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.
Beef + Lamb NZ chair Andrew Morrison has been dumped and will stand down at this week's annual meeting (Thursday March 30).
In what is already looking like a testy outing for B+LNZ has now had added spice with a vote of no confidence being proposed in the ousted chair and the whole board.
Morrison lost his board seat in the southern South Island ward to Geoff Young. Young received 8,777 weighted votes while Morrison received 6,587 votes - a winning margin of 2,190 votes.
Meanwhile, South Otago farmer Hugh Gardyne has put up a late motion moving a vote of no confidence in both Morrison as chair (which is now redundant) and the entire board of B+LNZ for their support of He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN).
Gardyne claims B+LNZ has been distracted from its main purpose "to grow the sheep and beef industries and provide sustainable returns now and for future generations".
In his no confidence motion, Gardyne claims B+LNZ has been distracted from its mandate in a number of ways, including co-producing the HWEN report, allowing the Government to override this report with their own amendments and standing with the Government and signing off on Labour's Emissions Pricing Plan.
Gardyne told Rural News that he'd had confirmation from B+LNZ that the agenda for the AGM has been revised with the deletion of the afternoon farm tour, allowing for more time to consider all the remits and for general business, where his motion will be moved.
"I have been a strong advocate of Beef and Lamb all my farming life, but your patronage of this Labour Government is unprecedented," Gardyne states in his motion.
"Meetings arranged to inform us on HWEN and discuss the Government's response have been straight out lectures, with no time or inclination to listen to any opposing solutions. This is a time of reckoning."
Gardyne accuses B+LNZ of "forsaking its mandate and needing to re-set".
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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