better bull buying More profit demands cunning use of genetics. page 34
parvo vaccinations Don’t let a good dog die. page 40
Rural NEWS
just a guy Politics runs in this family.
page 18
to all farmers, for all farmers
april 3, 2012: Issue 512
www.ruralnews.co.nz
Wool levy revisit p e t e r bu r k e
BEEF + LAMB NZ is to re-evaluate a commodity levy for wool following an overwhelming vote for such a move. The vote was on a remit put to the recent annual meeting by Wairarapa farmer Derek Daniell. BLNZ says in notes attached to the voting paper that if there was support for the remit it would be important to “re-test farmer opinion” at the 2013 annual meeting. Further support for the proposal there will likely prompt the inclusion of wool in the commodity levy referendum by B+LNZ due in 2014. At the recent annual meeting views
on the remit appeared evenly divided; so it seems those not present swung the vote. The scrapping of the wool levy in 2009 was contentious and since then many farmers have expressed concern at lack of unity and progress in the sector. Chairman Mike Petersen told the meeting “we’re living in volatile times” with prices for lamb at the farm gate dropping and farmers getting nervous. The Red Meat Sector Strategy calls for farmers to develop more supply contracts with meat companies, but
farmers and meat companies must be prepared to meet that contractual commitment, which often hasn’t happened. “Farmers generally think they can be better off selling stock on the day,” Petersen said. Silver Fern Farms chairman Eoin Garden questioned Petersen, saying farmers should lock in supply contracts in the same way as they do mortgages. But at least one farmer present claimed companies had been known to break contracts. Why should farmers honour them? he asked.
Petersen says one obstacle preventing farmers realising their potential is they don’t know how they are performing relative to other farmers, so BLNZ is considering performance benchmarking tools. He is also concerned that much knowledge and science now available is not being taken up by farmers. “We need to understand why… farmers who don’t want to change are content doing what they are doing yet they don’t believe they are profitable enough.” More from the meeting: p7
ripper start The first of the autumn’s calf sales at Temuka, South Canterbury, was “a ripper”, says PGW’s regional livestock manager, Joe Higgins. “The first pen made $730/ head and the average was up $50 on last year.” The 885 Hereford and Hereford/Angus x calves from the Glen Lyon and Huxley Gorge stations in the Mackenzie were sought after by a strong gallery of repeat buyers. “The appeal is they’re quiet, and their size. They’re not the biggest calves so they won’t wreck the place.” The result bodes well for remaining sales which are weekly or twice weekly to the end of April. “All the indications are good. It’s a grass fed market because the schedule is actually 40-50c back on where it was last year.”
Profit up 18% – Fonterra pa m t i pa
PRODUCTION UP 10%, sales 5%, revenue 7% and profit after tax 18% ahead of last year. Those are the headline figures from Fonterra’s half year results announced late last week. Revenue of just over $10 billion saw normalised earnings before interest and tax up 8%, generating an after-tax profit of $346 million for the six months to January 31. Chairman Henry van der Heyden said at the results announcement the production increase was a national highlight. “It’s from a good early spring, good grass in spring and plentiful rainfall through summer.” Despite recent market falls Fonterra confirmed its current forecast payout range before retentions for 2011/12 at $6.75-6.85 for a fully shared-up farmer, made up of a milk price of $6.35/kgMS and net profit after tax range of $570-720m, equating to 40-50c/share. Earnings per share were up 14% and the interim dividend of 12c/ share – up 8c/share on the same period in 2011 – would be paid April 20. “The board has approved a change to the co-operative’s dividend policy so that a greater proportion of dividends can be to page 3
CALF IMMUNE STATUS AND COW RUMEN CAPACITY ARE CRITICAL FOR FUTURE PERFORMANCE Feed strategies that focus on these potential issues, will help set up both cow and calf for future challenges they may face during the production cycle.
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