Fonterra's boss says farmers are used to volatility in prices and payouts. 

Its midpoint forecast farmgate milk price for this season now sits at $9 after a string of falls in global dairy prices. 

That's more than 10% lower than last season's final payout. 

Chief Executive Miles Hurrell told Andrew Dickens most farms are intergenerational, so farmers understand the ups and downs of the commodity cycle. 

He says the pace of the northern hemisphere increase in supply may have caught some people out. 

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