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Tony Chaston

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tony.chaston@agridata.co.nz

The latest round of Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) funding has been spread across forestry, merino wool and arable farming organisations.

Agriculture and Forestry Minister David Carter said today $20 million would be split between the New Zealand Forest Owners Association, the Foundation for Arable Research and the New Zealand Merino Company (NZMC) reports The ODT. At slightly over $15m, NZMC will get the lion’s share of the funding, and with their own funding input included, the three government-industry partnerships will be worth over $45m.The government funds will be received over five to seven years and Mr Carter said the economic spin-offs could amount to billions of dollars “if the proposals’ scientific and market research and product development are brought to fruition”.

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Estimated breeding values (EBVs) remain a “black box” for farmers, but scientists are working to find out more about beef and sheep genetics, said Mike Goddard, from Australia’s University of Melbourne and Victoria.

He talked to about 100 stud and commercial farmers, as well as beef industry stalwarts, at a Beef Expo celebratory breakfast, in Feilding, last week reports The Manawatu Standard.Professor Goddard said EBVs work, but there are unknown factors.”We know how EBVs work. But the genes that contribute to them – we don’t know.”He said there were many genes that contribute to factors such as growth rate, meat yield, and fertility, for example, but only one for colour.As if that is not enough of a problem, when it comes to beef breeds, markers need to be relevant across many breeds.

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The economy is in for a $2 billion transfusion from Fonterra’s forecast of a potential record 2010-11 season payout of “well over $8″ – but the patient is being warned not to party up large again.

 Yesterday Fonterra startled the industry and financial circles by following up a respectable opening forecast payout of $6.90-$7.10/kg milksolids for the season, which begins next week, with a longer range forecast of a possible $8-plus final season payout – if international dairy prices and foreign exchange rates hold at current levels.The opening forecast, which combines a milk price of $6.60 and a forecast distributable profit of 30-50c/kg, means around $650m more for the economy in the 2010-2011 year – but an $8-plus payout would mean a $2b economic bonanza, says Bank of New Zealand head of research Stephen Toplis.The $8 payout would mean a close to $1m income for a farmer producing the industry average of 120,000kg in the season. Out of this has to come the farm’s running costs, tax, labour, family costs and new Emissions Trading Scheme taxes reports Stuff.

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Fonterra has set its first payout forecast for the 2010/11 season, lifting its outlook for the milk price by around 50 cents per kilo to around NZ$6.60/kg.

Once dividends from profits are added, Fonterra could produce a payout of around NZ$7/kg. This would be the second highest payout in Fonterra’s history after the record NZ$7.62/kg paid out in 2007/08. Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden said it was possible the final payout could be over NZ$8/kg if the exchange rate and commodity prices stayed at their current levels. This would add up to NZ$2 billion to the economy from the NZ$2009/10 season, assuming the drought of the last few months does not hurt output too much reports interest.co.

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The Animal Health Board (AHB) has successfully prosecuted a Waiuku farmer for the illegal sale of cattle from a bovine tuberculosis (TB) infected herd. Geoffrey William Muir pleaded guilty at the Pukekohe District Court today to moving and selling cattle in breach of a restricted place notice imposed by the AHB in June 2008.Muir was fined $30,000 and $140 court costs. The AHB was awarded $10,454 in costs and $2,500 in legal costs. Muir was convicted on four charges of failing to notify the movement of an infected herd, making a false and misleading declaration, moving cattle to a third party’s farm and knowingly selling 157 cattle from a herd that was suspected of harbouring TB reports Scoop.

AHB chief executive William McCook said the prosecution showed the AHB would take action against farmers who fail to abide by livestock movement regulations. “It is clearly unacceptable that one man put his fellow farmers at risk for his own pecuniary gain. Selling cattle from a herd that is suspected or known to harbour bovine TB could have serious consequences for the national TB control programme. “We know a vast majority of the 73,000 cattle and deer farmers in New Zealand willingly comply with movement control restrictions and expect us to come down hard on those farmers who do not.

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About a year ago, three Southland families ended their three-year stint as monitor farmers .Kaiwera farmer Robert Young is effusive in his praise of the monitor farm program that he was involved with for three years, reports The Southland Times.

“When it finished, there was a big sigh of relief of not being in the fish bowl and we were quite happy to not have any of that stuff happen for a little bit.” But with the benefit of time, he and wife Stacey realised they had got a “huge amount” out of the Meat & Wool New Zealand scheme, Mr Young said. “It improved our farming out of sight and was worth a lot of money to us.” Their profit more than doubled, he said.

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The proposed merger between Lincoln University and Telford Rural Polytechnic has moved a step closer to reality. Lincoln University Vice-Chancellor Professor Roger Field says the primary driver for the proposed merger is to protect and develop land-based education and vocational training for the benefit of New Zealand.
 
“Both institutions recognise that an industry-based workforce of highly educated, skilled and technology-literate individuals is required to maintain and grow New Zealand’s global competitiveness in the land-based sectors,” he says.Telford Rural Polytechnic CEO Jonathan Walmisley agrees. “Together, it is possible we have the potential to generate more co-ordinated and integrated land-based education, in keeping with national education strategies and goals.”
 
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Big black angus bulls dominated the national cattle stud sales at Beef Expo this week. More than $750,000 changed hands at the sales with almost half of that being paid for angus bulls. The two top sales of $26,000 and $25,000 were angus bulls and, to round the expo off, the breed featured in the steak of origin contest to find the nation’s tastiest beef steaks.

A steak from a limousin-angus heifer raised by sisters Kathy Child and Yvonne Hill, of Whangarei, was judged the overall winner while an angus steak from Chef’s Choice, Whanganui, won the overall best of brand section for retail and wholesale butcheries. Angus also took out the first three places in the best of British breeds section. The four-day expo in Feilding is a shop window for many breeders who will be hoping to lure breeders and commercial farmers to their on- farm sales over the next two months reports The Dom Post.

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Yesterday’s budget brought little good news for farmers and the rest of the agribusiness sector, a senior business consultant says.”Beyond the changes to the tax structure … there is little new for the agribusiness sector which had not already been well flagged by the Government in pre-budget announcements,” said Ian Proudfoot, lead partner in KPMG’s agribusiness arm.

KPMG warned last month that NZ has little as five years before its farmers are undercut by trade rivals reports The ODT.”South America, Western China and Central Asia’s large scale intensive farming practices have the benefit of lower cost land and labour and normally have less complex regulatory regimes,” said the firm’s agribusiness chairman, Ross Buckley.

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