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.
“One of the roadblocks to more co-ordinated science and extension in the [sector] is the large number of funding bodies,” Jeff Morton told delegates at the association’s annual conference in Alexandra.
“There is a need for identification of industry priorities by all parties and co-ordination of the funding through one agency, probably Beef + Lamb.”
Delivering the keynote Levy Oration* at the conference, Morton said BLNZ with its levy funds is “a major player”, but other funders such as Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment with its Pastoral 21 Programme and MPI with its Primary Growth Partnerships and Sustainable Farming Funds make for “a piecemeal approach.”
Inadequate salaries and job insecurity also means there’s a “current and impending shortage” of pastoral scientists to do what work is funded and communicate results to consultants and farmers, he warned.
Newcomers need sound knowledge of farm systems so they understand how their work fits and BLNZ should consider emulating Dairy NZ’s recruitment of students before their final year with funding and a subsequent job working with established scientists, consultants and farmers before returning to post-graduate study and science.
“Beef and Lamb could organise a similar scheme through the Crown Research Institutes,” he suggested.
Farmers looking for a new challenge might be recruited and trained to facilitate extension of applied science findings, he added.
“Science findings need to be robust but they are of little value unless communicated to users in a manner that can be understood and put into practice.”
Morton summed up how to do that with three C-words: contact, co-operation and communication.
“Contact with farmers so you live in their world; co-operation with farmers so that the research you do is relevant to them; communication so that they can understand and apply the research results to their farm.”
BLNZ director Anne Munro was at the conference and told Rural News she would put Morton’s message to the levy body’s board.
* The Levy Oration is an annual address to the NZGA conference by an invited speaker in memory of Sir Bruce Levy, a pioneer in New Zealand grassland research. “The recipient is someone of longstanding recognition and influence in the field,” NZGA president Warwick Lissamann said introducing this year’s oration.
