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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.

“This conviction sends a clear message to the farming community that the AHB will vigorously enforce the rules around the movement and sale of infected herds. “This complements the other methods we use to control the spread of TB such as monitoring compliance by checking animal identification and status declarations at sale yards and shows. “We also audit animal movements out of movement control areas, investigate overdue TB tests, act on complaints and, as with the Muir case, take action through the courts when necessary,” Mr McCook said.

Normalised earnings figures – with exceptionals taken out to leave only meat industry activity – for the four largest meat companies over the past five years show combined earnings in 2008-09 were well below the five-year average even though turnover and assets employed increased.Average margin on sales was just 0.7%.“You can all see from these numbers a train crash is coming.”

In 2008-09, 19 companies and 36 plants killed 25.6m lambs. Average weekly kill is just 42% of potential capacity. The picture for beef, Anzco’s core business, is only marginally better: export processing plants fell from 36 to 32 with an increase in annual kill from 1.96m to 2.22m over the same time period. Average kill is 56% of capacity.“The train crash is coming because there’s too much capacity in regards to the livestock supply and the second thing is lack of profitability,” He told the monitor farm meeting only two players in the NZ meat industry have paid tax every year in the past decade “and they are Alliance and Anzco”. Harrison also highlighted market share statistics based on EU sheepmeat and US beef quota allocations.“There’s been a huge drop for Silver Fern Farms (SFF) and Alliance has now overtaken Silver Fern Farms as the largest sheepmeat company. Affco’s flat and Anzco is climbing. That tells you some story.” Beef trends are similar, with SFF having suffered “a huge loss of market share” to the US, though it remains the largest player at about 56,000 tonnes..

For all the talk of fragmentation, the NZ meat industry today is the most consolidated it has ever been in its 128 year history, with SFF, Alliance, Affco and Anzco handling 75% or more of both the sheep and beef kill. However, there is no point trying to create a Fonterra-type model, or even having that debate, because sheep and beef farmers have never backed collectivisation, he says. “In the end farmers will come back to choice.”

Mr Proctor said he had seen too many shot and savaged livestock over the past few years on the property, off SH5, as illegal hunters target private farms and blocks for their shooting expeditions. “I’ve had poachers leave dogs on the farm overnight which have attacked sheep within a short period of time. I’ve had up to 20 ewes at once killed, and if you’ve ever seen a sheep still alive with half its face peeled off you wouldn’t think twice about shooting these kinds of dogs.”.

“Shooting dogs seems to be the only way to get through to these people. While it seems harsh to punish something that doesn’t know any better, it seems to be the only way to get the message through.”Mr Proctor was responding to a story in Hawke’s Bay Today last Thursday about illegal hunters and poachers hitting properties off the Taihape and Puketitiri Roads.

“We are in the same situation – we are getting poached on a regular basis.”Over the past five years he and neighbours had seen farm deer and cattle shot – most of it taking place during the winter. “I’ve had fences cut and stripped back to allow farm deer into the wild. I’ve had gates smashed open and padlocks cut and shot to gain access through my farm. Padlocks at $100 a pop and fencing at $20 per metre. Cattle around $600-700 dollars each and hinds around $500 each … it doesn’t take long to add up to a costly amount of damage. Then there’s the time it takes to repair as well as patrolling at night till 3am to find these mongrels. It just seems to go on and on.”

Police were out stopping and checking hunters and their vehicles on Waitara Rd last Saturday. “They are being pro-active,” Mr Procter said.

He believed there was a rebalancing occurring in the industry, and those farmers who remained carrying larger numbers of animals would be more productive. DINZ chairman John Scurr, of Wanaka, said the forecast kill was lower than the board would like, but that was a factor of supply and demand which was beyond its control. The sector had been hit by changing land use, and much of its traditional finishing country was now being used for dairying. That meant deer herds were being pushed into the high country foothills. This was despite deer farming being financially competitive with lamb finishing and wool and dairy grazing, he said.

The head of the country’s largest venison processor said he feared a declining kill could force market prices beyond what consumers were prepared to pay. Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper said the European market was already finely balanced, with supply matching demand. It is not a case of the market screaming out for more production,” he said. The impact of recovering velvet prices was also affecting the flow of prime animals.

Dr Ledgard said the 1.9kg of CO2-equivalent produced for each 100g portion of lamb exported to Europe, was “broadly consistent with other international studies of products derived from farmed, ruminant livestock reports The ODT. His study found 57% of the sheep carbon footprint was generated by the natural process of animals utilising pasture and producing methane during digestion, but it was a figure that has been decreasing.

Our analyses showed that this component of the carbon footprint has decreased by over 20% during the past 15 years, as farmers have made large gains in efficiency of converting pasture to meat.” Dr Ledgard said in an interview the survey allocated emissions from a typical mixed sheep and beef farm and also took into account wool production. The study would help meat companies satisfy carbon footprint questions from customers, and provide a starting point for sheep farmers about to face an emissions trading scheme.

A recent report on the dairy industry concluded that total emissions from NZ dairy farms were substantially lower than those in Europe, and a Fonterra-commissioned report found the life-cycle carbon footprint of New Zealand ingredient and consumer dairy products was 940g for each litre of milk. Dr Ledgard was part of a team which compared the energy and greenhouse gas efficiency of NZ farming systems with those in Europe.

The team concluded that NZ was more efficient, even taking into account shipping products to Europe, which only contributed 10% of the total energy use.The study warned that intensification of dairy farming risked diminishing NZ’s comparative advantage. Dr Ledgard’s study showed that most gains from reducing emissions would come from the most complex task, that of changing the natural biology and behaviour of animals.

National dairy herd numbers reached a record high of 5.9 million at 30 June 2009, up 282,000 since 2008. The size of the North Island herd remained stable at 3.8 million. Factors contributing to the South Island growth include continued dairy conversions, a smaller number of dairy cows and heifers going to the beef herd, more older cows remaining in milking herds, and the sourcing of dairy heifers from the North Island. “In 2009, South Island dairy cattle numbers were almost seven times larger than 20 years ago when there were 312,000 dairy cattle,” said agricultural statistics manager Gary Dunnet.

“North Island numbers increased from 3.0 million to 3.8 million over the same period.”Between 2008 and 2009, sheep numbers fell to 32.4 million, deer numbers were down to 1.1 million, and beef numbers remained stable at 4.1 million.

 Meat and Fibre chairman William Grigg said the demand for both beef and lamb was up on last year in international markets. Mr Grigg said Australia and the United States were in a herd-rebuilding phase and a looming shortage of beef, domestic and imported, had seen prices soar in recent weeks.

Lamb product prices had been reasonably stable and demand for lamb in Britain was up on the same time last year, but despite good market prices, the strong NZ dollar had eroded farmer return. Venison prices had taken a dive. They were currently $6.90 a kilogram for a 45kg to 85kg animal, down 26 per cent on the same time last year. He said prices for store stock had decreased as the year and dry conditions progressed.

Mr Grigg said crossbred wool prices had improved a little over the past year, but remained sluggish. Mid-micron prices were better, especially for 24 to 26 micron, which was up 25 per cent on this time last year. Merino prices had recovered, but not to a sustainable economic level. He hoped the coming season would see more activity from European countries, who were noticeably absent this season.

Dairy chairman Bruce Richmond said it had been a “rollercoaster” year for the dairy industry. The early pay forecast was “unacceptable” and early advances were well below break-even level at the start of the season, which caused widespread overdraft blowouts as farmers tried to deal with the most expensive part of the season with little income. The payout improved, but many farmers were still playing catch-up and dealing with huge increases in expenses, especially in electricity and fuel, said Mr Richmond. Marlborough Tbfree Committee: Marlborough Tbfree Committee chairman Chris Bowron said infection in the region was holding at two herds, both in the Upper Awatere.

About 30 per cent of deer farmers pregnancy tested their hinds, he said. Many of the others choose not to do so on the basis of cost, or they ran a few deer in conjunction with sheep and beef. Mr Askin said a good pregnancy rate would be about 90 per cent of hinds.”We did do one lot of about 40 hinds. The farmer had paid $8000 for the stag. They were all dry – the stag was infertile.Mr Askin said the stag was replaced, but the farmer lost a year’s production.

Totally Vets say a yes or no pregnancy call provides very valuable information, enabling empty hinds to be removed and not carried through the winter.”The window for hind scanning is very narrow (approximately three weeks), as hinds ideally need to be greater than 30 days but less than 120 days in calf.” Mr Askin said this meant scanning needed to start about a month after the stags had gone out, and could be carried out for two to three weeks thereafter.

Stock control officers were called and they recognised the bull as one they had been called out to twice four days earlier. The owner could not be found so the bull was shot because of public safety fears. A Dacre woman who narrowly escaped serious injury after hitting a cow near Woodlands last month said she wanted farmers to take more care with fences. The woman said she had little time to react when the black cow loomed up in her headlights while travelling home one night.”It’s not good enough – the farmer should have the boundary fence hotwired. Cattle have no respect for ordinary fences.” Mr Price said officers were amazed she had walked away without injury. The next motorist hitting wandering stock might not be so lucky, he said.

Police are threatening to prosecute repeat offenders who fail to improve boundary fences, while the Southland District Council is considering impounding animals found wandering. Mr Price said cattle were not easily frightened so they did not flee like horse, deer or sheep did, and they were slow-moving. Cattle numbers in Southland had also increased dramatically. “We’ve probably been a little remiss over the years in not identifying the recidivist farmers that have crook fences. Now the tolerance has gone – anything to do with stock, particularly large cattle, we’re going to take a hardline approach.” Charges could be laid against those allowing road safety to be endangered, he said.