Farmgirl

UK Lord seriously recommending turning veggie to save the planet

2009-10-28T09:56:00.005+13:00

It really is frightening when British Government is influenced by the likes of Lord Nicholas Stern, a so called 'academic' and economist who authored the highly influential Stern Review on the economics of climate change.

The man is now suggesting seriously that we all turn veggie - and he has some support for his manic views.

This from Farmers Weekly UK:

People should stop eating meat to help the world conquer climate change, a leading scientist has warned.
"Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases," said Lord Stern of Brentford.
"It puts enormous pressure on the world's resources. A vegetarian diet is better."
Lord Stern's comments are significant because he is the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming.
'A global agreement to tackle climate change would result in soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases, he said.
People's attitudes would evolve until meat eating became unacceptable, Lord Stern predicted.
"I think it's important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating," he said.
Lord Stern made the comments in a front-page interview with The Times.
The article has attracted more than 283 comments from internet readers.
"Eating a vegetarian diet is a lot cheaper than a meat one," wrote Jonte Jay.
"Let's face it - the most expensive foods on the average families shopping lists are meat and dairy."
Peter Radcliffe wrote: "Those who refuse to give up eating meat are contributing significantly to the destruction of the planet."
But most comments were far less sympathetic.
Nicholas Fox wrote: "Tell me I'm having a bad dream and not really living in such a ridiculous country."
Reuben Camara wrote: "Forget methane. There is far more hot air emitting from parasite Lord Stern's mouth than can possibly be good for the planet."

When this kind of myth starts to get traction you know that we are in trouble. It is now time to address some of the balderdash being spouted and to fight back. Our Government has already in principle agreed that agriculture is helping contribute to the problem. It really is only a slippery slope from there to what Lord Stern is suggesting. Why are we not standing up to this?

Ferrier's paycut a timely warning to other agricultural businesses

2009-10-28T09:30:00.005+13:00

Well done Fonterra and well done Andrew Ferrier on taking a whopping great pay cut of $360 000 even if his salary is in the realms of fantasy at $3.62 million a year.

When you look at it on paper, three million seems a heck of a lot to pay the figurehead of an organisation, but converted to US dollars it's paltry compared to what he could get working elsewhere in the world, especially it seems, in a recession.

Have a read of this blog written by Rick Newman in the US regarding the trend upwards of CEO salaries in the States despite the gloomy economic conditions:

It's good to be CEO, even in a recession. Especially in a recession.
Hewlett-Packard's stock price fell 29 percent in 2008, and the company announced plans to lay off 25,000 workers after it acquired Electronic Data Systems. But CEO Mark Hurd didn't feel the pain. Hurd earned $43 million in 2008, a 73 percent raise from his 2007 pay. Perks included $136,000 worth of personal travel on corporate jets, paid for by shareholders, and $7,472 in travel expenses for Hurd's family, according to an analysis of HP's annual proxy filings by shareholder activist Eric Jackson. Several other top HP executives earning multimillion-dollar pay got double- or triple-digit raises.
[See 10 gaffes by doomed CEOs.]
Hurd has been a strong CEO since he took over in 2005, generally credited with enhancing HP's profitability after a period of drift. But the big pay hikes during a dismal year are generating some of the toughest criticism of Hurd's tenure. "There are some very troubling aspects about how he, his management team and his board approach executive compensation and governance," writes Jackson. "Investors should steer clear of this Silicon Valley icon until it gets its act together."
For all the talk of reining in CEO pay and enacting financial reform—even from some CEOs themselves—it's beginning to appear that very little has changed in the way companies are run and executives get paid. A new survey of CEO pay by research firm the Corporate Library finds that median take-home pay among more than 2,000 CEOs fell by 6.4 percent from 2007 to 2008, the first time on record that CEO pay has gone down instead of up. But that was in a year in which the stock market fell by 37 percent and the economy lost 2.6 million jobs. By almost every measure, the vast majority of companies performed far worse in 2008 than in 2007. "While the downturn has affected pay, the link between pay and performance remains weak," says the report. "Such a minimal decline in pay given the massive decline in shareholder value is hardly an adequate response."
A surprising number of CEOs didn't personally experience the downturn at all. Of 100 industries tracked by the Corporate Library, median CEO pay went up in 40. The 10 highest-paid CEOs included seven from the oil industry, which had a banner year as gasoline prices hit $4 per gallon. The others were Stephen Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Michael Jeffries of Abercrombie & Fitch. Schwarzman earned the most: $702 million. No. 10 Jeffries earned $72 million.
[See how to pay CEOs what they're worth.]
Reformers want to see much tougher rules linking executive pay to the long-term performance of their companies, and a few CEOs took a step in this direction. Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs endured a 97 percent pay cut in 2008, because the tony Wall Street firm rescinded bonuses for top executives. Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase went without a bonus as well, resulting in a 92 percent pay cut. But both of those companies were big bailout recipients under the microscope of politicians and regulators. And both have paid back all their bailout money, which means Blankfein and Dimon will probably do a bit better in 2009.
[Get ready for the miraculous hollow economy!]
It's likely that overall CEO pay will bounce right back up in 2009 as well. Many CEOs earn a relatively low base salary, with the majority of their total compensation coming from bonuses, company stock, or options to buy stock. The plunge in the stock market last year means the value of CEO-owned stock fell as well, and many CEOs declined to exercise options to sell stock since prices were so low. That has changed in 2009, with the market up smartly. It could even turn out to be a record year for CEO pay raises, as they springboard off of last year's lows. At least somebodies getting ahead.

So good on Fonterra for insisting on a performance based salary. It's just a shame that some of our other agricultural companies are not using the same standard for their bosses and their board sitters...Farmgirl can think of one such fertiliser company that would and should be rife for a pay cut!

Farmgirl on Farming Show

2009-10-28T09:16:00.002+13:00

To listen to Farmgirl's latest chat with Jamie Mackay on the Farming Show follow this link: http://www.farmingshow.com/farming221009.html

Dollar for dollar with US a looming catatrosphe

2009-10-22T10:14:00.003+13:00

When banking commentator Bernard Hickey said it was not out of the question for the New Zealand dollar to match the greenback in the near future, you could hear the collective Prozac popping among exporters.

Surely Hickey is talking balderdash? But hey, it's okay, he went on to say jubilantly, because it's great news for anyone going overseas or buying consumer products.

What was he thinking?

There won't be a country if his dire prediction comes true. There could be no worse economic disaster in this country's history than if our dollar did match the US. All the talk of recession over the past year would be like a bad day at the races in comparison to what would happen in that situation.

It is difficult for the farming fraternity to hear comments such as these when the squeeze is going back on with the Kiwi climbing through the 76 cent mark.

As for Bollard's comments last night that the high dollar was not an impediment to future interest rate hikes, you could only squirm, knowing that will give overseas investors the confidence to keep investing and therefore push the dollar up further.

Just what we needed Mr Bollard...well done...

Throw the bunnies!

2009-10-22T09:50:00.003+13:00

For **** sake! If New Zealand rated on a political correctness scale (Farmgirl's pet hate) we would be number one in the world, but sadly it's not an accolade we want.

The latest debacle featuring the SPCA who have stood in and spoilt the farm kiddies fun at the annual Waiau pig hunting weekend by outlawing dead bunny throwing is enough to have you bashing a bunnies head against the proverbial brick wall.

Look, it may not be everyone's cuppa, but that doesn't mean that it should go by the wayside. The trouble is that if we bow down to the SPCA animal welfare aficionados it is going to get worse. So go ahead Waiau - THROW THOSE BUNNIES.

Farmgirl doesn't claim to be the brightest in the den, but heck, even she knows when a rabbit is dead, it can't feel anything, contrary to the namby pamby office sitters that seem to make up SPCA these days.

Imagine what these idiots were like as kids. If the cat caught a mouse, they made you spend all your pocket money on getting the vet to operate, because the poor minced up mouse deserved better than to end its life in the intestines of your pet. They were the type of kids you could never take out to the farm. They hyperventilated when they saw the pile of lambs tails at the end of the tailing pen, and vomited when they saw a bird eating an insect.

Are we now saying that we are not allowed to swing lambs around to help them breathe when they are born, even though it saves their lives?

Come on Waiau...THROW THOSE BUNNIES and fight back for all of us sane people in this crazy country...but make sure won't you, as parents, that your children don't play with their sausages or chops at the dinner table before they eat them...it's cruelty don't you know!

Nobel Peace Prize right on the money

2009-10-10T15:16:00.004+13:00

Farmgirl is one of the few that think US President Barack Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sure, there's thousands of candidates out there who have swam 100 miles through crocodile infested waters, survived under a hail of bullets and rescued millions of starving children. No, I'm not taking the mickey but I am saying that the judges got it right because they awarded the one thing that is not quantifiable, not easily seen, nor able to be scored on a human rights ledger - they recognised the value of HOPE.

That many are critical of Obama's victory show how materialistic this world has become. Unless someone is starving to death for a cause and giving us a visual recount of suffering, we can't connect the dots. We seem to only understand the concrete.

Yet there was one thing we understood last year...one day where it wasn't about the visual, where we felt good, where unity abounded. Don't deny it..Obama's Presidential win made you feel good because it meant that there was HOPE - hope that we might solve this religious mess, hope that we might overcome the obstacles we see in other human beings who might not look like us (ironically, his win was about overcoming the visual).

You might think then that we as the people deserve the prize for getting him there, but you have to look at Obama's extraordinary journey. He dispenses the HOPE and is working for a bigger cause than you and I...he's working for a peaceful solution, a listening America and just because he hasn't got down in the swamps and saved the many that are drowning in the poorer countries, it doesn't make his journey any less award able.

It took courage for the judges to choose him...just as it takes courage every day for him to be in the highest office in the world.

Key's 'Eva Peron' tour of the States avoiding the emissions issue

2009-09-30T16:25:00.004+13:00

You'll have to excuse farmers if John Key's much trumpeted speech in New York last week declaring that Kiwis would lead a global research initiative to cut greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture doesn't leave them braying with joy.

It's not that they don't like the cheerful little fellow...it's just that he's so damn blatantly desperate to have New Zealand leading the world at something, that he's blindly about to all but sink our economy.

And no - those sentiments are not unrealistic. It is incredulous to think that the Government of the day would commit a country that is banking on its agriculture sector, into an emissions trading scheme that would see the same sector heavily penalised.

It all smacks of that 'little fish' chip on the shoulder we seem to carry around as Kiwis. If we're not at the forefront of everything (think mountaineering, women's vote...domestic violence) then we'll push our way forward, puff out the shoulders and say 'we'll do it mate', even if it does mean less money in the economy, slow economic growth and the difference between profitability and quitting the farm.

Isn't that what asking for a seat on the UN security council was all about after all?

And in all of it there is a distinct immaturity about our attitude, a need to be the teachers pet and to receive adulation from other countries who are not dumb enough to sign their countries to a death warrant.

What happened to the Lange 'up yours' nuclear ethos? Since when did we try to brown nose everyone?

Forget leading the world in research John boy, and sink that money into other agricultural research that scientists are clamouring to do...you know, the kind that puts more money in our pockets - yours and ours.

Ravensdown claim backdown over PKE but haven't gone far enough

2009-09-30T13:14:00.006+13:00

Today the PR spinners were busy again, convincing arable farmers that Ravensdown are pulling out of the South Island animal nutrition market due to continuing 'negative' feedback. However, they claim this was in the face of 'overwhelming support'. Which was it then? - negative feedback or overwhelming support? Farmgirl is confused.

But besides this point there is another. The South Island market was small and the meetings where Ravensdown claimed support were about selling PKE into the North Island. It is still many arable farmers contention that Ravensdown should not be importing PKE into any of New Zealand. The North Island market is still undercutting arable suppliers. Therefore the backdown today from Ravensdown is nothing but a PR ploy and is not worth the paper it is written on.

For goodness sakes, if you can understand how damaging this has been, boys, to your reputation as the small concession today recognises, then surely you can extend the hand further and stop bringing in PKE altogether.

Questions still need to be answered as well...if they are promoting a 50/50 percent blend of PKE and barley why is it that they have only taken 6500 tonnes of barley. If you do the maths they sold 50 000 tonnes of the mix last year - doesn't look as though that barley made up 50% does it?

Farmers and Fonterra need to be tougher on those practising calf cruelty

2009-09-30T13:01:00.005+13:00

Whether or not MAF finds there is a case to answer of calf cruelty on a Fonterra supplier's farm in the King Country, Fonterra must move quickly to get rid of any taint on their reputation.

The problem is not isolated. Farmgirl knows of a farm in the South Island that had been practising abhorrent standards for many years on a large scale, and had even lost thousands of calves due to neglect, ignorance and incredibly harsh, cruel conditions.

Not only does Fonterra have a need to act, but so does the farming industry in general. Hiding these cowboys when we all know what is going on and not speaking up for fear of retribution will only backfire in the long run.

For an industry to thrive on its wholesome image, it needs farmers to keep an eye out for mistreatment or any practices that could threaten their bottom line.

van der Heyden was right to call on authorities to mount a full scale inquiry into the Crafar farm but he needs to do more. Suspension (in this case there was video footage that he found alarming) as a supplier must happen if proven guilty and a check performed regularly by Fonterra to ensure they are treating their animals better.

Expanding too fast is not an excuse for poor treatment, nor is ignorance. Unfortunately it is not just the Crafars out there damaging the industry, and it's up too us all to stop it.

Feds to the rescue

2009-09-28T15:37:00.003+13:00

And the handshake of the week goes to Ian Morten, the Federated Farmers Grain and Seed Chairperson for his and the Feds concerted and continued effort to squash PKE imports.

Farmgirl has already voiced her opinions on PKE and how it continues to undermine arable farmers' bottom lines, as well as present a significant risk to all of our industries.

Ian's call this week to report any foreign matter in PKE reminds us all of how ridiculous the entire situation is. The Feds have received 'anecdotal evidence' of insects, soil etc being present in the mix, although MAFBNZ claim there hasn't been any substantial risks so far...

Why are we waiting at the bottom of the cliff with our arms wide open rather than blocking the fall?

It seems simple. PKE presents a risk - get rid of it and support our local cockies instead of their overseas counterparts.

Farmgirl back online

2009-09-28T15:25:00.002+13:00

Farmgirl is now back online after a maternity break and has plenty to write about. Much has been happening in between, including some interesting new developments with PKE, Ravensdown's annual report and of course our rock star PM making the rounds in America, still looking like the nerdy boy at primary school who just topped the spelling bee!

Be sure to keep the discussion and comments coming.

Farmgirl on maternity leave but has new important questions for Ravensdown

2009-08-03T12:11:00.003+12:00

Farmgirl will be offline for a short time due to maternity requirements, but wants Ravensdown shareholders to consider the following, while waiting for the figures from annual accounts to come out:

1 How is it that if Ballance suffered significantly in the past year due to the global environment and has decided it can't afford to pay a rebate, that Ravensdown is claiming a much stronger balance sheet (again) and paying a rebate. Where is the money for that rebate coming from?

2 Have Ravensdown broken banking covenants and if so how much has that cost shareholders over the past year?

3 What is the debt to equity ratio of Ravensdown now - that is what counts. Pay attention to the level of borrowing and whether foreign exchange earnings is what is paying for rebates rather than profit.

Silver Fern Farms money raising a thinly veiled glossover of Richmond fiasco

2009-07-15T08:43:00.003+12:00

You have to feel for SFF shareholders. Now CEO Keith Cooper is asking them to stump up with $128 million, apparently in the name of forward progress in the UK consumer market.

Their hard fought co-operative, designed to protect their interests is fast becoming what they term a 'hybrid co-operative'. The translation for that is a co-operative moving away from what it was designed for and if this share restructuring goes ahead you would have to assume that it is only a matter of time before outside shareholders gain some status in the company, even if Cooper is promising that won't happen now.

But why do the restructuring in the first place?

Overcommitment.

First SFF tries to wrangle the money out of PGG Wrightson, now it's talking all this lovely juvely touchy feely rubbish about needing to be a 'fully integrated market-led company'. Come on, it all looks a bit desperate and more than a little co-incidental in the light of the lack of cash injection from the failed merger with PGG.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if the PR doctors just for once let go of the spin and spoke the honest truth. In SFF's case the statement would read something like this:
"SFF would like to advise that it is charging farmers an extra $128 million in shares and will be trying to find outside investors as well, due to the balls up it made several years ago when those in charge decided that SFF should buy Richmond at all costs. Because of this SFF has been in the poo financially for some time and as you know PGG Wrightson didn't end up joining the party so you, our loyal shareholders will have to foot the bill. But don't worry...we won't sell your co-operative rights down the road just yet...after all farmers are our business...and consumers...flashy UK consumers..."

Farmgirl hopes that SFF farmer shareholders voice their concerns over the restructuring as it is more than a little flawed.

It's funny isn't it how CEO's and directors are paid to go into a company and grow the business and make it financially stronger, yet end up making it bigger and weaker...think US companies answering to DC at the moment. The NZ example in agriculture is not as far apart from that as we might like to think...

Farmers tired of hearing the same old speel from the top

2009-07-09T09:22:00.004+12:00

Farmgirl was more than a little dismissive of David Carter's speech to the Federated Farmers conference this week.

He told us to, "adopt new ideas, abandon old ways of thinking and embrace different farming methods"...blah, blah, blah.

This sentence has been trotted out by every agricultural minister since butter was churned by hand. It means nothing and it's not helpful.

When will Carter and his fellow ministers realise that this kind of talk is nothing but condescending as it suggests today's farmers are slow on the uptake and are not looking towards the future.

Farmgirl suggests it's not farmers who need to embrace different methods but more the companies that represent them and the politicians who continue to impede progress by whacking on costs at the farm gate year in, year out with thinly veiled bureaucracy - Kyoto being one such example.

Mr Carter and others that repeat these meaningless phrases (Anderton was equally as good at that - his tongue could roll off thousands of them in a week) regarding the need for farmers to adopt new ideas would do well to visit the Young Farmer Contest in Palmerston North today and talk to this latest generation of farmers. Farmgirl thinks they would teach him a thing or two.

Light Relief - the whoopsies that the camera caught!

2009-07-09T09:07:00.008+12:00

Sometimes you just know you shouldn't get out of bed!

Young Farmer Contest wide open this year

2009-07-08T09:48:00.003+12:00

Right about now seven young men will be shovelling their nerves into a suitcase and making their way to Palmerston North to face agriculture's ultimate challenge - the Young Farmer Contest.

This year's contestants are all 'first timers' at the Grand Final, so it will be something special to watch and be part of.

What is striking about this year's bunch of bright young things is that most of the contestants do jobs 'off the farm' as well as on it, a marked change from the early days of the contest.

Some have background in rural banking and consultancy work, most have qualifications from Lincoln - showing that today's farmers are better educated and inducted to the world outside the farm than ever before.

Farmgirl feels for every one of them as they prepare for the theory day tomorrow. Having experience the highs and lows of competition as a partner, she well understands how much work and preparation has been undertaken in order for the contestants to front.

It truly is a magnificent spectacle for agriculture and a marvelous springboard for leadership within our sector.

And who will come up trumps?

Farmgirl has heard that East Coast's Mark Guscott may be the one to watch but you never know - Southerners have had more than their fair share of the title over the years so it would be unwise to rule out Otago/Southland's Richard Copland and of course the North Island region's stronghold in Waikato/Bay of Plenty's Andrew Morris.

Be sure to watch the dramatic conclusion on Saturday night, TV 1 at 10.15pm and support our agricultural showpiece.

More annihilation of British Farmers rights

2009-07-08T09:33:00.004+12:00

Our poor old British counterparts are suffering yet more draconian public whims with the news this week that a dairy farmer who happened to be grazing his cows in a field with a public access walkway through it, will face $1 million pounds in damages for injuries received by a walker after she was attacked by cattle in Cumbria in 2003.

If ever we needed proof that the general public in Britain has gone barmy, this is it, and it goes to the very heart of why farmers here fought so hard over public access issues here recently - they saw the future - and it looks costly.

According to the Farmers Weekly UK a judge at Preston Crown Court ruled the farmer was liable because he had not properly considered the risk his cattle posed.

"Ms McKaskie (the victim), who was walking her dog across one of Mr Cameron’s fields, is claiming £1m for the injuries she sustained in the attack.While Mr Cameron is appealing against the decision, legal experts warned the judge’s decision could set a legal precedent and mean farmers having to remove cattle from fields.

However the NFU said there was nothing in law to prevent farmers putting cattle and calves in fields with public access.

"It is a concern that following a recent court case in light of the accident that there is a suggestion cattle should not be grazed in fields with footpaths,” the union’s Robert Shearsby told the BBC.

"The NFU advises its members on the requirements of the law and what should be done to minimise risks."

The ruling came after a police officer was paid £10,000 in damages by a landowner after he was trampled by a herd of cattle."

This is of course what happens when the rights of the public are put ahead of the necessity of producing food. Farmers in Britain may own the land but it seems they barely have a foothold on it, and that is why we see so many immigrating to New Zealand. Who can blame them!

Ravensdown CEO Rodney Green's job hangs on a transparency thread

2009-07-07T18:44:00.011+12:00

Farmgirl, unlike the Radio Network, has managed to escape the bullying clutches of the CEO of Ravensdown thus far and has requested a head to head discussion through the radio forum with Rodney Green but has heard nothing yet.

It is very serious and alarming when shareholders seem to be muzzled by the head of a co-operative and are not being allowed to ask the questions that need to be asked at this point of time.

What is even more alarming is that Farmgirl has received further serious allegations against the CEO and his Board regarding some private dealings that shareholders have no idea about.

This company appears to be no longer transparent and the head of it has far too much power and seemingly a weak or frightened Board.

Farmgirl wants Mr Green to front up and answer these questions:

1 Did Ravensdown have a large cash deficit in last year's accounts from operating activities - that actually they didn't have a $40 million profit but a $40 million loss - it only looks that way due to a change of accounting standards and the favourable revaluation of foreign exchange contracts?
2 Were last year's rebates paid from borrowing, not actual profit?
3 That borrowing to pay rebates is a hugely risky venture and not one that shareholders are aware of?
4 That under these current conditions and the fact that Ravensdown is not in great shape the venture into Australia could only be construed as risky?

4a That the directors may not have been fully aware of Ravensdown's financial situation

prior to its move into Australia?
5 Have they made any million dollar plus settlements out of court in the past three years?

6 Are shareholders aware of what might have been paid via settlement out of court in the past

three years?

7 How on earth can Ravensdown be called a co-operative if its shareholders are ill informed and then threatened should they choose to ask questions?

If Farmgirl and other concerned shareholders are right about the situation with Ravnesdown, then it's time all of us did something about it, took back control of the co-operative and got rid of the rot.

This is not defamation Rodney, this is our right as concerned shareholders to publicly voice our view.

Having worked in agricultural newspapers, and knowing how companies can threaten to pull big advertising budgets if anything negative is written about them, this blog becomes vitally important.

Please, share your views, get in contact with Farmgirl if need be and keep asking these questions of your directors until you get the answers clarified.

We will not be silenced, nor will investigations be dismissed.

Are growers being ripped off with Ravensdown DAP price?

2009-06-22T18:02:00.004+12:00

And more from our Aussie commentator - something that we as shareholders have suspected.

"They are ripping off growers blind on DAP at NZ$827/t. DAP has been selling on the world market at US$300-US$330 since the beginning of the year, current prices are at the bottom of the range anticipating additional Chinese capacity for June/July, it is well documented and highlighted recently at IFA Shanghai that DAP pricing will continue to be low due to low demand and expected to trade range bound for the medium term. Freight is roughly US$30/t and port/discharge/handling costs roughly US$25/t. This should mean a co-op that sells at “cost” should be more like US$400/t, maybe US$420 which I believe equates to around NZ$620/t?"

All this when Rodney promised Mid Canterbury arable farmers a forward fixed price no higher than $900 plus per tonne for spring delivery. Surely they're market intelligence research must have been better informed...which puts further questions over their honesty with growers and they're research on the Australian venture.

What an Australian commentator is predicting for Ravensdown and it isn't good for Kiwi shareholders...

2009-06-22T17:49:00.005+12:00

This just sent to Farmgirl today from a rural Australian follower of the blog.

"In essence Ravensdown is only offering granular urea and they have made a right royal mess of it in my opinion. They have offered growers a “cost” price of A$525/t, however, the current urea price is $480/t, admittedly at the time Ravensdown spruiked to its Kiwi brethren, the price was over $600/t but blind freddy could see the price was tumbling as world urea prices had already started the forecast fall. The Ravensdown marketing machine (double speak in a suit), managed to fear the Australian growers into prices were going up or remaining high and managed to greed NZ shareholders that the price was hugely profitable. Both of these claims are of course...let’s say...less than honest.
The model that Ravensdown are using is causing a backlash in our rural communities, essentially Ravensdown are attempting to cause the demise of the rural store, it is highly unlikely this will be tolerated once the smoke has cleared and this alone will create a huge cost impost for Ravensdown in order for it to compete long term. Secondly, the idea that there was only one large, unloved player in the Queensland market that need be conquered is a major underestimation, not sure whether by design or folly. The notion that the second tier players, us included, along with our large multi-national, are going to sit by and watch our markets get eroded and rural communities and infrastructure become decimated is ridiculous. Ravensdown are in for a fight they have never encountered before, I think there will be significant focus on reducing their profitability and exposing their integrity.
Already we see Ravensdown are showing off their true colours, a part of the deal with Australian growers was that they must belong to Ravensdown in order to access “cheap” fertiliser, and in fact they forced growers to pay $80/t up front partial share payment at time of order but cannot collect it themselves as they are illegally setup for such a transaction (not only has this decimated possible Ravensdown cash flow, but a very expensive court case at NZ shareholders expense in the making we presume). In order to get the first vessel possible, Ravensdown were forced to sellout the growers and offer large parcels to another fertiliser importer in South Australia, paid for by its NZ shareholders.
There are now several large risks at question, the Townsville warehouse is reportedly full of holes, was never suitable for fertiliser and come September when the wet season arrives, any fertiliser remaining will be dumped or relocated at presumably NZ shareholder expense. The vessel calling Brisbane (our major port) is apparently under question as sales volumes flounder and the vessel has to also go to South Australia to satisfy the non-shareholder customer. Rumours for sure, but where there’s smoke there’s fire. Rest assured, any cracks in the Ravensdown venture will be seized upon, exploited and capitalised on to the detriment of NZ shareholders."

Shareholders should be concerned about Ravensdown...

2009-06-22T17:39:00.004+12:00

Farmgirl wants to share some important comments passed on to her by a follower of the blog.

"Have you seen the latest Ravensdown Hot off the Press on their web site.What has been said about having to make profits, banking covenants,pressure to retain bank funding facilities, selling foreign exchange,having to restructure etc is just the tip of the iceberg. No wonder they have the pressure on (you) not to let their true financial position be know to shareholders, but the truth will come sooner or later especially with this Australian nonsense and the current banking squeeze.

In the market Ballance are deliberately squeezing them on prices. Ballance set the price and Ravensdown follow a few days later at about the same level. But with sales back and profits and cashflow required to satisfy their banks they desperately need higher prices in New Zealand -they will never achieve this.

This is a deliberate tactic by Ballance - they want a weaker and weaker Ravensdown in the market in order to grow their own market share and improve operational capacities.

Rodney Green said some time ago a 50:50market was not sustainable and he would grow Ravensdown to be 20% larger than the number two in the market. Ballance are effectively following his advice.

The Australian venture and non fertiliser activities is the only way Green can boast that he has been successful and grown Ravensdown - that is his driving force and the force that dominates Ravensdown's activities - but at what cost - he was not in the industry when other misguided fertiliser co-op's collapsed.

Their accounts may just be legal - but their presentations and PR in explaining their true position are on very thin ice - no doubt they will blame the current economic conditions - but their problems are more fundamental and getting to be terminal."

The worrying truth about Ravensdown's cashflow

2009-06-22T17:31:00.003+12:00

An adviser thinks Farmgirl should be focusing on the fact there has been such a large cashflow deficit ($109 million) from Ravensdown 'operating activities' (i.e.core fertiliser activities) in the past year and that the current ratio (85.4%debt/assets) is in such bad shape.

"Paying a rebate with those numbers in such poor shape would seem risky, especially when you compare what Fonterra is doing (no unshared supply, no contract milkers, retaining a large portion of the payout). Fonterra seems to be taking a cautious/prudent approach that should see them through these difficult times."

Is Ravensdown doing the same?

Ravensdown not doing anything illegal

2009-06-16T10:12:00.003+12:00

Let's be clear about this.
Ravensdown is not doing anything illegal in its financial accounting or in any of its business and Farmgirl is not suggesting anything of the sort.
What Farmgirl is suggesting is that shareholders are not fully aware of the situation financially - by that she means that under the new international accounting standards, although Ravensdown is showing a $40 million profit for the past financial year, the statement of cashflow reflects something entirely different.
This is not opinion - it is fact.
As a shareholder Farmgirl is concerned that on that basis many shareholders may not be as happy about the expansion into Australia as Ravensdown suggests.
Shareholders should always ask questions, and should always question the performance of their company - and for that they should never be punished.

Serious questions need to be asked about viability of Ravensdown's move into Australia

2009-06-03T16:35:00.004+12:00

They hate us - those Aussie fertiliser companies that Ravensdown is playing dirty with. And why wouldn't they...Rodders comes in on his big white shining horse to take over the industry, offers the farmers cost price fertiliser and then some, even though it is not maintainable and with a fair wave of his royal hand he wipes out competitors but does he endanger his own shareholders?
Who is paying for Rodney's expansionist ideas? Who indeed...come on Kiwi shareholders, it doesn't take a maestro to work out that if he's not making a profit on the much heralded Aussie advance, the money generated to continue must be coming from somewhere.

Are Australian farmers being put ahead of Kiwi shareholders?

How profitable is the core Ravensdown fertiliser business at present?

And how truthful is Ravensdown being about its profitability, cash flow and debt levels in its annual accounts?

The truth might surprise you.

Keep watching this space over the coming days and ask the questions that need to be asked of your so called 'co-operative'.

Farmgirl talks dairy pay-out and animal welfare with Farming Show host Jamie Mackay

2009-06-03T16:21:00.003+12:00

Last week Farmgirl talked to Jamie Mackay on the Farming Show about the dairy industry and pork issues. You can hear what she had to say on:

http://www.farmingshow.com/farming270509.html

Fonterra forecast extremely troubling for Government trying to go forward...

2009-05-27T12:13:00.003+12:00

Well it couldn't have got worse for the Government, one day out from Bill English's carefully constructed first budget. Fonterra has announced a forecast payout for 2009/10 of $4.55, down from $5.10 per kg for this season.

This is serious, regardless of whether the final pay-out is lifted somewhat. Farmgirl understands that there are already many Canterbury dairy farmers on their knees and has been told that anything $5.00 or under could spell mortgagee sales for many that have expanded in previous seasons.

Retailers in agricultural servicing towns like Ashburton have been reporting a drop off in sales across the board, and this will have many retailers reeling. The affects will be large and long term.

The consumer/producer divide Farmgirl has been blogging on over the past few months is about to be narrowed considerably as the general public begins to understand that dairy farmer fortunes are their own fortunes as well.

Carbon Tax suicide to kiwi farmers...

2009-05-27T10:06:00.006+12:00

Thank God for that queer species from overseas we like to call an 'expert'. It's the only thing that can guarantee the media's interest. Take for instance the Bain trial where UK 'experts' are taking their fair share of column space, because God forbid we should listen to our own.

It's a very Kiwi way of looking at things. So, let's hope the visit last week from the US Hudson Institute of global food issues director Dennis Avery, might wake the Government up to the lunacy that is carbon taxes.

That a National Government is even considering continuing on down that path is a real betrayal to the nation's farmers who have always supported them.

Avery is an expert on global warming and subscribes to the theory that the world is in a perpetual warming, cooling down cycle.

No matter what your own thoughts are on global warming it is important to understand that a consensus has not been reached by the 'experts' on if it is real or not. And if they can't reach an agreement, why the heck are we still jumping on this emission bandwagon that will devastate our economy.

Avery was blunt and he sure needed to be.

"Do not let them send you out of business. Don't go quietly. Not only will [a carbon tax] kill you, it will kill the entire economy of New Zealand," he warned, saying that as the world birth rate rose, so too would demand for products New Zealand specialises in, particularly high-value foods like lamb, beef, cheese and non-fat dried milk.
However, an emissions tax was likely to render New Zealand uncompetitive in the market.
"New Zealand has wonderful grassland, but guess who else has wonderful grassland? Countries like Argentina, who have more grassland than New Zealand and aren't carrying a carbon yoke around their necks, will be the beneficiary. What is New Zealand going to use to buy its imports if it is not selling lamb and beef? You don't make anything else."
Mr Avery went on to say he didn't have a time line for how quickly New Zealand would destroy its economic base through use of a carbon tax, but "things in this world happen a lot faster than they used to".

Principles are all very fine, except for when they might cripple your country. Like Obama's comedown on subsidies to US dairy farmers, sometimes you have to know when to quit having 'fine moral ideals' and have to face up to the hard truth. Now is that time for this Government.

Sight of water going out to sea sickening

2009-05-26T09:37:00.003+12:00

In Canterbury at present you can drive to almost any of the major rivers and weep at the volumes of water cascading its way out to sea - wasted.

On the subject of water storage nothing ever gets past the chit chat and good intentions so Farmgirl is hopeful that Bill English's newly announced National Infrastructure Board might actually cut the bull in favour of getting some powerful teeth into the subject of water storage dams.

Homepaddock is right when she says the line-up on the board is impressive. (See http://homepaddock.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/rod-carr-to-chair-infrastructure-board/)

But will they deliver?

The RMA still seems like a major stumbling block in any new infrastructure issue (Central Water Plains) - a problem this Government promised to sort out but it really is time for there to be more than just promises and fancy titles.

We have the water, just not the nous to use it.

Freedom Farms pork co-founder distasteful in selling his fellow farmers down the road...

2009-05-23T15:58:00.003+12:00

If there is one thing Farmgirl abhors more than any other, it is when a fellow farmer decides to sell the rest down the road to prop up his own business.

Never was this shown as clearly as when Freedom Farms co-founder Gregor Fyfe decided to use the blatant hype surrounding the so called 'sow pig crate cruelty' this last week as fodder to promote himself and his business through letters to the editor that were surprisingly published in a number of newspaper publications.

In them Fyfe said:

"Mike King's expose of intensive pig farming in New Zealand on Sunday (TV One) last night was sickening, but brilliant.
It must've taken a huge amount of courage for Mike to admit that he was wrong to put his name to the NZ Pork Industry Board without first investigating the way the majority of pigs are reared in this country.
Thanks to the efforts of Safe to enlighten him, Mike has now seen the extent of the suffering that many of the pigs living here endure on a daily basis.
And, to his credit, he was so appalled by the conditions (in particular the use of sow stalls), that he felt compelled to tell the rest of the country about it.
Happily for Mike and the rest of us pork lovers, there is an alternative. Many pigs are now being farmed without those crates and fattening pens and there are a growing number of free-range pork products available in specialty stores and supermarkets nationwide.
If you want your pork to come from happy pigs, the answer is simple. Check the label. If it doesn't say free range or free farmed then chances are it's not."

Firstly Farmgirl questions why newspapers would run such a blatant commercial advertisement disguised as a letter in the first place? Fyfe must have been rubbing his hands together gleefully at the free publicity he received.

Again and again in the farming community we see industries diluted by the lack of combined strength among farmers. It happens in the arable industry when farmers succumb to ridiculous wheat contract prices like they are at present and Fyfe has shown when the going gets tough in the pork industry, he bails and promotes himself which in Farmgirl's opinion is the lowest a man can go.

Okay, if he had advised that his product was free range and that consumers had a choice, that would have been alright, but to boot the poor pig farmers in the North Island while they're down by commenting sarcastically on their practices is just unacceptable.

But you know what - this money grabbing betrayer won the week. In supermarkets Farmgirl viewed this very morning in Canterbury, shelves that were normally full of expensive Freedom Farm bacon are near empty.

Farmgirl even bought some bacon from them today as well as many others to test whether their product is worth it's hefty $10.00 for 300grams.

In another irony Farmgirl questioned her local butcher this morning who informed her that they had sold 'astronomical' amounts of pork this week but that people still hadn't asked where it had come from, they just assumed that if it came from the butcher it wouldn't have been in a sow crate.

He thought the issue was crazy and said that most pork farmers have to separate out their sows in stalls for short periods of time to protect them even on so called 'free range farms'.

One thing is certain, there are three identities that benefited from this last week financially, Mike King, S.A.F.E and of course Freedom Farms.

Hope the bacon doesn't taste too bitter in your mouth Gregor...

SFF boss smart in getting PGG to help pay for Rissington...

2009-05-20T10:42:00.008+12:00

It's just a little too much of a co-incidence...Keith Cooper and Silver Fern Farms takes PGG Wrightson to the cleaners after Norgate reneged on a merger deal but says the livestock company are still the preferred option for an integrated supply chain partnership option.

Now SFF has cosied up to Rissington in a new deal by merging livestock and marketing staff from the North Island genetics company into SFF, to provide advice and knowledge to lamb suppliers wanting to produce lamb to SFF's contract specifications. In short Rissington will take the place of PGG Wrightson.

The two companies have had a working relationship for several years, with SFF processing lambs for Rissington Marks and Spencer contracts so you have to wonder if SFF was really interested in seeing through a deal with PGG in the first place.

And the $25 million pay-out settlement from PGG would come as a handy deposit on the new acquisition wouldn't it?

As Farmgirl has said before, Keith Cooper is one of the shrewdest CEO's in the country. Perhaps the Pork Board should entice him to jump ship...

Ode to Mike King - This little piggy went to market

2009-05-20T10:21:00.003+12:00

This little piggy went to market,

This little piggy took his cash home,

This little piggy ate roast pork,

Then full of tucker -

This little piggy started to roam,

Then this little piggy went...

"Wee wee wee" all the way home

And dipped his snout into S.A.F.E's cashbox...

Give the money back Mike.

Who are the real villans - sorting out the porkers

2009-05-20T10:08:00.004+12:00

This from the Dominion Post this morning:

Consumers angry at the way pigs are farmed can force changes to the industry but they had better be prepared to pay more for their pork.
Alan Pearson, owner of Harringtons Small Goods, said many consumers did not put their money where their mouths were when they bought their meat.
"If giving animals a more natural way of life is really important to people, then they need to be prepared to pay for it and not just pay lip service.
"There is no doubt that farmers are commercial they respond to the market. If the market turns around, the industry will change."
Mr Pearson, who also runs an agri-business consultancy and exports free-range pork to Singapore, said free-range could cost more than $3 a kilogram more than pork raised in a more intensive operation.
Raising free-range pigs was more expensive because of several factors, including higher piglet mortality rates from exposure to the elements.
"There is absolutely no doubt that free-range pork is a wonderful product but it's a lot more costly to produce.
"The price resistance is still a factor. [Consumers] get to the supermarket and they buy the cheapest bacon they can find."
He said most farmers were responsible and put the welfare of their animals ahead of profit.
"Farmers are human beings, they like to do the best job they can. Most farmers have an empathy with animals, or they wouldn't be farming."

Hear hear!

And so say all of us...

Farmgirl on Radio New Zealand talking about pork...

2009-05-19T18:01:00.003+12:00

Farmgirl had the chance to speak about the current furore on the pork industry this afternoon on Radio New Zealand. To hear her comments go to: http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/aft/2009/05/19/the_panel_part_2 and go to about half way through to hear her interview.

Federated Farmers versus Sex Pistol rocker

2009-05-19T12:09:00.005+12:00

Who would have thought it gov? Johnny Rotten, the teeth gnashing, spitting, torn punk rocker who hailed anarchy in the UK has a softer side - in fact the gnarled grizzled face Sex Pistol front man likes his butter - British only apparently.

It's a bit of a comedown for his fans though ain't it? God save the Queen and her fascist regime has now become God save our cows and the products of their bowels.

You see Rotten has become the face of a new British butter advertising campaign that extols the virtue of butter made from only British milk - not like that Kiwi stuff, he reckons.

But he didn't count on Federated Farmers Dairy Vice President Willy Leferink wading into battle.

According to Farmers Weekly UK Leferink has invited Rotten see for himself the way cows are kept down under.

“Never mind the butter, it’s the quality of the milk what counts,” Willy says. “While all milk may contain the same basic properties, Kiwi cows are in a league of their own.
“Grazing outdoors on GM-free grass and natural winter feed makes for happy cows and fantastic-quality milk.”
European Union tariffs were the only barriers holding back sales of New Zealand’s Anchor butter in the UK, he said.
“While I’d like to think of dairy farmers as being the rock stars of the New Zealand economy, I’d be pleased to host that old punk rocker, John Lydon, on my farm.
“Perhaps Mr Lydon could use some of the money he got paid for endorsing the British brand to pay for his flight down under.”
Only hand-crafted but expensive British butter matched New Zealand butter for quality, Mr Leferink claimed.
“New Zealand’s climate and quality pasture means we are in an agricultural sweet spot. British consumers literally taste freedom when they eat New Zealand butter.”
Dairy Crest’s butter advertising campaign featuring Mr Lydon sent sales of English Country Life soaring when it aired on TV screens across Britain.
The commercial reminded shoppers that the butter was made with 100% British milk unlike other brands from New Zealand and Denmark.
It was being supported by a website encouraging people to sign a pledge that they were "proud to buy British".

You can watch one of the ads here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mSE-Iy_tFY

King should give money back

2009-05-19T10:43:00.007+12:00

It's laughable how devoutly Mike King denied having any knowledge of the pig industry and its practices on Close Up last night but may-be it's a sign of the times and something that Farmgirl has been blogging over for some time - the growing gap between producers and consumers.

In this case however, the wounded pork industry has never attempted to hide that there are still sow stalls in this country. Pork Industry Board chairman Chris Trengrove should be applauded not vilified by two henchmen as he was last night. What they don't tell you on that current affairs programme is that Chris has been advocating for change for some years and has steadfastly stuck to the cause of helping the industry get past these practices and has been succeeding.

Farmgirl feels the need to explain the financial difficulties the pork industry has faced over the past decade once again. To be frank the industry nearly went belly up because Canadian pork in particular was being imported into our supermarkets at cut down prices. How were they able to get the pork so cheap when you take into account transport costs? - by producing the pork in far more intensive and disgusting systems then this country has ever had.

This has nearly forced all our pork farmers out of business as consumers have been only too happy to buy cheaper pork, no matter the animal welfare standards and no matter the level of hormones etc in the meat.

To expect that all pork farmers will now release their piggy wiggies onto some hallowed green paddock is ridiculous and hypocritical for the following reasons:

1 The price of imported pork means free range operations are not viable unless the consumer

pays a heck of a lot more as they can not produce as many pigs or fatten as quickly.

2 Free range pork is still a niche market - for the wealthy.

3 Some breeds of pigs are particularly aggressive towards one another. Why didn't King show

the results of sows attacking one another? - it's far more gruesome then the footage shown the

other night.

So it seems the NZ consumer has to make their minds up. And herein lies the problem. Our generation more than any other lives in a world where meat is relatively cheap. Where once, having a roast chicken was a looked forward delicacy, it has now become a cheap commodity on the family plate that can be served up every night.

As New Zealanders we expect meat on our plate but once upon a time pork used to be a treat, as was bacon, to be savoured and enjoyed. Now we expect to have it whenever we get the craving.

May-be we need to change our habits?

Farmgirl has recently changed her chicken consumption and now orders $32 fully free ranged chicken from Southland. It is expensive especially with households living on an ever decreasing budget these days, but chicken in Farmgirl's household has now become a rarity and a tasty one at that. It is eaten once every fortnight and every part of the chicken is used for stocks, soups etc. This is one way we can support our pork farmers. Another is by refusing to buy imported pork.

King's hypocrisy won't help the industry - in fact a negative reaction could send our pork farmers under and then we would have to rely on the rubbish that is imported from overseas.

It's up to us.

And if King truly believes in what he's saying and is not trying to pull some publicity stunt to help his career, he should donate all his previous earnings from the Pork Board to S.A.F.E but as the saying goes, pigs might fly...

Mike King as guilty as all consumers for sow crates in pork industry and should share in responsibility

2009-05-17T19:58:00.004+12:00

It was hard core stuff on Sunday tonight. Mike King, a former advocate for New Zealand pork and mouthpiece for industry ads has jumped ship and attacked farmers for the use of sow stalls. Emotive footage and unbalanced reporting followed and not one pork farmer who uses the stalls was allowed to give a reason as to why the practice occurs.

In her agricultural journalism career Farmgirl has followed intensely the plight of the nation's pig farmers and has some sympathy for their situation. To portray the farmers as the common enemy is an injustice that ignorant mouthpieces like King would never understand.

If he did his background research he might understand that he and every other consumer of bacon or pork in this country are just as culpable for sow crate farming as the farmer themselves.

Farmgirl would like to know if these 'het up' consumers check their overseas pork that has flooded our supermarkets. If they did they might realise that the bacon they purchase is also farmed in the same way - through crates. If you ban them in New Zealand you have to ban all imports from overseas - a situation most pig farmers in NZ would rejoice about.

Let's get one thing straight right now - pig farmers don't like the practice, they want to change but there is no economically viable way forward for them to do so as long as cheap imported pork continues to flood in.

There will be a huge public outcry over the footage shot on Sunday, but Farmgirl wonders how many will change their spending habits and instead buy free range NZ pork to support the industry. If everyone did change the pork farmers would have the support to do the same.

Farmgirl is sick and tired of celebrities jumping on the bandwagon of something they do not really understand, and something they themselves have forced farmers to do. And it's laughable that King says he didn't know this was going on when he signed his contract with the Pork Board - what rot - this issue has been around for a long time.

The pleasing aspects to the situation is that most pig farmers are trying to break free of the system - and Farmgirl has seen some stunning results in the form of Eco Sheds etc, but it takes cashflow. If King and his cronies are so upset why don't they get on the box and encourage people to buy the more expensive option as Jamie Oliver did successfully with his recent chicken campaign.

Unlike King, Jamie took the time to explain why farmers do what they do and put much of the onus back on consumers.

Farmgirl back next week with a few juicy posts

2009-05-13T09:29:00.002+12:00

Farmgirl wants to apologise for lack of blogging recently. The set up of a new business has enforced a silent blog for two weeks but she will be back next week from Monday and is pleased to say that she has HEAPS of juicy posts to write about.

See you back here on Monday!

Obama teaching us all something in his restraint

2009-04-28T16:53:00.003+12:00

Time correspondent Joe Klein is right on the mark when he says Obama's first 100 days have been the most impressive of any president since the mighty F.D.R.

Too often politicians world-wide have been guilty of vote hunting and over-reacting in order to keep the masses happy. How wonderful is it then to see a President prepared to talk about patience and common sense.

"There's an impatience," Obama says, "that characterises Washington, that insists on instant gratification in the form of immediate results or higher poll numbers. When a crisis hits there is all too often a lurch from shock to trance, with everyone responding to the tempest of the moment until the furor has died down...instead of confronting major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focused way."

Klein says Obama's combination of candour and vision and his patient explanation of complex issues shows Obama at his best and signals a change from his predecessors and from the way society is at the moment - away from the kind of quick fix, sugar rush , attention deficit society that marks the postmodern age.

New rules for Wall Street so that in any one year of the economy 40% of US corporate profits don't come from lending as has previously happened and initiatives in education, energy and health care mean Obama is making his mark in a resilient manner.

There won't be a fix for today's problems by tomorrow morning. Everything has to be worked for, to be gained and then rewards will come, he seems to be telling us over and over again.

If only John Key's first hundred days were just as impressive....

Swines I have met...

2009-04-27T09:45:00.005+12:00

The theme of the week is undoubtedly swines...Farmgirl has met a few on her travels of late, most notably ones with the big green R emblazoned on their jackets who send junk mail through the letterbox full of self praise for their services, but short on realities, lulling the arable farmer into thinking that some great bright shining new wheat market is going to open up all because they click their fingers and wish it so...

A bright side to the hype surrounding swine fever?

2009-04-27T09:27:00.004+12:00

You would have thought that this morning's news regarding swine fever and its possible importation into New Zealand via Rangitoto College students was enough to put a damper on anybodies week.

Not so for all farmers, with one beaming cocky telling Farmgirl this morning that there could be an immeasurable bright side to the flu hysteria - increased lamb sales around the world as people baulk at buying pork meat.

He has a point. The poor old pig farmer is on a hiding to nothing when the media get involved and hysteria reaches historic proportions.

Yes swine fever is generally contracted from direct contact with pigs but in these circumstances the UN have been careful to publicise the fact that none of those infected have had direct contact. Alas this gets lost in the publicity siege.

The strain, H1N1, is the same strain that causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans, but the detected version contains genetic material from versions of flu which usually affect pigs and birds.

Regardless of the facts Farmers Weekly UK report that Governments across the world are considering tightening rules on pork imports while Russia and Serbia have already banned any pork products from entering their country.

You have to feel sorry for pig farmers who will once again be the focus of a panic backlash but as the farmer told Farmgirl this morning, 'always look on the bright side of life'.

Can't you just see wonderful advertisements on television and in the newspapers around the world now: "Eat Kiwi lamb and stay indoors this year if you want to avoid the flu." Mmmm....the bank account is increasing already...

Norgate hospitable in defeat

2009-04-27T09:17:00.002+12:00

Praise is due for PGG Wrightson head Craig Norgate over his handling of the Silver Fern Farm fiasco and their particularly prickly CEO Keith Cooper.

Not only has he survived the failed merger attempt with a relatively small settlement payment of $40 million, he's also managed to retain a working relationship with Cooper and his company.

This is no mean feat when you consider the tough talking Cooper was engaging in, even up until last week on Farmgate on the Country Channel.

Norgate said charitably that there was no question that PGG Wrightson had breached the terms of the contract and all that was to be settled was the amount to be forked over.

However he is still holding hope of integrating the supply chain with SFF and this is interesting because on many levels farmers don't appear to see any advantage in this happening.

Sure if the deal had been settled Cooper could have had a better balance sheet and PGG Wrightson would have captured some extra revenue - but it is still a relative mystery as to what benefits there would have been on farm.

Kiwifruit dumping sad but a bold necessity

2009-04-24T09:43:00.005+12:00

The so called 'dumping' of 60 000 trays of top quality Kiwifruit by Zespri shows they don't let emotion get in the way of business and good on them.

By keeping back the Kiwifruit Zespri is protecting its reputation as the finest Kiwifruit producer in the world and growers' export margins.

While it seems a travesty, unduly heralded by the likes of the Nelson Mail, that the fruit is not sold or distributed freely on the domestic market, it shows good business nous and you have to say that some of our meat companies could learn from this stance, particularly from when Farmgirl was last in the UK and saw NZ lamb sliding off the shelf for a pittance because the meat companies (one in particular) flooded the market.

The result of that debacle was that NZ lamb slid from being a high quality meat product British housewives were prepared to pay good money for, to a budget tray that seemed to signal the meat was just as poor in quality as the rubbish coming in from the EU.

When in the UK in 2001 Farmgirl spent several days talking to supermarket customers as to what they preferred in their sheep meat options. Back then almost every single person you came across said if they had the money they would almost always buy Kiwi lamb even though it was more expensive because they perceived it was the best in the world. Two years ago Farmgirl asked the same questions in Irish and English supermarkets and was greeted by completely different answers and some angry butchers. Kiwi lamb was perceived as cheap and therefore not as good as the British counterpart because it had flooded the market.

The end result was some poor returns, a driving down in the lamb market and some angry New Zealand farmers to boot.

How then is Zespri the villain for doing the right thing and protecting its growers? As Farmgirl hinted above, the reporting on the 'dumping' has been sensationalised. By dumping Zespri doesn't mean destroying altogether. Surely most of it will be used in animal food etc.

And for those humanitarians among us, forget Bob Geldof and his Band Aid cause, the slagging off of the EU for dumping tonnes of butter and other products that he felt could have gone to Africa in the 80s - Kiwifruit is not a suitable option and would cost a lot of money to transport and would be difficult to maintain fresh to reach those parts of the world.

Good on Zespri - it takes guts to maintain a business in this PC world.

SFF backtracking on idiotic ban of dogs in sheep yards

2009-04-23T11:41:00.003+12:00

Since a belated maelstrom has buffeted its way through the nation's media regarding the Silver Fern Farm decision to ban sheepdogs from its sheepyards, SFF have been in damage control.

No, they say loudly. At no time did UK supermarket giant TESCO demand the removal of dogs because of the stress it may cause the sheep before it ends up in a British housewife's roasting dish.

But since SFF had removed dogs from all but three plants this season, management decided to "minimise the use of dogs from all sites".

What balderdash as the shepherds at the Fairton works in Mid Canterbury would tell you. Farmgirl has been told on more than one occasion that it was a word in the ear by the TESCO machine that led to the demise of the poor old dog.

But TESCO's big brother bark has made news worldwide as many overseas identify with the plight of the endangered Kiwi shepherd and the demise of his dog, and is apparently rather sensitive to any criticism.

It was no surprise then that SFF should jump quickly to dispel the story but in their haste they forgot to remember one thing - shepherds talk, they see, they hear what is being said when the big wigs come to visit their yards. They are not blind, deaf and dumb mutes who issue the odd whistle and yell 'Get up there Bob!'. So SFF's claim that they just idly decided to rid their yards of years of Kiwi iconic history, at a time when consumers are becoming so divorced from the reality of food production, just doesn't ring true.

And to add further salt into the wound the Otago Daily Times reported this week that surprise, surprise, Lincoln University bio-chemist Prof Roy Bickerstaffe found the dogs created no adverse affect on PH tender rating levels in sheep.

Farmgirl understands that yard requirements often dictate whether dogs are needed or not and has not problem with that but when it is so clearly being done because of supermarket pressure it is a worrying sign as to what we will have to kowtow to next in order to get out product into the market.

Federated Farmers Meat and Fibre Chairman Bruce Wills is naive to think this is just a 'storm in a teacup'. What it signifies is important.

This could be the beginning of a game of dominoes.

Study shows why ignorant greenies were loonies to destroy valuable GE crop research in NZ

2009-04-23T11:24:00.005+12:00

The latest scientific results coming out of America and England that show that GE crops promote the proliferation of herbicide-resistant weeds which in turn curbs crop production is yet another kick in the backside for the morons who go about destroying GE experiments in our own backyard.

If these greenies had their way world-wide this kind of research would not have been possible. Farmers never asked to plant the crops - they asked to find out about the long term affects of growing them.

The Union of Concerned Scientists have presented a report in which they found that corn and soybean crops that were modified to resist insects and the herbicide glyphosphate did not necessarily produce higher yields.

Hooray for these brave men. In New Zealand those same scientists would have flogged, hung, drawn and quartered because they dared to even analyse the long term affects genetic modification might have on crops.

This is excellent work and gives farmers world-wide a handle on the impact of GE on some crops. Further research is needed of course and here in New Zealand we have plenty of scientists itching to do it.

Let's hope the aggressive antics of these ignorant GE ranters come to a halt when they realise that by allowing research to continue they may very well end up achieving their end goal, as no farmer is going to grow a GE crop if it doesn't give them as much cash in the back pocket as the previously unmodified versions.

Coming down south like heading into a different land

2009-04-16T10:18:00.004+12:00

I am fortunate enough to be in Southland for two days and can't help being fascinated by the woolly little furry white animals I see on the roadsides looking nourished, healthy and anything but under threat.
Sheep were part of my upbringing but living in Canterbury and growing crops and being surrounded by dairy farmers makes you forget about that Southern part of your life but it was reassuring to see the quality and quantity of stock coming down yesterday.
A friend asked me last night if I thought that sheep would ever return to some of these dairy farms in the province and honestly I think this is an improbability.
However, on many South Otago farms there lies a history that may prove otherwise. Dairying and sheep farming have always been cyclical in the area with many farms still housing derelict milk factories to prove that.
So never say never. It has been dairying land before and it has been sheep farming land before. Undoubtedly though moving back to the strong sheep farming history would be highly unlikely when you take into account the on farm investment on dairy farms these days and the high capital costs.
But if sheep farming does become a marginal commodity it could lead to an increase in demand particularly if wool was to come in fashion again. One can only wonder at those heyday years of the 50s my father in law talks about when the wool cheque more than balanced the books.
In any case it was somehow reassuring to see that not all sheep farmers are bowing out. It just wouldn't seem right if we didn't have that scenery anymore.

Woman eats 51 of world's hottest chillies in one sitting!

2009-04-11T13:37:00.004+12:00

As a chilli farmer I couldn't help but include this story in my blog. I grow around 17 different varieties including the hottest habaneros - and can vouch that even though I like chillies I would struggle through one mouthful of a little chocolate habanero - so this story from the Daily Mail is truly incredible:

They're likely to leave you gasping for water - and have even been known to kill people who eat too many.
For this woman, however, the world's hottest chilli pepper proved nothing more than a simple snack as she chomped her way through 51 of them to claim a place in the Guinness Book of Records yesterday.
Anandita Dutta Tamuly completed her eye-watering feat in two minutes, to the astonishment of Gordon Ramsay, who was monitoring her record attempt.

And for some inexplicable reason, 26-year-old Mrs Tamuly then went on to smear handfuls of seeds from the fiery bhut jolokia chillies into her eyes as the crowds gasped in horror.
In 2007 Guinness acknowledged the bhut jolokia as the hottest chilli in the world, measuring more than 1million units on the Scoville Heat Rating chart, the method of classifying heat in peppers. A standard New Mexican green chilli has just 1,500 units.
A single seed from a bhut jolokia will cause watering eyes and a runny nose as well as a burning sensation in the mouth that can last up to five hours.

But Mrs Tamuly said coolly: 'I have been eating bhut jolokia since my childhood and never felt the hotness in my mouth.
'When I was five I had a sore tongue and my mother applied a chilli paste to cure the infection. Since then I developed a penchant for chillies.
After that I found eating chillies was a great way to stay healthy. Every time I have a cold or flu I just munch on some chillies and I feel better. To be honest, I barely notice them now.'
She said she was disappointed not to have managed even more, having swallowed 60 chillies in practice runs. Mrs Tamuly's record-breaking munch took place in the Assam region of India where she lives and where the chilli grows in hilly areas.
Ramsay, who was in India filming for a Channel 4 programme, could manage only one before screaming for water, yelling: 'It's too much!'
The previous record was held by a South African woman who ate eight jalapenos in one minute in 2002.
In September last year an aspiring chef died after eating a chilli sauce as part of an endurance competition with a friend.
Andrew Lee, 33, from Edlington, West Yorkshire, challenged his girlfriend's brother to a contest to see who could eat the spiciest sauce that he could create.
Mr Lee prepared a tomato sauce made with red chillies grown on his father's allotment. But after eating it he suffered intense discomfort and itching. The following morning he was found dead, possibly after having a heart attack.

Sad decline in Kiwi Country Women's Institute

2009-04-09T16:05:00.004+12:00

The closing of the Methven branch of CWI after a long proud history is disturbing, even to a younger generation of women.

Laugh or mock as you may when you think of the CWI you can't help feeling that somehow the dissipation of the group signals a far more significant change in the rural landscape.

I've seen first hand from my mother in law how important 'institute' can be. It really does provide solid friendships and support in rural areas and a camaraderie that doesn't really exist between women past Young Farmers.

But why is it failing?

Yes there is certainly an older generation holding the fort at present and that may be enough for some young women to stay away, thinking, misguidedly, that it isn't for them and that their generation of farming women is not really understood. But that's too generalised and simplistic in my view. Generally the CWI branches try very hard to recruit new members.

Locally I know that many branch meetings are held during the day and that doesn't suit many. However with such busy lifestyles these days night-time meetings often don't suit either.

But I believe something else is going on here entirely. Growing up, our generation of gals were taught the feminist ideologies. The idea of being a good wife, a good business partner and supporting one another in isolated areas just didn't cut the mustard - we were the future leaders!

This is truly sad. If we could only get over ourselves and come together we could perhaps offer something to CWI and adapt its functions to our needs. In rural areas we need each other to survive. Our experience is unique to us.

Young Farmers had to change radically in the past five years to survive and it has done so successfully. Let's hope CWI can do the same.

Catch up with Farmgirl on Farming Show

2009-04-09T15:59:00.002+12:00

You can catch up with Farmgirl on the Farming Show this week by clicking on this link: http://www.farmingshow.com

If the interview marked Nadine Porter doesn't show up, go to Wednesday April 8 in the archives and it should pop up!

Tah tah tah tah...and the Smooth Operator of the Week Award must go to....Ravensdown CEO Rodney Green

2009-04-07T11:01:00.005+12:00

Hark the herald angels sing...no it's not a Christmas angel...it's Rodders in all his preened public relations finery in Ashburton this morning keen to unsoap his mouth from the recent gaffes he made in the media when he ignored the existence of the New Zealand arable industry and it's importance to the Ravensdown coffers. (see post further down)

Alas Farmgirl hears there was no mention of that...he'd cleaned up his act and polished his lingo to perfection particularly when it came to the point of the meeting - why Ravensdown continues to be in the PKE market when it disadvantages the arable shareholders he hadn't realised existed until lately.

Ravensdown imported 90 000 tonnes of PKE this year and have sold around 50 000 and apparently on this basis cropping clients should be relishing the opportunity to add a meagre 5500 tonnes to the mix.

5500 tonnes? In arable lingo that's about five small farms that might benefit from the market but hey Mr Green and his cohorts reckon this could be a fantastic opportunity for us poor dumb cereal farmers. Apparently in this recession Ravensdown alone will convince the cash strapped North Island dairy farmers of the poor nutritional content of PKE when they sell it to them and then these same dairy farmers will come back, singing hallelujah you were right Rodney, and purchase bucket loads of the PKE barley mix while we celebrate by emptying our silos down here.

Yeah right!

And then of course Farmgirl understands there were the veiled threats that the Australian Barley Board (ABB) who has recently purchased plant in Hornby would get in on the act and might not put New Zealand barley in their mix. We should fear the Australians and trust Ravensdown was the message. But hold on...up until last week Rodney said it was the Australians that were adding a third commodity group to the Ravensdown market in arable farming, so who should we fear here?

In reality Ravensdown is all PR fluff. Nothing has changed. If the PKE barley market is a goer what's to stop RD1 getting on board anyway? The fact that they're not doing the same thing proves that there is room for doubt as to whether dairy farmers will really buy the more expensive supplement.

Yet again Ravensdown have misjudged the feeling in the arable sector. They should not be in the PKE market at all and no amount of wing preening by Rodney Green will change that.

And the tension grows between English and Key...

2009-04-06T15:35:00.004+12:00

You could just about taste the tension emanating from Bill English's mouth on Q and A yesterday and it wasn't sweet.

The two have disagreed publicly on when New Zealand will emerge from the recession and on the face of it that's not a big deal...except when you hear Bill English's very courteous and contained comments when asked why they aren't towing the same line on the economy.

Asked about the difference, Mr English said Mr Key "has always had a very positive view about New Zealand. I certainly wouldn't want to say he is wrong but he is setting a high hurdle here and it's our job as a Government to meet those expectations - that's a feature of John Key's leadership."

The body language says it all and so it should. Bill English is probably a very frustrated man right now. He's the one who has to deal with the sops while Key gets to meet, greet and shear the sheep.

Key is politically naive whereas English has suffered from his previous leadership of the party. How disappointing it must be then for him to have run the country behind the scenes, sort the rubbish and wonder what could have been had he only waited his turn for the leadership.

Me thinks the National party decry to much that there is not a rift growing between these two. Whenever a party feels forced to defend a situation you can bet that there's something that's caught fire in the background.

Although these two do not represent in any way the philosophy of the Lange/Douglas era, they do share something else in common...a cooling off of their friendship that could be disastrous for the party as a whole.

Good to see the dairy industry tackling P problem

2009-04-06T15:19:00.006+12:00

Bravo to leaders in the dairy industry for choosing to talk about a very real problem among transient dairy workers through-out the country.

At last week's Large Herds New Zealand conference anti P campaigner Mike Sabin hit home the hard facts of the damage P causes to users.

Mike would know - as a former Police Detective he has seen the ravages of the drug as it continues to weave its destructive way through society.

His hard hitting presentation left many speechless and his warnings to be wary of the potential use of farm cottages as P labs was timely. With the rapid expansion of the dairying workforce over the past decade some problems have arisen in many rural communities with some police forces reporting a far higher rate of crime in those areas.

Mr Sabin showed dairy farmers how to spot signs of P use in their workers and while many may think the drug problem belongs somewhere in Auckland, the reality is that it is everywhere - even farmers have been addicted to the drug.

As long as we accept that our community is as vulnerable to this drug we may have a chance of pegging back its use. To bury our heads and think that the problem lies somewhere else will only result in an escalation of the problem.

Like the dairy farmers attending the conference I support Mr Sabin's campaign to introduce stronger Government initiatives to combat the drug and applaud the dairy industry for recognising it may be among them already.

The blokes at NZ Farmers Weekly need to stop salivating and get back to writing serious news

2009-04-06T15:00:00.005+12:00

The boys at NZ Farmers Weekly have proven once again that the female sex is never very far from some male minds and editor Tim Fulton has made a right plonker of himself and degraded a publication held in the highest esteem with his suggestion, front page, that the boys should head to Middlemarch to catch a Swedish blonde woman.

You can see it now can't you...men acting like this girl is a piece of meat and Tim heading the charge!

It's not every day a Swiss Milk Princess gets in touch to say she's heading your way, he proclaims. You can see the chops salivating now...but wait there's more...blonde Swiss flight attendant Andrea Berger (yes really!) emailed the publication to say she was coming to New Zealand to 'find a lovely farmer.'

You know I can't ever recall conversations about putting a Swiss female on the front page of this publication when I worked there...but perhaps that was because there were more stroppy females working there then!

Now I'm sure they have plenty of emails from nice European blokes (like the one above) asking for work, but do we see them on the front page....tsk tsk boys...equality for one and all.

But seriously, come on Tim, you're a great editor...but I guess even the smart heads get turned when a Swiss lovely wanders into cyberspace.

But one has to wonder whether you would have made the same 'objective' editorial decision if she were more shall we say, rotund, toothless with mousy short hair.

There is something icky and rural stereotypical about this story at a time when women have demonstrated their infinite capabilities on farm without resorting to playing up to their...ahem..feminine wiles.

Come on boys...get back to the news!

For more on this story go to: http://www.cplfirst.co.nz/article/209.html

Key challenged to shear sheep

2009-04-03T09:27:00.003+13:00

And he's coming over the top of the back now, gently does it. Oh dear, he's left a layer of wool on, a softer coat, but now he's back, he's plunging that handpiece over the sheep's belly, mind the nipples John!

But wait he's showing marvelous adaptation to the skill of shearing, he's getting into his stride now, he's tucked that sheep tight between his legs and he's showing it who's boss.

Down he goes, the last blows, then flick on to it's feet, a kick on the backside and a note pushed between the sheep's teeth.

"There," he says. "He's all ready. Finely shorn, and now with super speed...please applaud your Government's state of the art new investment in rural communication...the messenger sheep."

Broadband of lies around National election promises to rural sector

2009-04-03T09:13:00.004+13:00

I'm not sure why Federated Farmers are surprised by the Government's lack of broadband spending in rural areas - it was always unlikely to happen.

Despite our 64% export sales injection into the economy the votes are in the city centres and call me a cynic but no Government is going to divvy up money in areas that are sparsely populated.

Imagine though what could be achieved if the electoral voting system was changed and you were given a number of votes depending on the amount of land you owned. Wouldn't they sit up and take notice then? Bugger the broadband - we'd all have digital satellites!

Strange though isn't it, that a Government that is always harping on about growing the economy, in fact using it as their mantra, can't see it's way to providing better communication for our rural businesses.

And as for the West Coast receiving no upgrade - yet still growing economically - they should separate themselves off, put a border up and provide their own governance. After all they are one of the only areas in the country still going ahead - so they must be doing something right!

Gas emissions waver was never a subsidy to agriculture

2009-04-03T08:54:00.004+13:00

It's laughable how seriously this Government is taking New Zealand's so called 'gas emission' problems, even allowing Simon Terry to tell them this week that agriculture is the sector they must target to reduce the problem.

At a time when even the world's scientists can't agree on climate change how can we even persist in this ridiculous farce - especially when Joe Bloggs looks set to get away free while the poor old farmer that props up the NZ economy is facing more interference and control on his or her operation.

And just remember folks, agriculture does well under a National Government!

Terry's select committee report to MPs yesterday was not good. He targeted agriculture (with an estimated 73% of our total emissions) as the sector more easily manipulated to reduce emissions.

And without much detail to go on we were told that farmers could cut their emissions by up to 13% without losing profitability on farm.

But worse was yet to come with Terry trotting out the subsidy word - it was enough to make the cows choke on their own gas.

Previously under the Labour government's ETS, farming would be exempted until 2013, which the Sustainability Council says amounts to a net subsidy to pastoral farmers of over $1.3 billion up to that time (assuming a price of $30/tonne), according to the NZ Herald.

"Half New Zealand's emissions come from agriculture and it is time the sector's leaders acknowledged there is a big potential for savings now instead of constantly claiming more time is needed for research."

To borrow a John Key phrase - this is all just bollocks. If you're going to exert conditions on farmers in order of some trendy environmental philosophy that isn't going to make the slightest impact on the world's so called climate change problems, and not slap the same conditions on every household in the country then you are subsidising everyone else who is not in the agriculture industry.

When are these morons going to realise the value of agriculture in our economy...when, oh when, oh when.

John Key developing a spine?

2009-04-03T08:37:00.004+13:00

Could it be that John Key is actually muscling up...losing that schoolboy impish grin and becoming the Master of his party?

Certainly the rhetoric has changed somewhat in past weeks. Now we see him holding Nick Smith's hair by the ahem...short and curlies and notice how Johnnie's lingo has lengthened into a more stylish adaptation of the English language -especially when he used the word "bollocking" to describe his conversation with Internal Affairs minister Richard Worth.

Suddenly the PR machine has taken hold and it now appears that it's vital for the PM to appear accountable, strong, resolute, in complete and utter bollocking control of his ministers, and hold on....just like Helen Clark it seems.

The man you'd most feel comfortable having a beer with is shifting away from his 'nice guy' image and has issued threats to his ministers, stating he wants accountability, outcomes and results and if anyone needs to be strung up, a la Mussolini style, he alone will be the one to do it.

And what over? Nick Smith, a senior minister is not even allowed to make suggestions on cutting down plastic waste, while Worth made an idiot error of judgement in allowing himself to engage in private business while on a Government sanctioned trip to India.

But do we like the new John Key? Time will tell but for now punters it's fair to say as in the great words of that Seekers song "The Carnival is Over".

No to live sheep exports but it's okay to hurt the crabs?

2009-03-30T09:18:00.004+13:00

Aaah what a strange world we live in...full of hypocrisy.

We don't like the idea of sending lambs on a comfortable ship to Saudi Arabia to be killed when they would be killed here anyway but we don't mind boiling the odd crab or lobster or two for our supper.

Think there's a difference? You might be wrong. Today's UK Daily Mail reports that latest research shows that crabs feel pain when they are boiled - surprise surprise - and would remember that pain if they escaped the pot.

The finding could have important implications for the food industry, where many chefs boil crabs, lobsters and prawns alive in the belief that they are impervious to pain.

Wonder if the Green Party think of that when they order up a crustacean delicacy alongside their barley smoothies?

Live sheep exports could create Kiwi consumer backlash

2009-03-30T09:05:00.003+13:00

The New Zealand Herald asked readers what they thought about the prospect of resuming live sheep exports with some worrying responses.

The overwhelming sentiment was that the trade was deplorable with many saying they would protest by not buying New Zealand lamb.

As said in previous posts, even if the reality is far different from what Sue Kedgely is promising it will be a difficult business to push in the current consumer market place where top chefs such as Jamie Oliver preach daily on welfare for animals.

It seems no matter what stringent conditions MAF comes up with there will be a large majority of people bent on destroying the trade.

Here's a sample of some of the comments:

"I will stop buying lamb in protest if this takes off!"

"It's inexcusably and unnecessarily cruel.It also destroys jobs and businesses for New Zealanders.A return to live sheep exports signals a triumph of greed over not only the value of humane treatment of animals but also the expectation that our first priority is to maintaining the maximum benefit of our efforts going to our own people.It creates one more field in which we are seen to have lesser expertise than the rest of the world and worse, lesser morality and standards of decency.This suggestion bears a remarkable similarity to Fonterra and the melamine scandal which also impacted both human beings and animals: a morality based only on convenience and profit to a select few at a cost of suffering to the majority - human or animal.It seems the tide in the world has turned. No longer is humanity progressing toward higher principles (however despised 'colonialism' is in modern times) but returning to the lowest common denominator to be found in the characteristics of our trading partners."

"Yes to live sheep exports provided they are flown there in economy class with flight attendant service."

Going cheap...take as much palm kernel as you want says Ravensdown rep...

2009-03-30T08:52:00.003+13:00

Scene: Lincoln Field Days 2009

Setting: Inside Ravensdown tent a drum of brown mush indispersed with as many specks of grain as you can count on your fingers.

What Ravensdown calls it: Dairy Hi-Carb

What they proclaim: This palm kernel mix is 'awesum' for both the dairy and arable industry because it helps both industries by giving the dairy farmer a cheap break (never mind the proven poor animal nutrition of the stuff) and the arable farmer a chance to pull out a handful of grain from his silo - therefore helping both shareholders.

What Ravensdown rep said: "You can have as much of this as you want."

What arable farmers said: "I actually came here to buy fertliser. I see you don't have any so I'll just pop along to the Ballance tent shall I?"

Farmgirl talks on Farming Show

2009-03-26T10:12:00.002+13:00

You can catch up with Farmgirl's latest chat with Farming Show host Jamie Mackay by going to this link: http://www.farmingshow.com/farming230309.html.

Go to Monday 23rd March if it hasn't already taken you there.

Day 2 of Lincoln Field days today....more of that tonight.

Kune Kune the new Kiwi sheepdog?

2009-03-25T08:14:00.005+13:00

For those of you struggling to find and then train a decent sheepdog, meet Sue, a Herefordshire Kune Kune who is about to take the sheepdog trial world by storm.

This real life Babe is a very clever little piggy indeed according to the Daily Mail .

Sue apparently started copying the farm dogs when she saw her owners training them in the garden and worked out that they were receiving treats when they were successful at negotiating obstacles.

'Pigs are very intelligent and I would say Sue is easily as clever as a dog,' the owner said.
'I'm going to enter Sue in this summer's Royal Welsh Show in the dog agility event.'
She added: 'He has been watching the sheep through the fence and has even met them up close, although he was a little wary at first. If he saw a dog herding the sheep I'm sure Sue could learn to do it.'

May-be just the answer for those wayward sheepdogs farmers are always yelling at!

For more on this story go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1164127/Pictured-Sue-clever-little-piggy-high-hopes-real-life-Babe.html

Ravensdown CEO Rodney Green insults arable/horticulture farmers in further slight to the sector

2009-03-24T12:27:00.007+13:00

Well for those of you that put on a good $100 000 grand plus of Ravensdown fertiliser each year, of which there are many in Canterbury, you can be assured that your 'friendly' farming co-operative does not value your business at all.

In fact you don't exist...but you already knew that when they decided to ignore the sector and enter the palm kernel market.

But yesterday in the New Zealand Farmer's Weekly what we all knew was confirmed when Ravensdown chief executive Rodney Green ignored the presence of a New Zealand arable sector.

"Thank goodness for Western Australia," he brayed, when talking about the purchase of United Farmers last year, because being nearly all arable farming it apparently brought in a third commodity group to the co-operative, behind dairying and the sheep/beef sector.

Hello Rodders...time to come investigate all the huge spud, onion, processed vegetable, cereal and specialist seed operations that prop up your balance sheet each year because apparently you don't think they exist.

In fact you told Alan Williams that in recent years Ravensdown business has changed from its traditional sheep and beef farmer base to a broadly 50/50 split between sheep/beef and dairying. There was no mention of the arable/horticulture sector.

What an insult and it shows why the arable sector shareholding is being largely ignored by the co-operative. Why on earth do we persist with a co-operative when they do not even value or acknowledge our business?

I know of another fertiliser business that is only too keen to pick us up. May-be it's only when we pull out all the tonnages we put through that Ravensdown and Rodney Green might notice the hole in the balance sheet we were filling.

Hysteria overshadowing reality of live sheep exports

2009-03-24T11:58:00.005+13:00

You have to hand it to Sue Kedgley. She knows how to push the Green Party agenda forward by using emotion over fact to benefit the cause.

In this case it is the Government's intention to end a six year moratorium on live sheep exports and Kedgley has ramped up the national sentiment to such a hysterical level it is almost impossible to find any real facts among the animal welfare banter.

Kedgley is a smart lady. By talking about 'ritual sacrifice' and reminding us of the Australian disaster when 5000 sheep died in 2004 she has guaranteed an outrage that is disproportionate to the reality - but why let facts get in the way of reality?

The truth is (for anyone not blathering on talkback radio today), that there is strict regulations governing the live export trade and it is in the best interests of the producers to deliver healthy sheep. MAF will have to be absolutely certain that these sheep will not be mistreated on the journey.

But let's be honest about this - Kedgley is absolutely right to say that many of these sheep will be used in Muslim rituals when they reach Saudi Arabia - and while that might not be comfortable in our culture, it it their prerogative to do what they will.

And while we're being honest let's just say that it's slightly hypocritical to suggest a live sheep export is abhorrent to our sensitivities when we cook live crayfish among other things, without much of a thought to how it got on our plate...and then of course there are the vegetables that scream in the pot...aren't they alive!!!

Business exports are valuable right now and while we can't put at risk our reputation, if this live trade can work, we owe it to our farming community and to our economy to give it a go.

This is not Australia and it's not 2004. In terms of animal welfare standards we have come a long way since then and Sue Kedgley knows this, so bravo Sue, you've put the Green Party in the headlines again, you clever clever gal.

Contractors among the first to suffer recession in agriculture

2009-03-23T08:35:00.002+13:00

Contractors up and down the country are reporting a dismal season across the board. Although farming has not yet been hit dramatically by the recession (apart from the decreasing dairy pay-out) it seems farmers have been tightening their belts and deciding not to hire cultivators and fertiliser spreaders, in favour of doing it themselves.

Locally many contractors have said they have had the quietest January/February for many years and March has only marginally been better.

The upshot of this is that we may see some contractors forced out of the industry, jobs lost, and less money floating about rural townships - which would be a further blow to the economy as the Government is looking particularly to the rural sector for growth.

Let's hope the situation improves.

Ravensdown defending involvement in animal nutrition market

2009-03-23T08:19:00.006+13:00

Too little...too late.

After recent criticism (Farmgirl being among them) Ravensdown have decided to bring out the PR swagger Kings to persuade arable farmers that their involvement in the animal nutrition market (namely the palm kernel market) is actually good for them.

And I expect they will do a magnificent job of sugar coating what is still a kick in the teeth to their cropping farmers, but they forget one thing, and that is while they spin it anyway they like there is still no way that any palm kernel sold from Ravensdown benefits a substantial number of its shareholders.

Regardless of the waffle they express about how it is encouraging some North Island farmers to add grain as well as palm kernel to their mixes and how they are actually trying to help our industry, it does not disguise the fact that they should not be in that market in the first place.

As I've said before Ravensdown is a farming co-operative. It is not there for dairy farmers alone, sheep farmers alone or cropping farmers alone. All we ask is that we have fertiliser at decent prices and leave the animal nutrition market alone.

So it is with trepidation that we will attend the meeting with the big guns on the 7th April. I'm sure, as happened the last time I posted on this matter, that I will have some anonymous poor comments again from directors and those trying to protect their own jobs but I do it for a valid reason - in the name of trying to achieve fairness across the board and keep the co-operative honest.

How about a Farmer owned supermarket?

2009-03-23T08:03:00.004+13:00

It was made fairly clear last night on Sunday that our supermarkets are heading in the same direction as their British counterparts albeit without the huge discounts for customers.

Here the reality of price mark ups was exposed with a Hawkes Bay Royal Gala apple grower saying how he received just $037.5 cents per kilo for his fruit yet the same supermarket he sold too was marking it up to $3.69 per kilo.

The problem is of course that Foodstuffs almost holds the monopoly on the market and can afford to pay little to the producer and charge lots for the customer.

The suggestion put forth last night was that to avoid the price hikes we should go to our local corner store or butcher - and that does appear to be happening more and more. From personal experience of Farmers Markets it has become clear that people are looking for quality produce without the supermarkets intervening in between.

This then could be a good outlet for producers but it is of course on too smaller scale which leads me to ask why we couldn't get together and start our own Farmers supermarket, shut the blockheads out and market our product the way we want it marketed. It would also ensure that people understand that something like a loaf of bread might have increased by near 100% in price in the past two years, yet the farmer is still only receiving a pitiful 10 to 20 cents per loaf and as co-owners we could sell at a price that better reflects what consumers want to pay.

Further to that we could ensure the quality of produce on the shelf - a sore point for many growers as I found out as a journalist in Marlborough when a local apple grower told me that while his seconds went to a market and were supposed to be used for secondary products, he knew they were ending up on supermarket shelves at similar prices to the top quality apples. This causes consumers to loose faith in the produce and to unfairly blame the grower.

Locally Countdown has been guilty of this and many feel sorry for the producers when they pick up oranges with a thick layer of fur over them (as I did recently) and produce that is soft and rotting in the middle.

Fantasy it might be but wow...imagine what we could achieve if we were able to pull a Farmer's supermarket off...

Never mind saving kiddies, give it all away

2009-03-19T12:45:00.004+13:00

Excuse the pun but it beggars belief!

Our do gooder PM is now suggesting that if we don't spend the pitiful $10 bucks extra a week he's offering in tax cuts, we could do the right thing and give it to charity because apparently many charities are going through a hard time right now.

Sorry to have to tell you this John, but you're a bit out of touch luv...you see we're all going through a hard time right now...and those very people the charities need to reach are the ones that could do with the extra $98 per week you've awarded yourself and your wealthy peers.

Could the bloke sound anymore naive then in his speech to Philanthropy NZ conference? There is political innocence and then there is sheer idiocy.

At a time when most people are struggling to pay their mortgage, raise their kids and ahem ahem, save for retirement, the mere hint that others may in fact not really need this tax cut (ie. the rich) is mocking to say the least.

But this is National we are talking about...the party that helps the rich get richer while the rest drift away.

And then there's the boil of superannuation and the fact that the pot will be dry by the time most of us get there...if he was going to suggest doing anything with the tax cut, surely it should be that it goes into saving for retirement?

As for his request for an 'American culture of giving' - look no further than the mess that country is in right now.

Forget the giving to charity Johno, and live in the real world, a world where people are struggling to buy fresh vegetables to feed their children...help them to help themselves by increasing their tax cut so that their children don't end up needing the very foodbanks and later the unemployment benefit that the wealthy is never going to foot the bill for.

Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Farmgirl slacking off 'til Thursday

2009-03-17T20:33:00.002+13:00

Just to say I am away to see the lovely Chris Martin and Coldplay until Thursday...in the city where all our money is going to fund their transport woes...will post plenty when I get back. Have a good couple of days.

Cheerio.

Are lamb prices going to hold?

2009-03-16T16:03:00.004+13:00

Okay, I have a vested interest in this. Today we have almost secured 1000 Southland lambs to finish and it looks likely that we will have to pay $85 to $90 per lamb.

We have been advised that this price is not likely to drop, and that even if a short sharp cold period puts paid to growing conditions down South, there are just not the lambs in the market, so we consider ourselves lucky if indeed we do manage to secure them, despite the horrendous overdraft it will likely cause!

Alas there are plenty of grass paddocks in Canterbury - a surplus of the recent wet spell that has carved havoc through the harvest season, so competition is hot.

Alliance have advised that they expect we will get over $6 a kilogram in August for them - with some predicting, all going well, that this could hit $6.50.

So while $120 to $135 a lamb seems a good profit, there is a lot riding on the overseas markets in the next couple of months for many of us as these lambs are not on contract - as such.

And for those farmers not able to get lambs and with plenty of grazing available there is not much to be had in the dairy market.

The Otago Daily Times reports that dairy farmers down South are holding off signing contracts as the situation becomes clearer. They know that with all the extra grass around they should be able to barter downwards - as will happen in Canterbury.

It's a situation we will keep our eye on with interest.

Let's hope those in the Northern Hemisphere keep eating at home as the recession bites (even Gordon Ramsay has had to close his posh Paris restaurant as punters save their money and cook at home instead of going out), and demanding our lovely lamb for their Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, all days of the week dinner!

Some good points re our banks

2009-03-13T19:11:00.002+13:00

Just wanted to share this from one of our readers and thank him for his comments. It gives all of us a far better insight.

"Trouble is, Farmgirl, though the short term rates will come back a bit more on the back of the OCR, long term rates are already starting to trend up, so it's a problem of trying to forecast how long the low variable rates will last as compared to fixing long now. If I was in the UK or US, with the amount of money they are printing then I would be expecting hyper (monetary) inflation in two or so years time, quite possibly less, so perhaps a year at best? Key has been a bit more moderate, however, Bollard has now once mentioned 'quantitative easing', a disaster, but there you go, a real threat given he is saying the OCR can't go below 2.5%, so same scenario here as UK and US.I'm not advising any policy :) but outside the seasonal financing, those long term rates are looking not too bad, and perhaps, just perhaps - I'm making no prediction, by the time the OCR is on 2.5%, the longer term rates, under some realistic scenarios, will be more expensive than they are now. Possibly, not definitely. Choices, choices. I see Bernard Hickey is saying to be looking at the long term from about now, and over perhaps the next month.

Also I realise the bankers have been getting a lot of flack for many farmers' short term rates still cushioning the banks with quite high premiums, but then again, some farm balance sheets are very strained and the risk premiums the banks are using are understandable and probably justified. While it may well be right that the banks were throwing money at the farming sector up to as little as ten months ago, not one farmer was forced into taking on more debt. The banks have been caught as flat footed at the strength and speed of the economic crisis as their customers - and there is the one point of criticism, for they perhaps 'c'ould have known better."

Mmmm...well put...and certainly food for thought.

Thanks again.

No surprises with interest rate cut

2009-03-12T09:38:00.004+13:00

There were no surprises with Dr Bollard's announcement of a record low interest rate of 3%, down from 3.5% but he did suggest that the days of big cuts are over, with New Zealand not expected to head in the direction of near zero policy rates of some other countries.

Any cuts from now on will be smaller, so those wanting to lock in fixed mortgages will be looking for that magical cut to 2.5% that is expected by the middle of the year.

Let's hope our banks play ball.

Interest Rates around the world (how we compare):

New Zealand - 3 per cent

European Central Bank - 1.5 per cent
Bank of England - 0.5 per cent
Australia - 3.25 per cent
US Federal Reserve - 0-0.25pc
Japan 0.1 per cent

Increasing Meat and Wool levy a must to keep us in the game

2009-03-12T09:15:00.004+13:00

So increases in input costs on farm are not such a welcome addition at the moment which may cause Meat and Wool New Zealand some problems in seeking to double the sheep and beef levies.

The proposal is for sheep levies to rise from 40c to between 60 and 80c, beef cattle levies to rise from $3.60 to $5.50 and $6 a head while the wool levy would fall from 5.25c to 5c per kilogram.

It would be easy to stall the increase (the first to be asked for since 2004) and adopt a wait and see approach to the global economic problems but this would only end up disadvantaging the entire industry.

Meat and Wool have been doing an admirable job - and a much needed one in promoting our meat into overseas markets with an independent report confirming that we are making money on our investment.

And like any business, (think Fonterra or PGG Wrightson) to grow we need more investment.

The August vote should be a no-brainer and hopefully farmers' will avoid all the negativity coming out of the economy and not shut the only sure fire way to make more money - investment, investment, investment.

Thank God for fertiliser competition

2009-03-12T08:43:00.006+13:00

Yet again it has been brought home to us here how vital competition in the fertiliser market is with the grumblings coming from UK farmers about the monopolistic industry there.

The latest fall in nitrogen prices in Britain has been met with contempt by farmers who ordered early and are now footing an expensive bill for their trouble.

UK Farmer's Weekly reported many farmers had a perception that the UK fertiliser industry in the form of Growhow UK has excessively profited at their expense - a serious charge, but probably not that far wrong.

Growhow marketing manager Ken Bowler denied the monopoly his company enjoyed had caused the high prices, saying while Growhow was the one remaining manufacturing supplier they still have to compete with opportunistic sellers.

But farmers do feel cheated and it serves to remind us how lucky we are to have Ravensdown and Ballance battling it out for market share. It's true fertiliser prices have been high this season due to international prices - this is not a problem British farmers face alone.

Here we grew wheat when Urea was $1100/tonne and now we could grow that same wheat for $690/tonne. But unlike our English counterparts we can afford to be pragmatic about it, knowing that with the competition in our industry the co-operatives have to bring the prices down as quickly as they possibly can and not drag their feet for extra profit share as seems to be happening with Growhow.

Currently the UK depends on 60% of its fertiliser from imports so it could benefit immensely from having more competition.

Here are the current UK fertiliser prices for March 2009 (£/t delivered):

UK SP5 34.5% N
£265-270

Imported urea Imported AN (full analysis)
£280-300

Granular(dependent upon quality)
£240-270

All illustrated prices are based upon 24t loads for cash payment the month following. Prices for smaller loads and 50kg bags will vary considerably.

For further information go to: http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2009/03/11/114677/global-marketplace-sees-fertiliser-fall.html

Shorty and some much needed light relief

2009-03-12T08:37:00.002+13:00

This from the UK Daily Mail today:

Get Shorty! The tiny pony who keeps sparking 999 calls ... because people think she's stuck in the mud!

For a tiny pony, Shorty is certainly causing a lot of bother. Her legs are so short that when she's standing on a marshy riverbank passers-by keep thinking she's sinking in mud and then call 999.
This has meant that fire crews have been called out four times now to 'rescue' her and led to Mayflower getting the Shorty moniker from locals.
On the last occasion, animal rescue expert Anton Phillips was dispatched to a salt marsh beside the River Test in Southampton, Hants, with 12 other firefighters, in two fire engines together Mr Phillips, of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: 'Every time we get there we can see very quickly what we were dealing with - a pony with short legs that looks like a dwarf.
'The pony is oddly shaped but it is fit and healthy and there is no reason to worry about it.
'From 200 yards away it does look like the pony is trapped in the mud, especially when it is stood next to New Forest ponies which are about twice as tall.'
He added: 'Obviously it's not the pony's fault for being so short but it probably needs fencing in to stop us getting called out.
'There is a cost implication to consider and callouts like this are a big expense.'
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service estimates that each time a fire engine goes out it costs at least £251.
Mr Phillips, 50, said the pony must have inherited its unusual proportions from two different breeds.
'It looks like it has a Shetland's little legs and a New Forest pony's long body', he said.
However, owner Sandra Whitcher today insisted Mayflower is a pure-bred 12-year-old Shetland.
She said: 'People are always phoning up and saying Mayflower has got stuck in mud when she's perfectly OK - she's just got short legs.
'We have had animal rescuers, the police and the fire brigade up here. When they get here Mayflower sees them and just runs off so they realise she's not stuck at all.
'We might have to put up a sign so passing motorists know the horse is not stuck.'
But she added: 'The only problem is that one day she might actually get stuck and then the fire brigade won't turn up.'
Shetland ponies, known for their short legs, typically grow to between 2ft 4in and 3ft 6in tall.
New Forest ponies are larger, tending to be between 4ft and 4ft 10in, and more normally proportioned.with a specialist lifting vehicle.

Merger of Lincoln University and AgResearch a no-brainer

2009-03-11T09:37:00.004+13:00

Yesterday's announcement of a proposed merger between Lincoln University and AgResearch is positive and will ultimately reap rewards for agriculture.

Having a world class scientific land based university will lure research contracts and overseas scientists and could ultimately produce some significant results.

The proposal also signals a move in the right direction with many concerned the University has been moving steadily away from its core agricultural base. This merger may alleviate that concern and put agriculture to the fore of scientific development in this country.

While the merger is expected to cost around $2.5 million to complete it will save the same amount year as well as attracting $50 million plus in additional revenue each year and it provides the University with a security it has been lacking over the past decade.

Attacks in Northern Ireland feeding on a lack of identity

2009-03-11T08:53:00.010+13:00

It's just sad, sad, sad...which ever way you look at it.

Having lived in Northern Ireland for a few months a couple of years ago I was taken aback by the new political peace process. I couldn't stop watching the television news with fierce Protestant leader Ian Paisley doggedly standing side by side with Sinn Fein and former IRA men Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams. It wasn't comfortable but it was workable and most people you talked to in Northern Ireland desperately wanted it to work.

Tourism was booming. People were coming to see the beauty of the landscape as well as the scarred reminders of the past.

But there was always this undercurrent underpinning the optimism. It was in the walking tour of Belfast I undertook with an ex IRA soldier, or in the small village pub decorated with British flags. These people are moving on as best they can but it doesn't mean resentments have died. The division and lack of trust in each other remains as does the brutal facts of the province's bloody history.

So this week's latest tragedy was the bubble that threatened to pop at any time but it can not be allowed to derail the process. The killing of two British soldiers can not be over-reacted too - troop levels must be contained because it was the troops arrival in Northern Ireland all those years ago that sparked the biggest IRA draft in history and it will again.

I do find it incredibly sad that the same army base I saw in Antrim, tranquil and without the massive armed presence of the past, has been chosen by the Real IRA to shatter the peace. The base was more than a British army base, it was a symbol of how far the people had come. That soldiers were walking out the gate to get pizza without an armed presence spoke volumes for where the process was at. This would not have even been considered as soldiers hunkered down each night, fearful in their bases, at the height of the troubles.

This then, and the luring and killing of a policeman by the Continuity IRA is in danger of becoming a flash point. Protestant guerrilla groups will be wanting to react and the people will bring out those old divisions that never lay forgotten.

You only have to read comments on discussion boards on the Internet to know that there is a new young breed of disenchanted youth in Northern Ireland who are carrying burning hatreds. Sometimes it makes you shiver to read their opinions of each other, and you realise how fragile the entire process is.

But the real problem is this - the people of Northern Ireland don't have an identity. They are still drawn across the old battle lines. The friends I made told me quickly and clearly that they were either British or Irish. No-one said they were of Northern Ireland descent. And it makes me afraid that they can't proudly identify with being of one origin as we can as New Zealanders.

There has to be an overriding identity if they are ever to escape the divisions of the past and if they are to shut down these terrorist splinter groups.

Otherwise there will be a new generation filled with their parents' hatreds and it will begin all over again.

Here is a fascinating post on Anderson Cooper's CNN blog written by an anonymous former British intelligence officer who got inside the IRA:

"It is sad that over the past few days we have had terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland that have claimed the lives of two young, unarmed soldiers, injuring another two and injuring two pizza delivery men. Then today we hear the news that a police officer has lost his life in another terrorist attack in Armagh County.
I have watched as some “security experts” have commented on TV, and given their opinions, some of which I can only describe as utter BS.
As a person who has had inside knowledge of a terrorist organization and the thinking of some of the people involved in some of Northern Ireland’s most horrific acts, I think there is much more to come.
Indeed for the past few years I have been telling journalists what I believed what was happening behind the scenes. The answer from the honest journalists was “editors won’t print stories about Northern Ireland, as it might damage the peace process.”
Well, while they were sleeping, and the government was dismantling the security apparatus put in place to please Sinn Feinn and to give them a foothold, others in the Republican family were gathering intelligence, buying guns, recruiting new volunteers, and doing dry runs.
We have heard Sinn Feinn and others condemning these “micro groups,” saying that they have no support in the community, and “these are the same sound bites” that the provisional IRA had been hearing for over twenty years.
They did not listen, what makes you think that republican groups will listen now? And another thing, the Provisional IRA — the mainstream governing successor to the original IRA — didn’t have that much support in the community either.
People like Willie Frazer, who founded Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR) to represent victims of IRA violence, and some politicians have voiced concern over the years that Government was acting two fast and prematurely in dismantling the security apparatus.
Yes, there were problems with the UDR (the Northern Ireland police) and others. But there is nothing in place now. The Chief Constable is the chief of a police force, yet he now finds himself in a war against a small army of fanatics, ordinary policing will not work on its own.
Let’s wake up and smell the coffee."

Are environmental concerns a higher priority than producing the food itself?

2009-03-10T09:26:00.009+13:00

It was interesting to hear Australian farm production specialist Barney Foran's predictions for NZ agriculture including his dire warning that we need to lead the world in environmental production or be forced out of business within 20 years.
Doomsday predictions for Kiwi agriculture are nothing new. For the past decade sustainability, traceability and consumer preference have been our mantras - but come on, is it really as important as Foran is saying?
There is a simple equation here that always seems to be missed out when it comes to these high brow apocalypse seminars;
Fact 1: The world and its people must eat.
Fact 2: There is not enough food to go around and this problem is expected to be exacerbated further in the next 20 years.
Fact 3: With so much land being given over to the latest fads in bio-technology, food production world-wide is falling while demand is rising.
The Dominion Post reported Foran predicts that within a decade, meat will be marketed on its greenhouse gas emissions as well as water quality, biodiversity assets and cultural values.
"Tomorrow's meat enterprises will focus on product quality first, backed up by measured and low environmental impacts, austere production chains, avoidance of most chemicals and heavy metals and making farmed landscapes waterwise, biodiverse and beautiful."
But I'm not so sure that this is the way it is heading and even if it did go this far I think NZ farmers are in a good place to meet these qualifications. Okay, so we're not perfect but at the end of the day we are pretty damn good compared to some of these Eastern block countries dumping masses of low quality polluted meat on to the market (think Romania).
Foran went on to say that to ensure farming systems remained financially viable a "trimming of lifestyle expectation may be required along with debt reduction, less energy and chemicals, and developing flocks and herds that do the work themselves."
But if we did that wouldn't we end up like our British counterparts, un-viable, un-economical - all the 'un' words you can think of? Cutting back on production is not the answer, nor is as Foran seems to be suggesting, smaller flocks to suit the greenies along with hand-outs from the Government for being good little children when we choose to use the horse and plough rather than the mean ole' direct drill.
Sometimes I think these so called 'experts' really don't have a clue. Their philosophy is so far removed from the reality...
I would be interested to hear your views on this.

Banks need to stop shafting farmers

2009-03-10T08:48:00.005+13:00

Good on Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson for speaking out about the banks' appallingly high interest rates.

Farmers will have been sickened by the cuts offered to small home owners and other businesses while their own banks have made little to no significant cuts to their overdraft and mortgage rates.

The irony being that economists are lauding the potential of economic recovery coming from the rural hinterlands as they hope we expand and grow our operations. This is all good news for the banks so you would think they would move quickly to invigorate more growth - alas this has not been the case.

And what has been the reason for their sloth like grasp of interest rates? None other than greed. Shifting banks is a complicated exercise and one many farmers are loath to take on but you have to ask yourself if this wouldn't change if there was more competition in the market and if farmers were more willing to vote with their feet.

For too long the banking sector has been complacent about its rural clientele - yet relying on the sector to prop up its bottom line.

But as Nicolson suggests, enough is enough, and even the most loyal of clients will prove fickle if their bottom line is compromised by the inadequacy of their bankers.

The great urban-rural divide down under and on top!

2009-03-06T10:57:00.004+13:00

So you thought we were the only country stuck with this ever growing resentment between the big smoke and rural industry?
While we may have been struggling to assert our prominence as an industry into the hearts and minds of Aucklanders (like John I don't give a stuff about the rest of New Zealand Banks) and politicians, the recession has helped agriculture to 'show off' its wares once more with economists stating it is us that will lead New Zealand out of recession and the news that Marac Finance is looking to regional New Zealand (yes you heard correctly) for economic growth and opportunity.

No such luck in England however. Read these comments from Farmer's Weekly blogger David Richardson:

"According to today's Daily Telegraph an un-named, but by implication, influential senior economic adviser to Gordon Brown told him the City of London was the only really important engine of the British economy and that "the rest of the country can be turned over to tourism".
Admittedly this advice was said to have been given sometime before the fall of Northern Rock. I should also point out that the expose has come from the UK National Defence Association which particularly deplored the fact that defence was looking at a £15bill shortfall in funding and that it was bracketed by the said economist alongside manufacturing and virtually all other industries.
There was no mention of agriculture or food in the report. But doesn't its content sound familiar? Our industry has suffered from the same kind of attitude. Government policy towards it, delivered through DEFRA, has sidelined us. Food and farming were branded unimportant. Tourism and a pretty environment were given top priority. You could just imagine that same economist telling Gordon Brown to let farming go hang and import most of our food. It is entirely consistent with what happened to defence.
And where has that advice to rely wholly on the City got us? I don't need to give an answer. It is transparently obvious to us all. And it confirms what dangerous people some economists are. Governments should sack them all and go back to legislating with common sense. But they've been listening to economists for so long they have probably lost the ability to think for themselves. Sometimes I pull out my hair in despair. And if you've seen my photograph you will realise where that leads."

In the words of our most famous export - Fred Dagg, "We don't know how lucky we are!"

Protectionist measures could sink world trade by 8%

2009-03-06T10:04:00.003+13:00

World Trade Organisation director-general Pascal Lamy gave some serious warnings in an interview with Brian Fallow in the NZ Herald this morning.

Lamy was blunt - the stakes in the Doha trade talks have increased substantially as nations seek to protect their own economies. In layman's terms, it could be worse if it wasn't for Doha.

Lamy said we were 80% towards achieving the outcomes from that round but his organisation has also released information showing that if nations were to push the boundaries of present tariff levels, world trade could sink by up to 8%.

There are then two concerns:

1 As the squeeze gets tighter I think we can assume many will push those boundaries

2 This will lead to a deeper recession yet and if we don't think we're really in as much poo as other countries that will soon change.

And finally, I wholeheartedly agree with comments on http://homepaddock.wordpress.com/ about protectionism, considering the furore of Swazi last week and the complete farce the bailing out of Mascot Finance has become.

Here's what Ele Ludemann had to say:

"Protectionism comes in many forms, not just direct subsidies. Feel-good campaigns which encourage people to buy-local and outrage when local firms lose out to foreign competitors as happened last week when Swazi lost the contract to supply our Defence Force are protectionist too.
We can not expect others to open their borders to our produce if we shut our doors to theirs and we will pay a very high price if we give our trading partners an excuse to buy local themselves.
New Zealand has a lot to lose if short-term recession-busting measures result in subsidies and tariffs which will protect our competitors and reverse the painfully slow but steady progress towards global free trade.
But every other country will lose out in the long term too because the only fair trade is free trade."

PS - congrats to Ele for just completing her 2000th outstanding blog. If you haven't yet, get online and read her blog. It is quite simply superb!

Farmgirl talks to Farming Show

2009-03-05T07:54:00.001+13:00

You can catch up with the latest from the blog on the Farming Show by going to www.farmingshow.com.

Change in consumer grocery spending

2009-03-04T11:26:00.004+13:00

Further to the previous post there is some good news for UK farmers today with news that consumers are cutting back on buying ready made meals, instead favouring primary meat cuts as the recession hits their back pockets.

Having seen the mind boggling array of gourmet and fresh looking ready meals in the supermarkets in the UK, the need to make household savings may the best news the British farmer has had in years.

Ready made meals in the UK are not like what we have here in New Zealand. They are sophisticated and there are literally hundreds of meal varieties you can buy. And unlike the TV dinners of the past, many of these look pretty damn attractive. Gone are the brown peas and shrivelled sticks of carrot, in favour of beautifully blanched broccoli and delectable looking gourmet meat cuts.

Although expensive, these meals have been largely popular with the likes of London's working class, but have further served to alienate the customer from the source of the produce.

So this move away from these types of meals to more chilled red meat cuts (7% in 2008) is good news, and may-be even better news for New Zealand's long term lamb market prospects there.

And it seems Jamie Oliver's poultry crusade may be paying off with reports that free range poultry sales increased by 10% in the UK during 2008.

Need for 'big brother' in UK supermarkets

2009-03-04T11:08:00.006+13:00

You have to feel for British livestock farmers with news that two UK supermarket giants - ASDA and Tescos - plan to slash grocery prices across their stores again, to meet the growing economic problems of their customers.

However, calls for a supermarket ombudsman by farmers may not be falling on deaf ears. As prices on meat products continue to drop to uneconomic levels, Britain is having to import more and more meat - which is not something the Government wants to encourage.

The feeling is that if the supermarkets continue to charge ridiculously low prices for food, farmers may get their wish - and not before time with ASDA offering three packs of fresh meat for just ten pounds, and 100 different frozen products for $1 pound each.

Last year Irish farmers named and shamed those supermarkets who were forcing them out of business with predatory pricing. At the time Irish pork producers were losing between 25 and 30 pounds per pig while supermarkets were discounting the price of pork by up to 50%. Chicken producers complained about two for one deals, as Tescos came out with a 1.99 pound bird. But it seems the supermarkets are back to their old tricks and only too happy to import low quality meat of dubious origin.

As I've said before in this column there is a great need to educate the British consumer on what they are eating and to encourage them to look after their health by buying meat that is produced to a higher standard.

But after watching a rerun of Jamie's school dinners I think, sadly, it may all be a little too late.

English needs to stop throwing toys out of cot

2009-03-04T10:51:00.005+13:00

For goodness sakes...in the words of some undoubtedly great Kiwi orator, 'get over it Bill'.

Yesterday's report on ACC budget failings and whether the previous Labour government hid the deficit leading into the election was nothing more than a silly finger pointing exercise.

Who really cares at the end of the day whether the Cullen has-been gets slapped on the wrist...it's stupid school boy stuff and only serves to remind us of how petty the squabbling became between English and Cullen in the past nine years. English's need for revenge highlights a weakness in his character that he shouldn't be pandering too in these problematic times.

Because, apart from yesterday's aberration, English looks to be doing his best to rectify the deepening mess we seem to be sliding into. The news this week has been all bad, and English has aged before our very eyes since his government took power.

While Key gets to swan off and talk rubbish about an open trans-tasman flight path which will be unlikely to happen during his tenure as Prime Minister, English is left to struggle at home, almost a one man band, attempting to find a path to economic recovery with ten cent pieces rather than $100 notes.

The man is, in everything but name, our Prime Minister, while Key remains a figurehead, so who cares about who did what last election Bill?

Just keep your eyes locked firmly on the future and the rest will take care of itself.

David and Goliath shall meet

2009-03-04T10:39:00.005+13:00

And round three is about to commence now...Keith Cooper is swaggering to the middle of the ring as Craig Norgate adjusts his bloodied mouth gear.

But wait...Norgate's coach is advising him not to yell so much during this round, to keep his cool, to bide his time, to avoid the killer punch.

Already it's been a mighty battle with round one easily going to Norgate, who punched with one hand into Cooper's short pockets and took with the other...but Cooper's mental alertness has given him stamina, he puffed up his chest and delivered an almighty right hook, in the style of Holyfield to nearly knock Norgate out...but Norgate held on, was able to stagger back to his corner to be cleaned up and freshened for the next round.

So, one all at this stage...and now a change in the boxing rules...the two are going to sit down, pat each other's heads, suck their thumbs and let the adjudicator do the talking. Where will round three go? It's anybody's guess, but Cooper has that competitive gleam in his eyes, his pucker is up, his beef chops look firmer...

How the wind changes.

2009-03-03T07:32:00.006+13:00

How a year and a disgusting spell of wet weather can change everything...

This time last year arable farmers were finally seeing some upward adjustment to feed wheat prices as they climbed to $480 a tonne. After a decade of rising input costs with no corresponding inflationary adjustment to the price this was justice to many, but one year on and Farmgirl looks on to some big farms in the area that are rumoured to still have 5000 tonnes of milling and feed wheat on the ground, in danger of significant sprouting as the weather continues its vile wet track across the Canterbury province.

The milling wheat still to be harvested will be downgraded to feed quality and that means there could be a large surplus on the market - good news for dairy farmers, but yet again at the cost of their arable counterparts.

$320 to $380 a tonne seems to be where the price is sitting right now and that's not enough to encourage arable farmers to continue planting good tonnages.

Next year, yet again, it may all be very different.

Further update on sheep dog ban in meat works...

2009-03-02T18:33:00.004+13:00

Following the news last week that Silver Fern Farms is planning to ban all sheep dogs from meat work yards at the request of UK supermarket giant Tescos, Farmgirl has been told that Canterbury Meat Packers have been doing the same thing in Mid Canterbury for some time.

However, the move was not without ongoing costs as yards had to be redesigned.

One wonders if shareholders will be happy if SFF has to spend money on redesigning their yards as Farmgirl hears that many are old and will be difficult to shuffle sheep through without the use of our canine friends.

How much is that likely to cost?

Investors strike it lucky in South Canterbury

2009-03-02T18:19:00.004+13:00

It's hard to know how to feel about the taxpayer bail out of a failed South Canterbury finance company.
Almost certainly last year's hastily put together Government guarantee scheme was not designed to fix the woes of small finance lending institutions but this is indeed what it is being called upon to do.
Suddenly there is a very real possibility that this scheme could be relied upon more and more in the coming year by other such groups instead of the banks it was supposed to lend confidence too.
All this might be good news for Ma and Pa investor in the likes of South Canterbury but it raises serious and important questions about just how much thinking the Government did last October when it rushed to stop the panic enveloping New Zealand's banking sector.
It is all very well to try to secure such institutions but it is plain to see that the Government did not think of the longer term consequences and how much this could all end up paying the taxpayer.
Funny how we've all got used to shoring up big business in this country - think Air New Zealand and Tranz Rail - but we sure as hell are not used to dishing out the dosh to small time finance companies with 2000 or less investors.
A stitch in time doesn't just save nine it seems, a stitch in time will save the smallest financial lending institution regardless of its role in its own demise.
And that has to be a dangerously expensive mistake for every New Zealand taxpayer.

Political correctness gone barking mad as UK supermarket bans use of dogs across Silver Fern Farm works

2009-02-27T17:17:00.005+13:00

What the...?

The news today that UK giant supermarket Tescos has ordered a ban on all working dogs in the yards across Silver Fern Farm meat works is nothing more than animal activism gone mad.

Silver Fern Farms communication manager Brent Melville said last week's visit by supermarket officials has reinforced the need to phase out the use of dogs in sheep and lamb yards.

"Accordingly the company has committed itself to removing all dogs from all lamb sites by the commencement of the new season."

Bleeding hearts unite. The good old uninformed UK consumer has spoken yet again. Ignorant of farming practices they have shown yet again how dangerous their uneducated views can be.

A relation of mine told me a frightening story recently about a London boyfriend. This man had lived in London all his life and told her that he had never seen a vegetable in a garden and did not know that carrots grew in dirt. He was not an unintelligent man but it gives some context as to the continuing problems we are facing from that part of the world.

So divorced from reality are these consumers that Tescos have made an unreasonable demand to change a Kiwi way of life because they say it causes 'stress' to the sheep. Apparently humans yelling and rattling lumps of metal as sheep make their way through a yard does not.

Should Silver Fern Farms have accepted this demand or should they have used the international media to forward the Kiwi shepherd's case?

Although Tescos is important to Silver Fern Farms there is also an important principle at stake here, and if we say nothing and then announce the policy change backhandedly as the company have done, we are the losers.

At least give us a chance to fight our case and use this opportunity to prove to these ill-informed Brits that our Kiwi sheepdogs are as iconic as the meat itself.

Absolutely barking.

For more on the story go to http://www.ashburtonguardian.co.nz/

The big three advise Government spending on rural broadband

2009-02-27T06:06:00.004+13:00

Common sense prevails - a phrase you wouldn't necessarily attribute to our top three telecommunication companies, following the release of a combined report on the proposed $1.5 billion Government spend-up on improving broadband services.

Public policy advisers Castalia, working for Telecom, Vodafone and Telstra Clear reckon the telecommunication companies long term network investment is sufficient for most New Zealanders' and any Government money might be a waste.

However, for those of you long suffering rural surfers who either a) wait ten minutes to load a web page and give up or b) pay a small fortune on a satellite connection, there is good news.

The report states there is proven value in spending money in rural areas, schools and hospitals where the current market is not delivering, and let's face it, will never deliver.

So while the debate rages about whether the Government should invest in broadband for all, or keep some of the money for other projects, our rural sector can rejoice.

It looks as though, at long last we may be about to see the first technological investment in our communication systems since the days when party lines became push button phones and conversations became private!

Mind boggling French subsidy payments

2009-02-27T05:33:00.004+13:00

The poor French arable farmer has received some very bad news indeed this week with the announcement of a $1.6 billion dollar cut to their subsidy payments. The money is being diverted to livestock farmers to pay for upland farming and support for grass-based animal production.

Annually the arable farmers receive a mind boggling $11.5 billion in support, but the $1.6 billion decrease is still expected to cause 'pain' for many.

French agriculture minister Michel Barnier said the changes were essential to making the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) sustainable in the long run.

In light of the current climatic hiccups in Canterbury, and the soggy cereals still to be harvested it's enough to make you hit your head against a brick wall, sell up, buy a Chateau with a 10 acre paddock of wheat and a well stocked wine cellar!

Sighs of relief over PGG results

2009-02-27T05:14:00.003+13:00

The refinancing of $475 million debt by PGG Wrightson was a welcome announcement yesterday and one which immediately restored some confidence to the company's previously shaky share price ($0.79 cents at close of market).

But this is just the beginning for Norgate with the ongoing dispute with Silver Fern Farms dampening the way ahead.

Wisely, Norgate was careful not to divulge much more on the compensation issue but did say that the $10 million offer in compensation was not put together lightly. He also mentioned the proposed supply chain and procurement deal put forward would add to the value of the compensation if accepted.

But if Cooper keeps talking tough, and looking for the easy way to bail out Silver Fern Farms debt, Norgate's refinancing plans may mean little, particularly if the current economic climate persists or deteriorates further.

It's up to Cooper now.

Gold mining - keeping the money here

2009-02-27T04:54:00.003+13:00

This week I had the opportunity to visit the Oceana gold mining operation at Reefton. It really was quite something to see, particularly as it is in the middle of Victoria Conservation Park. Sometimes it seems that DOC and the RMA can work hand in hand to achieve a strong outcome for the community.

But I couldn't quite shake the feeling as I watched the potential $600 000 worth of gold material being carted off the mine that day, that the New Zealand taxpayer was missing out on the profits from a mineral that belongs to us all.

Oceana's profits go offshore and it seems bizarre to allow that money, when we're talking about the ever failing Government superannuation fund, to disappear.

Yes the company provides some 160 jobs (not all to New Zealanders) in the area and yes it had to put up the substantial money ($50 million) to develop the operation, but surely with a little vision the Government could have looked at a venture like this instead of say spending the cash on overseas attempts at the America's Cup.

It just doesn't seem right...

Farmgirl avoiding the rain

2009-02-23T11:20:00.004+13:00

Just a note to let you know that I am away until Thursday...avoiding watching the wheat sprout as the drizzle continues to fall but will try to get online when I can.

PS - This is not where I am going...but it sure looks good right now!

Lamb price news

2009-02-23T11:12:00.004+13:00

My thanks to one of our readers who forwarded me these confirmed figures for Silver Fern Farm lamb contracts.

Here's what he said:

"$5.55- $6.22 for 21kg lambs, $5.10-$5.80 for 17kg lambs. $8.50- $10 for 50kg Venison. These are Backbone contracts I think through until 2010...more details Rural News page 4. I'm not sure of the time frames but see lamb is up 5c for next week's schedule."

It will be interesting to see what Alliance comes out with - but generally this is all good news.

Jeanette Fitzsimons departure could signal a dangerous radical change in Green Party politics

2009-02-23T10:40:00.005+13:00

All farmers will be shuddering today at the news that Jeanette Fitzsimons is expected to stand down as the Green Party co-leader.

Fitzsimons changed the face of NZ politics in a positive way and allowed the Greens to have a moderate face - enhancing their appeal.

Her legacy is in all of us - particularly in the agricultural sector, where like it or not we have all begun to think about environmental impacts of farm practices and although I hear some of you grumbling about that, I think we owe her some gratitude.

As Jeanette and the Greens have campaigned, the world and consumers have changed. Now, more than ever, our produce has to appear to be safe, sustainable and with a regard for tomorrow's customers. When the Greens first came to power we hadn't even heard of carbon miles - now we are racing to catch up, trying desperately to win the overseas markets, and to convince the public that we, as farmers, are doing everything we can to produce a clean fresh product that will be able to be grown today, tomorrow and the next decade without damaging the land we are caretakers of.

Jeanette brought these issues to the forefront but in a dignified and patient manner. She was not extreme, but a realist in some respects, and had the interests of all New Zealanders in her grasp.

What then is the new face of the Green Party to look like?

Sue Bradford and Metiria Turei are front runners for the position - both of which are enough to put the heebie jeebies into any farmer. Bradford looks to be the favoured prospect but she is a radical (God help us if the Greens get to hold any power in future Governments). Think anti-smacking bill and you get some idea of her agenda.

Unlike Fitzsimons she appears to have little patience and a loose grasp on the reality of business and the economy.

For farmers she is everything in the Green party they are afraid of...and then some.

India free trade negotiations a ray of hope for agriculture

2009-02-23T08:02:00.004+13:00

Forget the recession - the Government's announcement of a possible free trade deal with India over the weekend was the best news to hit our livestock industry in 18 months.

India has a growing middle class, with money in pockets, and this bodes well for our lamb markets.

Okay, so negotiations are expected to take a number of years but it all looks hopeful and in these current conditions the fact that we are opening talks with the world's second largest nation is a huge coup for the Government.

Currently we export very little agricultural products as there are high tariffs on sheep meat. Even so we export $360 million each year, and import $284 million in return. Coke, coal, logs and wool are our main exports into the country.

Think then what free access to India's growing rich could mean and as Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson commented, "sheep meat is widely consumed and unaffected by religious dietary requirements where meat is consumed."

Might be time to buy in that breeding stock again and celebrate the positivity of this move.

Here's to free trade and lamb curries!

Will Cooper's witchhunt be in the best interests of NZ agriculture?

2009-02-22T16:40:00.006+13:00

The Press said it all yesterday with a bold headline proclaiming PGG Wrightson's capital value had halved in just one week as the company's market capitalisation was slashed to $175 million on Friday.
Hindin Greene partner Grant Williamson, of Hamilton, said that investors had lost confidence in the company particularly after the Silver Fern Farms debacle.
Now, as reported on this blog earlier this week, Keith Cooper - CEO of SFF, is determined to go after Norgate for a figure widely rumoured to be around the $140 million mark.
There is no two ways about this, PGG Wrightson is in trouble. It has high debt levels and a big investor (Pyne Gould Corporation with a 21.5% percent share) wanting out. As Williamson suggests in the article, getting new debt is near impossible in the current economic environment.
So, is Keith Cooper's stance in the interests of New Zealand agriculture at this time, and indeed his own shareholders? Many of those shareholders will be PGG clients and none of them will want to see the company go belly up.
PGG Wrightson is an important company and Cooper's desperation to save Silver Fern's and his own bacon could see it pushed to the brink.
Norgate was stupid to go unconditional on the deal with Silver Ferns without funding but is it even stupider to sink his ship when so many farmers could be hurt by those actions? Couldn't a softly softly approach and a little more patience serve both companies interests?
It's a tricky question, and one I suspect Cooper and his men won't give any consideration to.
It would be interesting to hear your views on this...

Good news for grain farmers

2009-02-20T07:46:00.004+13:00

Some good news this week coming out of the United Kingdom for our arable farmers with a top trader indicating that prices could return to 2007 levels.

Dr Klaus Schumacker of Toepfer International told British farmers that cereal stocks were still historically low at just 19% of estimated usage.

Dr Schumacker said stocks need to increase, but that isn't likely in the UK with yields expected to be well down following a decision by many to decrease inputs, because of economic difficulties. Weather problems have also added to the shortage.

Dr Schumacker also stressed the growing link between oil and grain prices, citing the amount of corn that is being used in the States as bioethanol.

Despite traders pulling out of the wheat futures market last year and the decrease in planting that caused it seems world demand for wheat remains and that is great news for our New Zealand farmers.

Farm prices immune to recession?

2009-02-20T07:11:00.003+13:00

Federated Farmers Meat and Fibre chairman Bruce Wills has publicly stated he thinks farm prices could tumble by up to 30 % - a statement I'm not so sure is correct for some parts of the country.

Last year in Mid Canterbury farm values reached a record high when an irrigated farm was sold to process vegetable growers for $20 000 an acre. Prior to that farms in the area had been hovering between the $16 ooo to $18 000 mark.

Since then it has been hard to get a handle on values as farm sales in the area have come to a virtual halt. However, the law of supply and demand still stands and sectors such as the process vegetable community have held up in current economic conditions and although the dairying pay-out has decreased from $7.90 to $5.10 a kilogram the fundamentals are much the same.

Recession talk breeds more recession but in the case of some sectors of the farming community it is pretty much business as usual, and if you are a corporate farmer the ability to spread your risk can outweigh the current negative talk.

If you add to that the welcome drop in interest rates you could probably succeed in arguing that now is a good time to buy land, if it comes available - and I'm sure many of these farmers will take that opportunity should it come, hence the market may sustain its high.

Areas such as Northland may be vastly different of course but Canterbury and Southland (which is already showing signs of bucking the trend) are well placed to survive the recession panic.

Farmers are right to hold on to their land at present, it only adds to the competition when it does come available, and in these areas they should not succumb to the depressed spin coming out of the media.

Supply and demand - a fundamental that doesn't change.