Agsafe Weekly Rural Report

Finance: The NZ dollar eased over the week and remains a very weak currency. Brent Crude has risen and is currently $109.28/barrel, but ranges over the day continuing to vary up to $US10 in a 24 hr period.

Wool: The wool prices continue to firm with the growing optimism in the coarse wool market.

Beef, Sheep & Venison schedules: The meat schedules have lifted for the coming week. Yard prices are strong with autumn born calves achieving very good prices and this will flow on to the beef prices as rearing costs are still high.

Dairy Prices. The 2025/26 production has been above expectations on many farms following a “kind” summer and autumn. The excess rain in April was an issue making crops hard to harvest and new grass difficult to establish. The payout estimates remain strong.



Jim’s Weekly Rant:

There have been some significant changes on the political landscape of both Australia and the UK over the last few weeks with the traditional parties out of favour with the voters. In the council election in the UK Labour lost some 1400 seats to Nigel Farages Reform Party and in Wales the Labour rulers were dumped and in Scotland the Scottish Nationalist also defeated the Labour Party. In Australia a By-Election in the district of Farrer electing the first One Nation MP into the lower house in the parliament. One analyst reported that 65% of the combined votes from the UK council election and the two recent Australian elections went to parties that opposed the current immigration and Net Zero policies and that is then added to the last USA presidential elections that were also about controlling immigration and dumping Net Zero. It might be a bit of useless analysis and information but if we look at the situation here in NZ both immigration and Net Zero are being blamed for some of the major costs our government is incurring. Immigration is necessary to maintain a growing population and workforce, but the infrastructure development and housing has struggled to keep up with the increasing levels of immigration in recent years and the ideological dream of Net Zero has cost the country billions of dollars by underpinning the carbon credits and the closing down of the oil and gas industry and the refinery. Net Zero has also been responsible for the increased planting of pine plantations and the harvest of timber where the slash has damaged infrastructure and farmland and been responsible for the removal of nearly 1,000,000 stock units per annum from productive farmland. Both the UK and Australia are still around 2½ years off their general elections where major changes are likely to happen but their unpopular prime ministers continue run unpopular governments. The elections in the USA, Australia and the UK have shown a preference for the unorthodox, and often untried politicians being another strong indicator that the voters have had enough of the existing parties, and as Trump calls it “The Swamp”!! Our parliament is currently going through the Bill to disestablish the Ministry for the Environment, but sadly not removing it all together. The rolls within the ministry will be maintained through a secretary for the environment and the tasks will be devolved to a new ministry being the Ministry of Cities, Regions and Transport (MCERT) and is the combined with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Transport and the local government function of the Department of Internal Affairs. Perhaps it is a step in the right direction to allow a wider view on environmental matters but doesn’t dump the Net Zero fiasco. The coalition government in NZ must take note of the voters wishes being expressed in the UK and Australia about better managed immigration outcomes and better managed affordable energy systems.