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Speaker 1: Well, it is a good time to have a milkshake.

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Speaker 1: It's a good time to be a dairy farmer right now.

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Speaker 1: Production is up, prices are up, the dollar is down.

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Speaker 1: In this morning, the latest dairy trade option price is

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Speaker 1: up one point four percent at the GDA, So that

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Speaker 1: is good news overnight. After a shaky start to the year,

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Speaker 1: it would seem we're back on track. John Stevenson, Fontera

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Speaker 1: Cropative Council chairs with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: John, Good morning, Good morning, Ryan.

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Speaker 1: How are you feeling about that result?

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Speaker 2: I think it's really positive news. As you mentioned in

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Speaker 2: your intro, we've seen a couple of slides, so good

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Speaker 2: to get back on track see some positive numbers, and

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Speaker 2: in particular that that whole milk powder price, You know,

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Speaker 2: that's really good news for us with farmers and our

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Speaker 2: economies we operate on.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's dropped the last two options, that whole

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Speaker 1: milk powder price, but it's still the highest it's been

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Speaker 1: in two years.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, it is, and it is a really good

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Speaker 2: news story and I think sort of important to put

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Speaker 2: it in context. We've sort of a long road to

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Speaker 2: home and many more GDT options to come up on

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Speaker 2: a milk price won't get confirmed until September this year,

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Speaker 2: but it is positive news and good to see that

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Speaker 2: that trend reverse.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, obviously everyone's been talking about north of

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Speaker 1: ten dollars. You'll still be hoping for that. It would

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Speaker 1: I mean, would this sort of merry up with that?

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Speaker 2: Is it?

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Speaker 1: Is it too early to say.

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Speaker 2: That there's a decision for Fonterira in the border from Tierra,

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Speaker 2: but certainly, you know, what we're seeing is really really

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Speaker 2: strong signals and I think you know, from a farmer's perspective,

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Speaker 2: we've seen big on farm inflation in the last couple

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Speaker 2: of years. You know, on the milk price, dairy farmers

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Speaker 2: would have made a loss last year. So a good

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Speaker 2: margin this year, if it eventuates, will allow us to

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Speaker 2: catch up on the food maintenance and invest a fear

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Speaker 2: a bit of that money back into our local economies.

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Speaker 1: What's driving that production? That uplifting production up to one

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Speaker 1: point four percent year on here, it's above the five

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Speaker 1: year average.

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Speaker 2: It's been a really pleasing season growth wise, So we've seen,

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Speaker 2: apart from south On, a really kind spring and a

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Speaker 2: good start this summer drawing off in a couple of

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Speaker 2: places now, which which is not unexpected, but that you know,

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Speaker 2: those those supplementary feed supplies for silage bankers and the

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Speaker 2: crops have had a really good start. So you know,

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Speaker 2: it's looking really positive from that on farm perspective going forward.

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Speaker 1: Farmers worried because we asked the government about this and

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Speaker 1: they say, oh, well, we don't know. We just don't know.

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Speaker 1: We'll have to wait and see. But you know, most

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Speaker 1: of what Fontira producers is exported. A farmer is worried

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Speaker 1: about Trump and the tariff threat.

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Speaker 2: It's I suppose that's sort of by the buyer for us. Well,

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Speaker 2: we'll keep producing our milk and expecting Fontier to sell

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Speaker 2: it at the highest possible Madge, and I think as

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Speaker 2: a farmer, we've got one hundred worried Ryan, and that's

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Speaker 2: that's one of the ones that we can't control. So

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Speaker 2: we just keep our heads doin and focus on what

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Speaker 2: we do, try and increase their productivity, trying to try

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Speaker 2: to produce the best possible milk we can and and

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Speaker 2: we'll lead the selling up to Fontier.

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Speaker 1: Good on your John, keep it up. The economy needs that.

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Speaker 1: John Stevenson, Fontier Cooperative Council Chair, for more from the MIC,

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Speaker 1: asking Breakfast, Listen live to news talks it'd be from

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