Tuesday, 30 June 2015 02:33

Farmers need support on environment

Written by 

The environment is a big area where sheep and beef farmers need a lot more support, says Beef + Lamb NZ chairman James Parsons.

BLNZ spends a lot more than just on promotion and is constantly revising priorities. 

“Environment has definitely been a big area where sheep and beef farmers have needed a lot more support as they engage in environmental discussions on water quality in particular,” says Parsons. “We have upped the investment there and as a consequence the investment in promotional money has been reduced over time.

“Pressures around the environment are not going away. There are a whole lot of licence-to-farm type activities that farmers need a stronger voice on. We are looking at how we balance our requirements. We need to look at getting more people into agriculture through promoting farming as a career path so there are a lot of significant areas we could invest in and need to invest in.”

But that needs to be balanced with requirements in the market as well. $2m a year is invested in market access activities to try to reduce some of the $318m a year in tariffs that farmers pay.  

More like this

Editorial: Sense at last

OPINION: For the first time in many years, a commonsense approach is emerging to balance environmental issues with the need for the nation's primary producers to be able to operate effectively.

Red meat rebound

The red meat sector is poised for a strong rebound this season, with export receipts forecast to top $10 billion and farm profitability to almost double.

The future of beef breeding

Progeny testing at Pāmu’s Kepler farm in Southland as part of Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Informing New Zealand Beef programme is showing that the benefits of hybrid vigour could have a massive impact on the future of beef breeding.

Methane targets disappoint farmers

Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) has reiterated calls for New Zealand to revise its methane targets after the Government's "disappointing" announcement of its revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

Featured

Big return on a small investment

Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.

Editorial: Sensible move

OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Overbearing?

OPINION: Dust ups between rural media and PR types aren't unheard of but also aren't common, given part of the…

Foot-in-mouth

OPINION: The Hound hears from his canine pals in Southland that an individual's derogatory remarks on social media have left…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter