MANAGEMENT
ANIMAL HEALTH
Planning for winter feed crops for 2016 starts now. PAGE 32
Sharemilkers two-pronged attack on facial eczema. PAGE 37
FRUIT FLY The horticultural industry could be liable for costs for future outbreaks.
RURALNEWS
PAGE 24
TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS
APRIL 7, 2015: ISSUE 581
www.ruralnews.co.nz
Fonterra rebrand stalled SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz
A FULL makeover of Fonterra’s RD1 retail stores is on hold until the co-op’s finances improve. It will not refurbish existing stores and milk tankers in the new Farm Source livery launched in Methven last year. Farm Source includes turning 67 RD1 stores into hubs where farmers could drop in for coffee, use free wifi, hold seminars and meet with Fonterra representatives. Farm Source is also offering shareholders a loyalty programme, exclusive deals with other service providers and help in managing shares and capital. Fonterra chairman John Wilson says Farm Source is moving ahead with these plans and is already saving money for farmers.
But the full brand changeover has been pushed back, he says. “There’s no point in spending money on paint and timber just for a rebranding exercise,” Wilson told Rural News. “The look of Farm Source is being slowly done but the actions are going well.” Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard is backing Fonterra’s decision. “From a perspective basis, it’s a right move; things are tight and by painting buildings Fonterra will not be sending
the right message,” Hoggard says. He says Farm Source is a good concept and farmers are saving money through special deals and loyalty programmes offered by the co-op. “It’s a good start and its make sense for Fonterra to have Farm Source.” Four new stores were in the pipeline before Farm Source’s launch; these stores will carry the new livery. The Methven store was launched in September last year; a new store in Culverden opened last month in the new livery.
Wilson says the new stores will be Farm Source hubs rather than RD1 stores. “But the rebranding of all our stores as Fonterra Farm Source will wait until we have some discretionary income to spend. “It’s the actions that are important – not the ribbon that’s tied across the bow but what’s inside the parcel. Inside the parcel it’s good, it’s happening and the team is driving it hard. But we are not putting the wrapping paper around it and tying the bow neatly just yet.”
RUNNING OF THE BULLS Josh Williamson is the farm manager at Paua Station, one of three finalists in the 2015 Ahuwhenua Trophy competition for the top Maori sheep and beef farm. The station, located around Paerangaranga Harbour 40km from Cape Reinga, runs 832 breeding cows and finishes 600-950 bulls every year. More on Paua Station and the Ahuwhenua finalists in this issue.
WAR OF WORDS A WAR of words has broken out between the Meat Industry Excellence group (MIE) and Alliance Group over the former’s consultation with the meat co-op during its work on proposals for meat industry reform. MIE chair John McCarthy has taken issue with claims made by his Alliance Group counterpart Murray Taggart in a radio interview earlier this month about dialogue – or more correctly the lack of it – between MIE and Alliance Group. In an interview on Richard Loe’s On the Field radio show Taggart said there had been little or no contact between the meat processor and MIE. “To the best of my knowledge [Alliance Group] involvement was pretty much nil,” he told Loe. When asked if this was a serious fault in the MIE process, Taggart said it was. “I can’t comment on the process or consultants [MIE] used, but obviously they didn’t feel a great need to talk to us.” But McCarthy disputes this claim. “Murray must have had a tap on the head or something; that is so far removed from the facts of the matter it is unbelievable,” he told Loe in a later interview. McCarthy says that as part of its business plan with Beef + Lamb NZ (it provided MIE with $220,000 to produce its report) certain parameters were set by the industry body so it was comfortable with the funding
PHOTO: JOHN COWPLAND.
TO PAGE 4
M36RS
M63RS
MAINS ENERGIZER
MAINS ENERGIZER
$2299 POWERS UP TO
850+ ACRES, 350 HA
AVAILABLE FROM AVAILABLE FROM
$1299
630
KM
POWERS UP TO
500 ACRES, 200 HA
For more information call 0800 TRUTEST (878 837) | www.stafix.com Pricing includes GST. Promotion to run from 1 April – 30 June 2015.
360
KM