SFF backtracking on idiotic ban of dogs in sheep yards

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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?

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

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...

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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!

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%

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

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

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

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.