DairyNZ: Strong payouts offset high farm costs
The dairy sector is in a relatively stable position, with strong milk price payout forecasts continuing to offset ongoing high farm costs, according to DairyNZ.
ONE OF the most anticipated speakers at the DairyNZ Farmers Forum in Hawera is Joan Baker, a succession planning expert.
Baker, a respected business consultant and author, will offer farmers advice on how to achieve financial success. However, her particular interest is the major issue of succession planning. She comes from a farming family and knows first-hand the intricacies of succession.
Her presentation will focus on the ‘soft’ side of successions. She says it can be quite easy to organise all the money and the legalities surrounding successions, “It’s actually very difficult for people to face up to the need to plan for succession and to think about what they want and to have the conversations with all the people they need to have them with to make it happen.”
Baker acknowledges that the most difficult decisions concern the emotions involved: “What’s hard is for people to do the thinking and the talking that’s actually required to get them to the point of having a succession plan.”
Baker says there is often an identity issue for farmers as they start a new life after handing over the reins on-farm. “Usually somebody who farms identifies themselves as a farmer; men in particular tend to have a very strong identity with their work and often they have huge issues about who they will be once they no longer farm. Often they don’t do anything about creating a new life for themselves and it’s terribly hard for them to let go of their farming identity.”
Baker hopes her presentation will encourage farmers to begin conversations about succession with their families and relevant parties. She says commonly farmers leave it too late. “They don’t talk within the family about what they want and what the various children want; they’re worried about treating their children unequally and they solve the problem by doing nothing a lot of the time.”
Baker wants to help farmers initiate the thinking and the talking that’s a necessary prerequisite for getting a successful succession. “I would define a successful succession as the farming couple getting what they want.” She believes the cost of not addressing the issue of succession is “very, very high and that’s a terrible result for a lifetime of hard work.”
Other topics covered at some of the regional events include new research into once-a-day milking, the Forage Value Index – the new rating system for pasture grasses, pasture persistence, the benefits of mixed pastures and strategies to reduce nitrogen leaching.
Farmers can view the DairyNZ Farmers’ Forum conference programmes for each region and register online at www.dairynz.co.nz/farmersforum.
Registration is free to levy-paying farmers and their staff; there is a $50 charge for all others. Each event runs from 9.30am-2pm. Lunch is provided.
Like many manufacturers around the world, European agricultural machinery and tractor manufacturers are currently operating in a difficult market environment. But they are heading to the world’s largest agricultural machinery event in Hanover next month with a degree of cautious optimism.
Established in 2021, the John Deere Technician of the Year Awards champion the important contribution parts and service technicians make to the Australian and New Zealand agriculture, construction and forestry industries.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) is calling on farmers from all regions to take part in the final season of the Sheep Poo Study aiming to build a clearer picture of how facial eczema (FE) affects farms across New Zealand.
New Zealand is closer to eradicating bovine TB than ever before, but possums remain a threat, says Beef + Lamb New Zealand.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has joined the debate around the proposed sale of Fonterra’s consumer and related businesses, demanding answers from the co-operative around its milk supply deal with the buyer, Lactalis.
The ACT Party says media reports that global dairy giant Nestle has withdrawn from the Dairy Methane Action Alliance shows why New Zealand needs to rethink its approach to climate.
OPINION: Dairy industry players are also falling by the wayside as the economic downturn bites around the country.
OPINION: Methane Science Accord, a farmer-led organisation advocating for zero tax on ruminant methane, will be quietly celebrating its first…