Silver Fern Farms roadshow highlights global demand
The second event in the Silver Fern Farms ‘Pasture to Plate Roadshow’ landed in Feilding last week, headed by chair and King Country farmer, Anna Nelson, and chief executive Dan Boulton.
Variable weather conditions across the country are being blamed for the slow start to the meat processing season.
Chief supply officer for Silver Fern Farms (SFF), Jarrod Stewart, says some drier parts of the country saw some much-needed rain, and further south it's been a relatively colder summer. All of which he says has translated to some farmers holding back animals to put on weight.
But he says in other parts of the country SFF are seeing good livestock flows, and for everywhere else we expect flows to start picking up as we get further through the year.
"Farmers will need to reach out to their livestock representative to plan bookings and help avoid any bottlenecks," he says.
Stewart says in terms of the markets, SFF continues to see good positivity out of the United States for beef pricing. But he adds they also have their eye on the new administration under President Trump to see if there are going to be any potential policy changes that might impact exports.
"The Chinese New Year period is now underway and this will be an important time for assessing how sentiment among Chinese consumers is tracking," he says.
Stewart says, overall, this year they're seeing a more positive perspective in terms of pricing in key markets, but that there's still some procurement tension underpinning the schedule.
He says, in the meantime, they'll continue the delicate balance of matching supply to operating capacity.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister, Todd McClay is encouraging farmers, growers, and foresters not to take unnecessary risks, asking that they heed weather warnings today.
With nearly two million underutilised dairy calves born annually and the beef price outlook strong, New Zealand’s opportunity to build a scalable dairy-beef system is now.
Graduates of a newly-updated Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) course are taking more value than ever from the programme, with some even walking away calling themselves the “farm CFO”.
Meet the Need, a farmer-led charity, says food insecurity in New Zealand is dire, with one in four children now living in a household experiencing food insecurity, according to Ministry of Health data.
Applications have now opened for the 2026 Meat Industry Association scholarships.
Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) says it is backing aspiring dairy farmers through a new initiative designed to make the first step to farm ownership or sharemilking easier.
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