Farmers’ economic confidence improved in the first months of 2010, boosted by sheep and beef prices although optimism in some regions was restrained by drought conditions, a new Rabobank survey shows. It found 34 percent of farmers expected the rural economy to improve in the next year, up from 32 percent previously, while the proportion of farmers expecting conditions to worsen fell to 11 percent from 26 percent reports The ODT.

The Rabobank rural confidence survey was completed this month but before yesterday’s announcement by Fonterra that it had increased its milk price forecast for this season by 40c to $6.10 a kg of milksolids. Rabobank general manager rural NZ Ben Russell said the survey showed much of the improvement in rural confidence had been driven by sheep and beef farmers, who had a more optimistic outlook about their sectors. Factors working in the favour of sheep and beef producers included a small fall in the NZ dollar during the survey period, and good news in terms of commodity prices in the sectors.

(more…)

Wool Equities, which relies on interest from bank deposits for income, said it expects to announce partnership proposals for wool ventures in the next few months. Earlier in April, the company said it was holding talks with Romney NZ to form a joint venture to produce and market designer rugs in the US reports Stuff. The potential of the market was confirmed by International Design Group, a chain of stores in the US that sells floor coverings.

The company’s last remaining investment, keratin producer Keratec, was sold to US-based Keraplast Technologies last year when the two companies failed to agree to a joint venture. Wool Equities subsequently bought back two of every three shares held for about $1.4 million, shrinking stock on issue to 15.7 million from 23.9 million. “Several of these partnerships are close to fruition and we, as a Board, expect to make a number of announcements relating to specific partnerships and product proposals in the next few months,” chairman Clifford Heath said in his interim report.

(more…)

Agriculture Minister David Carter yesterday received an earful from Marlborough farmers outraged at agriculture being included in the emissions trading scheme (ETS). The farmers waited for Mr Carter to finish a speech about the scheme at Meadowbank Station in Taylor Pass before unleashing a barrage of questions and statements reports The Marlborough Express. Mr Carter said he did not believe that climate change was “rubbish”. Over the past 20 years there were a “hell of a lot” more emissions of greenhouse gases which produced a “human-induced” effect, he said.

Marlborough farmer Warren Taylor said farmers needed to stop arguing about the science and whether the scheme should go ahead and instead try to use it to their advantage. “We can bitch and moan about it whether it’s getting warm or not; let’s make a buck out of it.” Marlborough Federated Farmers president Geoff Evans said the farming sector would not be able to compete in international markets because of a “perpetually” increasing ETS tax while foreign competitors received subsidies.

(more…)

Three of the country’s big farming firms have joined forces to seek government funding for a plan they claim will transform the red meat sector reports Stuff. Silver Fern Farms , PGG Wrightson  and Livestock Improvement Corporation have sought government funding under the Primary Growth Partnership  for a programme that will set up an integrated red-meat supply chain with the three playing key roles. LIC is the herd genetics specialist, SFF the meat processor and marketer and PGGW supplies services to farmers and is a stock buyer.

They said yesterday the Government body considering their application for funding, the Investment Advisory Panel, had confirmed the proposal had advanced to business plan stage. PGGW managing director Tim Miles said he did not want to blow up the story, because the firms were only part-way through the application process, but had decided to put out a statement because rural people were asking about it. It was not a done deal, but a “bloody good idea”, which would not be exclusive to the three firms. Others could join.

(more…)

A PGG Wrightson livestock manager and auctioneer has been fined $11,000 and ordered to pay $9000 in vet and investigations costs for leaving more than 1400 sheep to starve. Stock agent Neville William Clark, 46, pleaded guilty on Monday to leaving 250 sheep, 1100 lambs and 120 in-lamb ewes on a 412ha forest block just south of Gisborne reports Stuff.

Those not already dead were worm- ridden, weak and emaciated. Dozens of the animals were euthanased. Judge Adeane said Clark was a first-time offender, and there was no suggestion he was “willfully cruel for the sake of cruelty. Rather he has fallen short of good [farming] standards”. An Agriculture and Forestry Ministry statement of facts presented to Gisborne District Court this week said the land could not possibly have provided enough feed for the animals.

(more…)

A long, painful dry spell for farmers has helped cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. As farmers suffer, the latest official tally from the Ministry for the Environment reveals NZ is doing better than expected in the carbon stakes, partly because farms have had to cull more animals reports The NZ Herald.

Because the national herd is smaller than expected the amount of greenhouse gas the country is expected to make by 2012 has fallen by 1.8 million tonnes. But that is likely to come as little comfort to farmers. Dairy farmers north of Taupo have been cutting milk production earlier than usual, and so far rain has failed to penetrate soils in the most parched regions. In the Waikato, figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry show the drought has cost farmers an average of between $100,000 and $200,000 this year.

(more…)

NZ agriculture has as little as five years before large-scale intensive farming in South America, western China and central Asia erodes its cost advantage in producing bulk commodities, according to accountant KPMG. Their Agribusiness Agenda report observes that these regions have the benefit of lower-cost land and labour and less complex regulatory regimes. “In addition, they are traditionally closer to key markets, enabling them to deliver food to the customer at a significantly lower cost than a competing new farmer or grower in NZ could achieve,” KPMG agribusiness chairman Ross Buckley said in Stuff.

“This gives NZ companies a short buffer, maybe as little as five years, before low-cost regions are producing bulk commodity products in significant volumes and undercutting NZ’s pricing in our traditional commodity markets.” Because of this, it was now time to start revising industry structures, practices and products to give NZ produce better value well in advance of large-volume commodities from these new suppliers.

(more…)

Horizons Regional Council is still pushing to make intensive farming a controlled activity in the region and expects about 40 per cent of farms will need to clean up the way they operate reports The Manawatu Standard. The council is also not budging on its decision to keep stock out of waterways. Horizons wants to implement rules under the water chapter of its proposed one plan that allow only 20kg to 30kg of nitrate loss per hectare per year.

Of the 1000 dairy farms, irrigated sheep and beef, horticultural and cropping in the region, about 60 per cent are believed to already be within the proposed standards for nitrate loss. Farmers who can prove they are already meeting these standards will not have to apply for consent. Those who can’t will have their nitrate loss treated as a controlled activity and will have to take steps to lower their nitrate usage.

(more…)

Not surprisingly, at 69, Sir Brian Lochore is not the man he once was, not physically – a few extra kilograms have been added around the girth and characterful chiselled planes and deep creases are taking over the familiar features reports The Dom Post. But there is still an imposing presence and a steely determination behind the ready smile and you get the impression that if the call came again – as it did once after his retirement – he would love nothing more than to don the black jersey and run out to do battle again.

It is not rugby that occupies his thoughts on this day, but farming. He and his wife Pam have put their three farms into a family trust and farm in partnership with son David and his wife Virginia, at Porangahau, and daughter Joanne and her husband Mark Mossman, at Blairlogie. “The last three years of drought have been the most difficult I’ve ever experienced in a lifetime farming,” he says.

(more…)

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…)