NEWS Finance: The NZ dollar has eased over the last 3 week with the biggest fall against the Australian dollar making it tough for those holidaying in Aussie. Brent Crude is hovering between $60 & $65/barrel and is currently at $US62.86/barrel. Wool: The wool prices are firming with strong demand from China. There is growing optimism in the sector Beef, Sheep & Venison schedules: The meat schedules are steady over the Christmas New Year period with minimal kill activity.. There is strong demand for red meat from Europe, Asia & the USA. Dairy Prices. The g/DT lifted 6.3% which was well above expectations. Butter was up 3.8%, Cheddar up 0.6%, SMP up 5.4% and WMP lifted 7.2% to $US3407/tonne. It was a good result with a lesser volume offered. Redo your 2026/27 farm plan as the lower milk payments make a big difference. The higher meat prices don’t always alter the trading margins. Feed costs have also increased and staffing is an issue on many farms with a predominance of immigrant labour being required to fill the vacancies and if the immigrant staff require Accredited Employers, then the hourly rates can be over $33/hour!!! Jim’s Weekly Rant: We finished 2025 with the Bondi massacre and we have started 2026 with the arrest of Nichollas Maduro in Venezuela and massive bush fires in Australia and unprecedented cold in Europe. So Happy New Year to us all!!!! I have had a bit to do with Venezuela over the last 20 years as my eldest son often spent the Caribbean hurricane season there as it was outside the official Caribbean hurricane belt. The insurance for yachts in the Caribbean usually requires the boats to leave the hurricane areas during the season from mid-May until mid-November. His first wife was Venezuelan and our oldest granddaughter was born in Venezuela. Our family went to the wedding in Venezuela and had a magnificent 2-week there when Charves was the President. Charves died of cancer and he anointed Maduro as his successor. Kidnappings, murders and poverty all increased under Maduro’s presidency. We finally managed to get his now former wife and our granddaughter out to NZ in 2015 and arranged NZ citizenship for Victoria as she was eligible for that. Before they left Venezuela our son was always nervous returning to the country for fear of being kidnapped as the “gringo’s” were easy targets as it was assumed they had money or someone would pay the ransom. We were in regular contact with our granddaughter and her mother while they remained in Venezuela and they showed us many photos and often live videos of the empty supermarket shelves, the queues of people outside the supermarkets waiting for food, the armed thugs on the streets and the army patrols all happening as the country was plunged further into poverty after being one of the worlds richest nations in the 1960’s, being no4 just behind NZ. And at 3-years old, Victoria was snatched from the front of their house, but found within the hour thank God. On our trip to Venezuela, we saw the wealth of the previous years with magnificent roads that were not being maintained, the wealthy still enjoying a very privileged lifestyle and there were still oil tankers lining up at the ports to ship oil to the USA. There was growing poverty and areas where we were told to keep away from. Our son has many stories from his layovers in Venezuela from his encounter with the pirates and the drug runners being chased by the USA drug enforcement agency – he should write a book. He had a friend who was kidnapped regularly and offered to put the kidnappers on the payroll to stop the inconvenience of being held hostage for the 3 to 5 days at a time. Lawlessness was rife and many of the people of Venezuela felt unsafe. We were there during the last of Charves election campaign and that was amazing with all major TV and radio stations having to broadcast his political statements every day for 1-hour at midday. He had +/-100 bus loads of supporters descending on the towns and cities to promote the regime with helicopter gunships circling overhead. It was an education in how propaganda is powerful. I would like to think that the arrest of Maduro was not just about the vast oil reserves, but was also about the people who will hopefully be able to have their dignity restored and be returned to being an open and free democracy. There will be debates forever about the legality and the legitimacy of the arrest and the opposing sides will never agree, but we must all remember about the people who have been forced to leave the country for their own safety and the safety of their families. Some may return and others will feel free to return to visit family and friends. The beaches were magnificent, the food was excellent and the people were great and when peace is restored it will be a great holiday destination for you all to consider!! Let us hope that wild bush fires in Australia can be contained, Thursday nights Sky news reported that there was 11,000 ha on fire that they could not control, and with winds expected to reach 100 km/hr it is going to be a week from hell!!.. Have happy New Year and enjoy our summer. ( Source )