All eyes will be on the Fonterra interim result out today for a variety of reasons, not least for clues on progress of the capital restructuring proposal.
BNZ economist Doug Steel said from Wellington he did not expect any material changes to the already announced payout.
Today's announcement would be more about the co-operative as a business than the payout.
The recent fall in auction dairy prices was not a "particular surprise" to the market given what was going on in the rest of the world.
The price fall came as result of short-term contracts being fully sold and with hardly any product traded, Mr Steel said.
Any further update on the capital restructuring by Fonterra would bewelcomed, particularly around the trading among farmers.
There had been some talk about the process being delayed until the end of this year, or even next year, depending on what action the Government took, Mr Steel said.
Before the capital restructure, farmers could only sell shares to Fonterra if they ended a bad season with more shares than they were entitled to from milk sold.
The shares were priced by an independent valuation.
The capital restructuring planned for a market in which farmers could trade their shares at any time and farmers could hold more shares than they were entitled to, up to a certain level.
The second stage was to allow trading among farmers with a market-determined price.
A shareholders' fund would help liquidity, Mr Steel said.
Green Party MP Sue Kedgley is also likely to be watching the Fonterra result and any indications regarding future milk pricing after yesterday calling for a milk pricing inquiry.
A Consumer New Zealand survey found 79% of New Zealanders thought the Government should initiate an inquiry into milk prices.
"The Consumer NZ survey shows that New Zealanders consider there is a virtual monopoly operator dominating the milk market.
"The survey shows that the public understands Fonterra controls 90% of all milk produced in New Zealand," she said.
What New Zealand had was a virtual milk monopoly in Fonterra selling to a supermarket duopoly and that was contributing to the high price of milk, Ms Kedgley said.
One of the reasons for the concern about milk prices has been the price war in Australia, where some milk was selling for as little as $A1 ($NZ1.36) a litre.
However, Federated Farmers research found that Australian milk was more expensive than New Zealand milk until February's "price war".
"In the excitement of seeing milk across the Tasman sell for as little as $A1 a litre, it has been overlooked that last December the same litre of milk would have costs Australian consumers on average at least $A1.80," Federated Farmers dairy chairman Lachlan McKenzie said.
The only reason milk in Australia was now at prices last seen two decades ago was the battle for supermarket market share.
Milk had become a classic "loss leader" to get customers through the door in the same way fuel vouchers were used in New Zealand, he said.
Last month, Australian industry sources estimated Coles was underwriting its milk by about $A300,000 to $A400,000 a week, he said.
While Fonterra, Tatua and Westland were farmer owned co-operatives in New Zealand, milk processing in Australia was dominated by Italy's Parmalat and Japan's National Foods.
"Dairy farmers across theTasman are price takers and in the current milk war, they are being squeezed white.
"At least on this side of the Tasman, every cent of revenue from our co-operatives comes back into the economy," Mr McKenzie said.
Fonterra announced last month a record forecast payout rate of $7.90 a kg to $8 a kg of milk solids for this season before company retentions.
That was estimated to inject about $900 million into the economy.
For a southern South Island farmer producing 140,000kg of milk solids, the higher payout is worth another $53,000 gross and will push gross income to more than a $1 million.
