I am hearing even the biggest ones with 50 % equity being contacted weekly by their banks while being gouged 8.5% interest
"Rising costs, falling revenue
The 2022/23 dairy season was a bad combination of rising costs and falling revenue. DairyNZ estimates that dairy operating expenses in 2022/23 amounted to $8.16 per kgMS, up sharply from $7.23 in 2021/22. The start of the war in Ukraine in early 2022 led to a sharp rise in the cost of diesel and fertiliser, and rampant inflation bumped up the cost of nearly everything else. Fonterra’s payout to farmers for 2022/23 was estimated to be $8.20, down from a record level of $9.30 in 2021/22. These shifts take the average farm from a solid profit in 2021/22 to barely breaking even in 2022/23. Across the dairy farming industry, this amounted to a drop in revenue of $2.0b.
Heading into the 2023/24 season, Fonterra dropped its forecast payout further, to $7, then $6.75, driven primarily by weaker demand from China. The latest drop amounts to a $2.7b fall in revenue for dairy farmers, on top of the $2.0b drop in the previous season. DairyNZ forecasts that costs will ease slightly, taking the break-even point down to $7.51 for the 2023/24 season – an improvement, but still higher than revenue. The reduction in break-even is in part driven by farmers deferring expenditure to match the lower payout."
https://www.infometrics.co.nz/articl...-dairy-farmers
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