Wednesday, 09 September 2015 16:00

Wise to farm more beef

Written by 
Rick Powdrell. Rick Powdrell.

As the New Zealand dairy industry has expanded rapidly in recent years so too has the dairy support farm.

So what is the dairy downturn going to mean for the dairy support farmer? This important question needs serious thought by both sides of the industry.

Already we have seen many dairy animals not go out to previously arranged winter feed. Thankfully for those farmers who had grown this feed, the South Island drought and North Island floods meant there was an alternative market on which to sell it.

As dairy farmers trim costs many are also reducing cow numbers which in turn will mean fewer animals need to be retained and possibly young stock could now be grazed on the dairy platform.

So fewer stock to be grazed and reduced feed requirements for dairy farmers will see dairy support farmers having to review their farm policies.

The strength of beef and the favourable outlook will be seen by many dairy support farmers who have lost dairy stock as the logical policy to follow. This policy change would then pose another question: is there sufficient young beef stock to meet an increasing demand?

For dairy farmers to rear significant numbers of dairy beef calves will require a major mindset change -- from every possible drop of milk in the vat to one of assessing all possible revenue streams from their herd.

If we do see a swing to more beef being farmed and there’s no evident lift in the numbers of young stock reared, the competition for replacement stock will be intense.

Those affected parties should discuss any changes that may occur. If a one sided, abrupt change eventuates, the aggrieved farmer, from whichever side -- because it does happen both ways -- will often avoid entering a similar arrangement again.

It is important to weigh up where you want to be when the dairy industry returns to business as usual. That way, you won’t lose good relationships which may be beneficial in the future.

Rick Powdrell is Federated Farmers board member.

More like this

Bye bye Paris?

OPINION: At its recent annual general meeting, Federated Farmers’ Auckland province called for New Zealand to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

What's going on?

OPINION: On the 2nd of May, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced that the 'government remains on track to ban full farm-to-forestry conversion'.

Featured

National

DairyNZ Farmers Forum underway

Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.

Machinery & Products

50 years of tractor pull

This year, the Fieldays Tractor Pull, in association with PTS Logistics, mark a major milestone – 50 years of crowd-thrilling…

The Wrangler's birthday bash

It's the Wrangler Limited’s 30th birthday and to celebrate the milestone a prototype of the E Series Wrangler - a…

Hose runner saves time and effort

Rakaia-based equipment manufacturer Pluck’s Engineering will soon start production of a new machine designed to simplify the deployment and retrieval…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Free speech

OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.

Drug survey

OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter