In rural news,

A financial blow for dairy farmers.

Fonterra has cut its farm-gate milk price by five cents, to
six-dollars-seventy per kilo of milk solids.

There will also be no dividend for the second half of the year.

Federated Farmers national dairy chairman Chris Lewis says the announcement's
come as a surprise.





Meanwhile, dairy farmers are being urged to seek expert advice about effluent
storage, after a Waikato farm was fined 41-thousand dollars.

Reporoa's Bella Ridge Farms appeared in Rotorua District Court, following the
equivalent of 17 truck and trailer loads of effluent being released in November
2016.

Investigations found an irrigation pipe had become disconnected.

The effluent then made its way into the nearby Mangatete Stream.

Waikato Regional Council's response manager Patrick Lynch says the farmer
invested heavily in effluent management, but didn't get proper advice on the
usual safeguards that should be in place.