Fonterra Splash Out on Milk Payouts
NEW ZEALAND - The chairman of Fonterra, Henry Van der Heyden, has forecast a record payout to dairy farmers due to the drought-plagued season. The milksolids forecast is believed to balloon from the previous record of $6.90 to $7.30.
11 April 2008
1 minute read
According to the news agency Stuff, undnormal conditions the extra cash would provide an extra $40,000 to farmers come payday in July, pumping an extra $144 million into the Waikato economy.
But it will be far less thanks to the drought, which caused some farmers, like Waikato Federated Farmers president Stew Wadey, to stop milking as much as two months early. The drought had cost him about $80,000 in extra feed.
The announcement is a double-edged sword, a Fonterra spokesman said, adding the massive rise was due to an increased demand for milk driven by an 80 million kilograms of milksolids production slump over the last three months caused by the drought. "The commodity prices are holding up."
TheCattleSite News Desk
