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Thursday, 30 April 2015 11:38

Good times bad for questions

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A challenge for DairyNZ is to engage farmers during the good times – it’s easier in difficult times, says David McCall, general manager R&D.

During the good times the industry good organisations get pilloried for questioning farmer capital investment that might have questionable long term returns and lock in fixed costs. Or they get pilloried for messages about maintaining high efficiency and keeping onfarm costs low. 

“We get pilloried for questioning when we see farmers chasing the last kilogram of milk solid during an up price, when if they did the sums they would find they got less profit than if they didn’t chase them.

“We’ve got to come out of this downturn and remember those messages for the next upturn because that is what will make us even better again in the downturn and make us resilient.” 

From 1998-99 to 2013-2014 the dairy industry increased its profit per hectare by $1200 and DairyNZ has an aim to increase this by $50 per hectare each year, he said.

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