Rural Report – Rural Communities Chapter

By Colin Hannah

With the storms continuing unabated across New Zealand, the soils are saturated.

Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Nelson, Marlborough seem to have taken the brunt of the wind and rain. It is increasing difficult to find some where to feed the animals without creating more mud. The grass is growing; however, the animals are walking into the ground more than they are consuming currently. A feed shortage could be on the cards as farmers use more conserved feed because of the current conditions in late July and August.

The conditions have meant increasing calls to Rural Support, currently siting at184 total registered calls not completed and 13 more added so far this month. It should be noted, that dairy farmers are experiencing an increased return for milk, which has helped, but on farm costs are still stubbornly high.

Beef farmers finishing cattle are receiving the possibly the highest payments in dollars per kilogram of carcase weight for a long time, however the replacement stock costs have reduced the margin dramatically. There is currently a livestock shortage across the country. This is the reason for high cost of replacements.

Debt across the Agriculture sector has dropped as farmers have made a concerted effort to reduce exposure, obviously with pressure from the banking sector.  This has meant that many of the rural sector businesses are not seeing a flow on effect from the higher returns enjoyed by farmers currently.  Comments from exhibitors at the Field days was there was good interest in large capital cost items, but the interest hasn’t yet, turned into sales.

Across New Zealand we are continuing to see high levels of business closures and rural hasn’t escaped these business pressures. Stress levels are still high and will possibly continue into 2026. Northland unemployment is the highest in New Zealand currently exceeding 5%. It has been an effort to get an understanding on the area of farmland that has been sold for forestry conversion in order to ascertain the economic impact short and long term on the Northland economy. Large areas of the region have been purchased for forest conversion by foreign companies and unfortunately the economic impact is not flowing trough into the region.

This month, Rural fest was the best I had been too. I came away inspired to push ahead with some health-related projects here in Northland.

Today we finalised the rural collaboration dinners for the Region from the Harbour Bridge to North Cape for the period early September through to the first week of December 2025 which will be disseminated with members next month.

What is required is some sunshine to lift the spirits and wellbeing of the region.