Building trust
OPINION: The war of words between Southland farmers and Environment Southland over winter grazing inspections reflects a deep lack of trust among farmers for the regional council.
Farmers are hoping that processing capacity at meat plants will return to normal within a month.
Federated Farmers president Katie Milne says the meat companies are working hard to achieve normal processing capacity.
“The works assure us they are catching up fast and will be close to normal soon – sheep much sooner than beef,” Milne told Rural News.
“The North Island is further through their kill than the South Island. Hopefully by mid-June things will be near right again.”
Covid-19 meat processing protocols, which require physical distancing between employees to prevent the spread of the virus, reduced the industry’s processing capacity in level 4 by about 50% for sheep and lamb and 30% for beef.
Longer wait times, up to six weeks in some cases, put additional pressure on winter feed resources as farmers were forced to hold on to stock for longer.
Alliance chief executive David Surveyor has told farmers that the company is continuing to increase processing capacity across the network.
“Our plants are running overtime, extended shifts and at weekends,” he told suppliers in an email last week. “We are also transporting livestock from the South Island to the North Island to ease the pressure in the south.”
Surveyor says the co-op is on track to reach its Alert Level 3 target of over 90% capacity for ovine and over 95% for bovine across the network.
“The Meat Industry Association is working on a new processing protocol for Alert Level 2 and there is an expectation this will enable us to increase capacity further,” he says.
Meanwhile, Alliance will be offering a deer supply contract from July through to December 2020.
Surveyor says this will provide farmers with some certainty, helping manage risk during significant market uncertainty.
He says Alliance has been responsibly managing its inventory and sales.
“However, there does appear to be some inventory build-up in global markets and we expect this to impact sales prices in the short to medium term.
“We continue to have long term confidence in the deer industry,” Surveyor says.
'Common sense' cuts to government red tape will make it easier for New Zealand to deliver safe food to more markets.
Balclutha farmer Renae Martin remembers the moment she fell in love with cows.
Academic freedom is a privilege and it's put at risk when people abuse it.
All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.
Claims that some Southland farmers were invoiced up to $4000 for winter grazing compliance checks despite not breaching rules are being rejected by Environment Southland.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.