Mike Hosking: Take a look at the bigger picture - nothing is wrong with dairy

I liked what Ganesh Nana said on Friday about dairy.

Fonterra... also on Friday gave the bad news we were expecting... 3.85... down from 5.25.

It's generally accepted you need hi 4s or 5 bucks to run a farm.

But what Ganesh said and what farmers already know is that this is a big picture game and what worries me about this country is our view is so short of term.

That doesn't mean it's not bad news or it's not hard yards or it's not a tough season.

But the people who seem to panic the most, drive the headlines and forecast the doom aren't the people living in it. They're the people looking to drive agendas or score points.

These past few years we have earned an absolute fortune in dairy 8.40 a kilo- that's 3.40 for each and every kilo farmers produced in pure profit it is billions upon billions of dollars.

And in the commodity game, that is how it works- it's good, it's not so good and we need to give farmers more credit for getting all this and not doing what the clowns in Europe do by blocking roads and tossing poo or buying the milk and pouring it down the drain. They have seen this all before. They will see it again.

Are we too reliant on dairy? There is probably some weight to that. Certainly there are many recent converts to the game who are heavily indebted... and they will be sweating. But once again, listen to Ganesh- you have to believe in the big picture.

The world needs more than we can make. China alone needs more than we can make- yes they are building farms, yes they have a stock pile currently- but in understanding the numbers... in comprehending just how big the world is... and just how various the growing middle class will be in the long term... dairy is more than safe.

If we can do ourselves a favour... it's to think that if a problem arises on a Monday it might not... and doesn't need to be fixed by Tuesday.

Housing is another one- we've worked ourselves into a ridiculous frenzy over it... wanting snappy one liner answers to complex issues...

Yes there is room to diversity, we should do more in other areas and once again, if you listen to what Ganesh said we have and are but down days... for in this case dairy does not mean the end of anything.

Economies and markets aren't constants- they're moveable feasts and if when we were swimming in 8.40... we didn't thinks something below five dollars was coming then...let's at least this time round learn the lesson and not repeat it next time- because there will be a next time.

Debate on this article is now closed.