Farm employee pay is increasing despite tough industry conditions, Federated Farmers and Rabobank's latest remuneration report shows.
Salaries across the industry groups generally were equal at entry level, although some dairy farming employees, such as dairy farm managers, had higher salaries compared with their sheep and beef counterparts.
The report collated data on 3613 employment positions across 15 different on farm roles in the dairy, sheep and beef and grain sectors.
The mean salary was up across those sectors by 4.1% for dairy employees, 1.8% for sheep and beef employees and 7.2% for grain employees.
It had been a ''fairly unfavourable'' year for farming, especially in the dairy industry, with returns down 40%, Federated Farmers dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard said.
The ASB New Zealand commodity price index fell in all denominations last week, led lower by another significant dip in the dairy price index.
The dairy index recorded a 6.1% drop in US dollar terms, with butter prices plunging nearly 17%, skim milk powder prices down close to 8% and whole milk powder and casein prices falling about 3%. Only cheddar prices rose.
The sheep and beef index posted a more modest fall and most of that was due to lamb prices which fell 3% in US dollar terms. Beef prices also fell 1% but wool prices were up nearly 2% over the week.
Rabobank's latest agribusiness monthly showed Chinese dairy imports in February fell 36% compared with the same month last year.
Sheepmeat exports in February were down 2% year on year while exports to China declined 12% year on year in the month, with reports of high Chinese domestic production dampening demand.
Wool exports had a big rise in February, up 58.5% from the previous month, which included a big lift in exports to China, recording the highest volume sent there since March 2013.
