increase font size
Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive Scott Champion.
Farmers must focus on productivity and profitability – not necessarily production, says Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive Scott Champion.
Speaking to Rural News at BLNZ’s ‘Ag Innovation’ day in Palmerston North last week, he noted that if farmers increased production but their costs went up accordingly, they would not walk away with any more money.
The event, which attracted about 200 people, was to give farmers an insight into what’s happening globally to the products they produce, and the changes in consumer preferences and market and scientific trends. Farmers must get their heads around these issues, Champion says.
BLNZ wants to make farmers aware of the science and management techniques being developed in New Zealand to help make farming more profitable.
Champion says farmers must get a handle on the power and influence of some of the new technologies now used extensively to communicate with consumers about products. “Do they have to be part of Twitter or have an Instagram account? Probably not, but some young farmers are using these things and understanding they exist is important,” he says.
Champion is urging farmers to be a part of the ‘story-telling’ process of getting across to consumers and buyers some of the unique features about farming in NZ. This is telling the world about our farming systems, such as the fact that we grass-feed all our animals and treat them well.
“It’s valuable for offshore markets – agents and distributors, consumers or retailers or whatever they might be. Farmers are not typically the people they meet every day and they find their story fascinating because it’s so different to them.” – Peter Burke
Xero, the global small business platform, today released its first ever small business productivity measurement backed by data from Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI).
The science underpinning New Zealand's dairy, beef and sheep grazing systems was largely established from the 1950s onward, but new analysis shows that the climate those systems were built for has shifted significantly.
Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) and the Ag Emissions Centre have completed the latest phase of a mult-year methane research project, providing important insight into the role genetics may play in reducing gross emissions.
For the first time in more than 30 years the Government has set a new set of radical priorities for the science it funds - including agriculture.
Bark and ambrosia beetles could play an unexpected role in New Zealand's ecosystem, acting as tiny taxis for fungi.
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson says his party – NZ First - isn’t opposed to the “trade element” of a free trade deal with India.
The managing director of a company seeking to build a solar farm in Canterbury says receiving fast-track approval is a “really positive outcome”.
Retiring MP and dairy farmer Mark Cameron is blasting the Green Party for proposing to ban the use of synthetic fertiliser and cutting cow numbers.
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Wayne and Ange Moxham of Horowhenua have just been named as Fonterra's top organic performer for milksolids. As well as providing organic milk to Fonterra, the couple also sell Udderly Organic milk to more than 100 outlets in the region and are embarking on another exciting venture producing organic gelato. Reporter Peter Burke went along to see their farming operation.
Certainty and a clear understanding of the needs of rural communities is a critical outcome in the series of government reforms that are taking place at present.
OPINION: Central Hawke's Bay farmer Mark Warren recently told the Hawke's Bay Times it's time for a conversation about allowing…
OPINION: A nation that relies as heavily as NZ does on functional global shipping lanes will have to do its…
