Silver Fern Farms CEO sees better days ahead
Despite Silver Fern Farms (SFF) posting a $21 million loss last season, chief executive Dan Boulton believes that better days are coming.
New protocols have been set for meat processing plants as they now operate in Level 3 Alert.
There is very little change according to Meat Industry Association chief executive Simra Karapeeva, who says the main change allows for some flexibility over physical distancing on processing chains.
It has changed from two metres to one metre, but this applies only in exceptional circumstances with protective screens in place between staff.
But Rural News has been told that many companies will retain the protocols for Level 4 because they have been able to tweak these and are getting a reasonable level of throughput.
Karapeeva says the new protocols are effectively a minimum ‘guidance benchmark’, which processing companies must meet.
“But it is up to individual companies to decide how they implement this,” she says.
“What you will probably find that is companies that have been in Level 4 have made some small changes to their plants within that framework to reflect their own operating systems and the layout of their plants to try and increase capacity.
“As long as people stick to the minimum it’s up to them to provide anything over and above that and give confidence to their workers,” she says.
Showcasing the huge range of new technologies and science that is now available was one of the highlights at last week's National Fieldays.
Coby Warmington, 29, a farm manager at Waima Topu Beef near Hokianga was named at the winner of the 2025 Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer Award for sheep and beef.
Northlanders scooped the pool at this year's prestigious Ahuwhenua Trophy Awards - winning both the main competition and the young Maori farmer award.
Red meat farmers are urging the Government to act on the growing number of whole sheep and beef farm sales for conversion to forestry, particularly carbon farming.
The days of rising on-farm inflation and subdued farmgate prices are coming to an end for farmers, helping lift confidence.
A blockbuster year and an exciting performance: that's how Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Director General, Ray Smith is describing the massive upsurge in the fortunes of the primary sector exports for the year ended June 2025.
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