance: The NZ dollar remained steady over the week with a slight easing against the US dollar. It is now just under 60 cents against the US dollar. Brent Crude moved up a little and is currently at $US67.26/barrel.
Wool: The wool prices are firming with prices up +2%. Contracts are being offered for coarse wools.
Beef, Sheep & Venison schedules: The meat schedules are steady with some upward movement expected in beef schedules. The expected grass growth following the recent rain will allow farmers to keep stock on the farm a little longer if necessary.
Dairy Prices. The g/DT lifted 6.7% at this week’s auction. The lift will put confidence back into the dairy industry. Butter lifted 8.8%, SMP was up 10.6% and WMP lifted 5.3% to $US3614/tn. A good volume of product was sold – 24,000 tn’s.
I think it is the first time that NIWA drought index shows no drought areas across NZ at the end of January. I checked the Hamilton rainfall records and the January rainfall was 141 mm and the year to date is 149 mm (7/2/2026). The 10-year average year to date is 161 mm. The difference this year has been the number of rain days through January which has minimised the likelihood of a drought.
Quote: “The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.”
Need Help. If at any time you just want to talk & need someone to talk to, just call - Male Support Services (Waikato) 0800-677-289, or Rural Support Trust 0800-787-245. Crisis TXT – HELP (4357). A shared problem can be a problem solved!!
Jim’s Weekly Rant:
Waitangi Day has come and gone again with the usual nonsense at Waitangi and at a few other places around the country as the separatists try and disrupt the countries celebrations. Waitangi Day comes a week after the Auckland Anniversary weekend and 2-weeks after the Wellington Anniversary weekend. It is now 2-months until Easter where there are another 3 statutory days off. We are all well aware of the number of statutory holidays on offer in NZ and the dairy industry can do little about it as the cows have to be milked. Dry-stock farmers have a little more lee-way and the crop farmers often have extra costs imposed when the harvest has to be done on the stat-days. Days off and annual holidays can make it very costly for a farmer to comply 100% with rules. I receive many queries from farmers regarding the excessive final pays some employers are being required to pay when staff leave a job and stat-days have not been taken and the extra payments have not been made and then added to the annual holidays not taken. It all mounts up. Many farmers are now using professional Payroll Companies to manage the complexities of the staff entitlements and while it is recommended it is important to keep a close watch on the accruing time-off and receive regular reports. It is usually psychologically easier to give staff time-off than to pay them out at the end of the season while also paying for the new replacement employee at the same time. If you have staff I would encourage you to check the holiday entitlements now so the time-off can be rostered in before the end of the season. Carrying holiday entitlements forward into the next employment period compounds the problems. Holidays and time away from work and the place of employment (the farm) are important to get refreshed and refocused so make sure it happens. Remember that 4-weeks annual holiday is 20 days away from work as the standard week has 5 working-days and 2 weekend days off work.
The second part of the holidays frustration is the number of statutory days on offer and the requirement to pay time & half for the time worked plus another day off in lieu. There are 5-days centred around the Christian calendar and with the growing range of ethnicities and religions in NZ there should be some flexibility allowed for people of other faiths to negotiate changes to allow them to celebrate their festival days. Easter and Christmas are not part of the Muslem or Hindi festivals and the Jews celebrate Hanukkah in early December. New Zealand also allows for 11 regions to celebrate their anniversary days ensuring part of the country is closed for business on these days giving a total of 23 days in the years when either all or part of the country is closed for business. It is time there was some rationalization and perhaps there could be a single day across the country when the regional anniversaries are celebrated or better still just do away with them. Easter Monday, Kings birthday, Matariki and Labour Day are unnecessary holidays but I do subscribe to a couple of well positioned breaks through the year: say 3-months after Easter and 3-months prior to Christmas for a long weekend in mid-winter and early spring. To achieve equality for all perhaps there are 4 designated religious days negotiated to suit the different faiths with Easter and Christmas being the default for the non-believers, 2 national days and 2 other days just for fun and of course New Years Day, a total of 9 statutory holidays. Being election year, it could be a good time to seek a change as rumour has it, NZ has either the highest or close to the highest number of public holidays of any developed country – an unenviable title to hold while we all talk about improving productivity!!.