More annihilation of British Farmers rights

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!

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

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...

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...

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.

Federated Farmers versus Sex Pistol rocker

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

Good to see the dairy industry tackling P problem

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.

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

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?"

Are lamb prices going to hold?

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!

How the wind changes.

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.

Ravensdown and a whole can of whooey

The latest PR offering from Ravensdown on its palm kernel business was nothing more than a slippery backslide designed to do nothing more than calm the angry hordes of arable farmers who make up a substantial percentage of Ravensdown's fertiliser profits.

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. First they try to make a buck at the expense of cropping farmers by importing palm kernel to dairy farmers, when those very same farmers might have purchased wheat from their New Zealand neighbours, and now they have fobbed the protests aside by claiming that they are the arable industry's saviour, charging in on a white horse.

Their PR doctors should be given a pay rise (the palm kernel profits could be the trick) for their claim that by adding a small amount of grain to PKE this season they have created a 'new' domestic grain market for farmers.

Very few wheat farmers sell their grain for the purpose of Ravensdown's diffusive business plans and two major points have been missed in the process.

Ravensdown is a farmer's co-operative - not a dairy farmer co-operative, not a sheep farmer or arable farmer co-operative, but a united farmer's co-operative and as such any move by the directors to go into a business which seriously disadvantages one group of farmers like the palm kernel imports does should be vetoed.

These board sitters should be sacked if they can't even stick to the core principles of a co-operative and arable farmers should vote with their feet and buy from the opposition until such time as Ravensdown sees fit to even up the playing field again.

Imagine the outrage from dairy farmers if Ravensdown went into importing milk powder to those beef farmers breeding bobby calves. It is the same thing.

They are a fertiliser co-operative and these decisions serve to drive a wedge right through their community of shareholders. Many were unhappy about the decision to stray from their core business of fertiliser when they decided to go into agri-chemicals and many more may be unhappy if this foray into palm kernel imports proves marginal on the bank sheet as some suspect it might.

If Ballance were smart they would move in for the kill. There has never been a more opportune time.