Beef and Lamb NZ, wants to use the farm, and half a dozen like it, for its demonstration farm programme. Richard Wakelin, general manager of the organisation’s farm section, said the new programme would sit alongside the existing monitor farm programme. Mr Wakelin said he hoped the new programme would be in place by October 1 after the Beef & Lamb NZboard had decided what should be included reports Stuff. The board would be asking “what are the key big hits that we need to strategy look at?”.

Mr Wakelin said he didn’t want to wait until October 1 if there were options worth immediately exploring. “If there was something already running and could be brought to the board sooner we need to be looking at that,” he said. Dr Gavin Sheath, AgResearch’s commercial team leader for agriculture and the environment at the Ruakura campus in Hamilton, told a dozen farmers attending a rare field day at Whatawhata in November that the laboratory-equipped station was under-utilised.

(more…)

A rural think tank is looking at ways to increase the profitability of beef weaners.The group of eight farmers, chaired by former Environment Waikato chairman Jenni Vernon and funded by Beef and Lamb NZ  benchmarking their farms in a bid to lift weaner profits by 5%.

Waingaro farmer Baden Broughton said the initiative would get farmers off farm and sharing informartion with each other. ”Farmers are usually left to their own devices but we are going to get a lot of information.” Mr Boughton, who farms 300 cattle and 1100 ewes, thought the $550 he was selling weaners for, at the moment, was a good price and he wanted the think tank to explore profitability in other less performing areas of the farm reports The Waikato Times.

(more…)

Store stock prices look set for a major correction, with many observers believing current values were inflated by plentiful grass and unrelated to prime stock prices. Store lamb prices have only recently started falling from about $2.20 a kg liveweight, while calf sale prices have started about $2 a kg liveweight, with many vendors receiving values similar to last year reports The ODT.

There appears little doubt a grass market has driven up prices, but agents and industry observers say that could be about to change, as the area experiencing dry conditions expands and autumn conditions start to bite.Sources say some farmers still have store lambs for sale while the dry conditions may force farmers who traditionally take calves through to spring to quit them at the autumn weaner sales, adding to supply pressures.

(more…)

With many changes in the farming business, Gisborne/Wairoa’s Meat & Wool New Zealand monitor farmers Ken and Kirsty Shaw are right on track to achieve their original goals reports The Gisborne Herald.  Around 100 people were on hand to hear about and see the improvements to their Matawai farm Elmore Station at the annual field day.

Now in the third year of the monitor farm programme, the Shaws have made more than 20 changes to their farming operation and only four have not worked out with other changes making a huge difference on the farm and to the bottom line. The vision for Elmore at the start of the programme was to have an economic farm surplus that was up with the top 10 in the district; to have a farm that was aesthetically pleasing; to repay $100,000 of debt, and to generate enough cash for debt repayment and for the Shaws to have the ability to do what they wanted when they wanted to.
(more…)

AgResearch is urging North Island farmers to continue ensuring that their cattle are protected against facial eczema and to monitor their herds for the serious animal health and welfare problem. Facial eczema costs the dairy industry anywhere between $9.6M and $95.2M per year, depending on outbreaks and weather, and the impact on income and animals can be limited by using zinc protection.

“Even with some weather changes now, farmers still need to take facial eczema particularly seriously,” said AgResearch Senior Scientist Dr Chris Morris who is part of a team operating a MAF Sustainable Farming Fund project to monitor zinc protection. “Zinc sulphate is a water-trough treatment which should be effective and easily applied. Facial eczema risk can vary greatly from herd to herd, and even from paddock to paddock, so it is good to be prepared even when the risk in a region appears to be low.”

(more…)

NZ sheep and beef farming is on a knife edge with the exchange rate to decide which way it tips in the next six months reports Country-wide. That’s the stark but honest picture painted by M&WNZ Economic Service manager Tim Hembrow at a recent Manawatu Breeding and Finishing Monitor Farm field day.

In a rundown on the Economic Service’s mid-season update, Hembrow said market offshore prospects were positive for sheep. Global lamb supply was low and demand firm despite the high dollar. On-farm inflation in relative terms was under control but the exchange rate and fluctuating fertiliser prices could put farm profits under pressure.

(more…)

Otago farmers are nervously eyeing the approach of winter, with autumn feed stocks depleted by a dry, windy summer reports The ODT. Most of Otago is drier than normal for this time of year, with the hardest-hit areas including North Otago, East Otago, Strath Taieri, Maniototo and Central Otago. “It’s certainly going to be a difficult winter for a lot of people,” Hawea farmer Richard Burdon said.

North Otago Federated Farmers president Ross Ewing agreed, saying while farmers would welcome any rain, cool nights and wind meant it was getting late for vegetation growth to recover. “It’s getting serious. The trouble is, winter is coming and nothing is happening.” Oturehua farmer Ken Gillespie said just 190mm of rain had fallen on his farm since last May, making it one of the driest years he could remember. The long-term annual average was 520mm.

(more…)

Major meat processor Silver Fern Farms will expand into the premium lamb market in China on its own after a proposed partnership of processing companies collapsed reports Stuff. The partnership was to be modelled on the successful NZ Lamb Company joint venture in North America, but failed to get past the business case level.

SFF chief executive Keith Cooper has refused to reveal which company or companies pulled out of the consortium of SFF, Alliance and Anzco, but Alliance has since said the returns were unconvincing. He said there was no bad blood between the companies and the North American venture would continue unaffected, but SFF would now look at opportunities to develop its own brand.

(more…)

Sheep and beef sector leaders are being urged to put away the knives, dump their pessimistic and negative attitudes and work together for the good of the industry. M&WNZ chairman Mike Petersen, who yesterday announced the organisation’s name change to Beef and Lamb NZ, seven months after sheep farmers voted to dump the $6.3 million wool levy, vented his frustration at the organisation’s AGM, held at the Waitomo Cultural and Arts Centre in Te Kuiti.

Mr Petersen said short term negative thinking was stifling the sector’s opportunities reports The Waikato Times. “I am not expecting everyone to become a cheerleader for the sector. However, it is time that industry leaders and leaders within the wider farming community put away the knives and fought for this sector more than they are doing now,” he said.

(more…)

Chief Executive, Dr Scott Champion, says the Strategic Plan defines the way in which M&WNZ will do business through to 2014 ¨To see whats new, what has been retained and where the organisation is putting more or less emphasis over time. We started by looking at the issues facing the industry, considering how the industry needs to respond, and then looking at what role we can play in that response.

Farmers wanted better communication about the tools and practices that will help them be profitable on a sustainable basis. We’ve implemented organisational changes which have seen a shift of staff from Wellington to the regions and there will be an increased focus on extension work, with a dedicated extension team now operating in the regions.

(more…)