In this section
Rural Columnists
Offers for readers
The comment stream
Recent comments
- 1 of 25919
- ››
Editors choice
- 1 of 365
- ››
Rural news stream
Latest news
- 90 seconds at 9 am: Markets spooked 15
- MIE secures farmer mandate for meat industry reform
- China meat delay resolved 10
- 90 seconds at 9 am: American QE 66
- 90 seconds at 9 am: Reality checks 8
- The Weekly Livestock report
- 90 seconds at 9 am: Trade tension 13
- A damn good idea 42
- Key sees haircuts for Solid Energy's banks 25
- National average market values 2013 1
Most commented
- Going back is not going forward 77
- 90 seconds at 9 am: American QE 66
- Just add water 60
- A damn good idea 42
- Electrifying politics 30
- Key sees haircuts for Solid Energy's banks 25
- Go farming, young Kiwis 25
- Mortgage rate rises may follow opposition power policy 23
- S&P may cut TSB, Co-op, Heartland ratings 21
- Fake lamb in 'NZ' brand 21
Most viewed
- The Weekly Livestock report
- Go farming, young Kiwis 25
- MIE secures farmer mandate for meat industry reform
- 90 seconds at 9 am: Markets spooked 15
- China meat delay resolved 10
- S&P may cut TSB, Co-op, Heartland ratings 21
- Lowest since 2008
- The Weekly Livestock report
- Farm safety focus 1
- Drought weighs on milk curve 2
The Weekly Livestock Report: Early sire stag sales show deer farmers investing for the future.
DEER
The feeling is we are getting close to the summer bottom of venison schedules but cautious sales conditions in Europe makes nervous times. At these levels hind kills are still ahead of stabilising numbers and this is needed if this small industry is to survive.
Results from North Island and early southern sire stag sales have produced good clearances where top prices are generally down but average prices mostly stable. Based on lower venison prices received, this is seen as a good result and shows confidence by buyers to invest for the future in improving genetics within their herds. Another positive trend from these sales is the demand by breeders for animals with industry proven venison breeding values, which shows support for the sectors goals to produce harvestable animals heavier and sooner to meet chilled market demand.
DAIRY
The start of the new year has been mixed with thunder showers and fine weather, after a drier than normal December, but NIWA’s seasonal outlook predicts near normal summer conditions. Farmers need only to look across the Tasman to appreciate our temperate climate and our ability to grow summer grass often with the help of plentiful water for irrigation.
Production in the powerhouse areas of dairying Waikato, Canterbury and Southland are all enjoying harvesting volumes of milk ahead of last years season, and early national totals suggest increases ahead by 6%. In many areas the bulls have now been removed and pregnancy testing will soon reveal the success of mating and set the scene for the next milking season.
Dairy commodity prices are predicted for the first half of 2013 to increase on the back of the after affects of the US drought and increased grain prices affecting supply. The Fonterra Shareholders units continue to be traded at a premium and My Farms executives predict increased investment interest in farming syndications for the new year.
A trend in dairy farm labour is the increasing use of skilled migrant personel which has now grown to 20% of the work force and the rural community is adjusting to this multicultural change.
Related Topics
LAMB
The year has started like it left with more schedule falls and now levels are back to the lows of 2010 and this will do little to discourage the flight from sheep especially if the weather limits production potentials.
Contracts offered for ewes by one processor in the February March period set a bottom to the market and will help give some stability for that product. Early processing figures show north island farmers reacted quickly to the dry, and lamb and ewe harvests are well ahead of last year.
The prices at January south island onfarm sales of store lambs will be heavily influenced by feed and summer rains, as little optimism can be gleaned from the overseas market conditions. The first of the two tooth ewe fairs was held in the Hawkes Bay and at $119 per head average would have returned nothing for these growers for their years endeavours.
Proposals to combine the two producer merchandising co-operatives of Farmlands and CRT are seen positively by farmers as they battle the ever increasing rises in farm costs.
WOOL
The first sale for the new year saw the market maintained even with the large volumes offered which was pleasing for vendors. China led the buying interest that was pressured by urgent shipments due, and a realisation that industry volumes have lightened.
The price indicators moved little however and still remain at levels that fail to impress on sheep farmers budgets, although the sale did clear 90% of what was offered.
BEEF
Small lifts in prime schedules but easing in bull prices greeted the new year. Big bullocks and 15 month sales in the central north island attracted good prices and fueled beliefs of lifts in schedule pricing in the future. However with schedule pricing between $75-125 per head back on last year for finished steers this is just another income drop for the embattled sheep and beef farmer.
Analysts still predict a good future for beef sales but it needs to happen sooner rather than later to help profits in this sector.
China is now becoming a growth market for NZ, and is creating more competition in the traditional markets for our beef product, mainly at the expense of the Korean market which is flat.
64 Comments
Meanwhile ,the trees i
Meanwhile ,the trees i invested in keep growing.
Tony, "Dairy NZ calculations
Tony,
"Dairy NZ calculations that costs to produce milk have risen to $5.90/kg ms are alarming for any operators with debt."
Alarming? Try terrifying, that is the whole payout!
Reference please.
Regards,
Bruce
That is a jaw dropper. I'd
That is a jaw dropper.
I'd like to see how that calculation is arrived at. For instance does it have a debt component. What % is energy costs.
So to keep at the volumes we are irrigating, that costs a lot as well....
regards
DairyNZ Economic Survey
DairyNZ Economic Survey 2011-12 is yet published.
$5.9/kgMS for break-even is too high. This figure may well be for the 10% heavily indebted farmers.
Median break-even price should be around $5 to $5.2 /kgMS.
Regards.
Oh xingmowang and steven
Oh xingmowang and steven etc....
yes it's too high. yes. it. is.
But it's also correct (possibly 4% on the high side).
That IS the cost. Don't like it? It's too high? Tough, that's what it's costing.
NZ dairy farmers aren't farming for milk. there is no longer profit in milk solids (it goes to Fonterra), or meat/wool (dunno where theirs go, not my industry).
NZ dairy farmers are merely poorly paid landlords (or poorly paid labourers). The farmers make their 2-4% pa profit on the yield on the equity in the property that the business operates on. Note that ratio: 2-4 vs current interest rates.
That's why the debt issue is so hideous. If the milk production starts to fail, the "tenant business" will be unable to cover the "rent" - that rent covers the farmers debt, and their service costs, and their income. That's also why debt is so high - the milk businesses can be improved as can the properties (and need to be for effluent and water issues) and all that debt is speculative on future value of the farm.
As for "should" xingmowang, honest people "should" be respected. humanity should follow wise and compassionate ways, instead of foolish profiteering and destructive ones. *"should"* and $100.00 will get you a cup of cofee.....
Unfortunately a lot of our official "leaders" are also using the "should" numbers they like more, than the real "oh crud" numbers which exist. like I said note the effect of that yield vs interest ratio!!
Mist - it's not that
Mist - it's not that different for the nation as a whole - collectively we are broke going broke.
Here's something you might
Here's something you might have also forgotten - the TAF affect.
Remember we're now looking at increased prices for shares. That means lower yields, it means purchasing a share to supply a kgMS is gone from 4.52/5.95 ( 76% downpayment) to 6.42/5.95 (108% downpayment)... ie for each point of increased production it will cost more than the Grossest of GP revenue to be allowed to supply it. That means debt, or at least capital commitment. Sure it might go up or down, but what kind of farm operation return is occurring from that capital. Once it's purchased it stays that way, but often the bank carries the veto on what can be done with that invested capital, and it improves nothing at farm level, while often carrying an interest (or opportunity) cost at much higher than it's yield.
Yes, StephenH The countries going broke. and the people who are supposed to be steering are still lying to themselves, and adding more cost, and less return
Mist - Clusterfuck Nation -
Mist - Clusterfuck Nation - presents a realistic macro prognosis.
Not a bad report. However
Not a bad report. However too much blamegame on oil/gas/energy directly.
The current problem is not the price or availablity of those products, their price and availability has been worse many times before. Although volume of demand is an issue... and the symptom.
The thing with technology (And other dark arts (eg finance)) is either you master them with personal discipline... or they master you. And if you think you're king of the game...guess again.
The system as it stands, is a bucket full of holes. the price of energy is high...but the value realised at the street is low, where did the difference go? Prices are high at the supermarkets, but primary producers are having to work in bigger volumes and lower labour units than ever before. And their equipment is cheaper per unit produced, and cheaper per job than ever before. And the interest rates they're paying are lower than many times in history, and with trade credit, almost the lowest they've ever been.... yet shelf prices are high! and the supermarket owners, while they have a license to print money, aren't making much margin at all on their sales (prehaps the lowest level in history).
So where is all the value going, and cost coming from?
Which overheads are costing us more, yet adding nothing to the basic product.......
(let's just have a look at those graphs and see how the information and quality industries align with the failing economic results.....)
energy is everything....or
energy is everything....or specifically transport energy......just how a shortage or excessive cost of that will effect the economy is deep and profound....most are however ignoring it.
In terms of the past we were a lot less energy intensive in the 1970s compared to today....so a shortage or high price has a lot more effect/impact.
regards
Overheads, apparantly 35% of
Overheads, apparantly 35% of the cost of everything is interest....in some cases more. So its like a Govn tax, repeated.
regards
This was a core objection to
This was a core objection to TAF, that the 'shareholder' price would out price the 'producer'. Fluffed over by Theo et al. Chairman of shareholders board Mr Cooper mysteriously 'resigns' shortly before TAF deal struck.
Mist, you might be able to shed a little light on this, if Fonterra, Government mandated monoploy that they are, supplys c.1/3 GDT should they not be able to price fix? Seems to me they would have that kinda clout. Ask 'em about it and they mumble about how much more milk India produces, of which nearly 0% is traded, and other such fluff.
Any ideas?
Regards,
Bruce
Bruce, Try as I could I could
Bruce,
Try as I could I could not retrieve the Dairy NZ quote as I read it, and for that I apologise and will have to blame post Xmas tardiness and maybe age!! However in trying to locate this source the budget in the Pastoral monitoring report for National Dairy in the Ministry for Primary industries October publication reveals similar figures to that quoted in the article. Large farm working cost expense increases last year and debt levels that on 2,200 farms are out of kilter with sensible business levels are a huge issue for this industry, and the point that I was trying to make is all is not as golden as many are portraying in the dairy industry.
Tony, I'm agreeing with Mist,
Tony,
I'm agreeing with Mist, dairy farmers are serfs to the banks in the same way as medieval serfs were serfs to the nobility. Living standards have improved but the power structure is eaily similar.
There are a few 'old school' farmers that are so far behind the production curve that their model actually works, extremely low input and debts with less head per hectare. Tends to mean increased production per cow and increased productive life span per cow.
Increased to the order of double a high head to hectare systems in some cases I hear. Back to the future?
2,200 farms at non sensible levels rings true, sadly.
Much like the young guns coming up that won't hold off for the market to drop before purchasing their first herd, too many brought land & plant in the upside of a very big bubble.
Those that can profit by it will always try to make a mastitis riden twelve year old out to be a high production R4. Such is the Tao of the bubble.
Thanks for the links.
Regards,
Bruce
Bruce, agree. So how do you
Bruce, agree.
So how do you see the future for the 2,200.
We see
1. the banks just squeezing them white, till someone can buy the place for the loan value +/ - the tax write-offs lenders get for dudd loans (and carry value of benefits supplied to lenders by Govt.)....
2. It all happening again (as someone here said rinse and repeat).
And there are plenty of hawkers around to egg-on the starry eyed, or run international junkets sprooking NZ Dairy land....
Henry, I've spoken to a
Henry, I've spoken to a couple of farmers, one a first farm buyer, and the other an old hand converting and neither related by either blood or region, who have turned away from Fonterra because of the high price of shares.
What are you hearing? I notice Theo has said that they don't want to lose milk and 'will address that should it arise'. I have spoken to a senior Fonterra insider who said they expect to issue bonus shares in due course. This suggests a lowering of the share price. Which would raise the question of the constituion and share standard required to supply.
We see it district by
We see it district by district, in that contracts with deferred share purchase, depending on who else one maybe able to supply to.
It seems if there are other supply options with other share or no share costs, such can be sort of matched. - but nothing hard and fast. (Mushrooms all round)
1980's (back in the old days eg Alpine etc) the companies were not obliged to take on supply....
We'd love to sell this place,
We'd love to sell this place, but with the price of shares I doubt anyone in the country would be interested. We thought we had a foreign purchaser lined up but they got a better return buying into the Fonterra IPO, without the land/labour risk.
$14 an hour.. This is not a
$14 an hour.. This is not a sign of wellness..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/farming/8141473/Dairy-farms-tu...
Agri-lobby Federated Farmers estimates that about a fifth of all dairy workers hail from overseas.
A South Waikato farmer, who asked not to be named, said staff with Saudi experience were particularly sought after as they were familiar with working on huge operations using modern machinery and world-class standards.
He said efforts by Work and Income to place unemployed people with farmers seldom yielded results due to a lack of dairy-specific skills, while foreigners came trained and enthusiastic.
Bruce Porteous, who works for farm recruitment firm Immigration Placements, said New Zealand was an appealing place to work for foreigners as the immigration laws paved a way for permanent resident. ........
Additionally, there was the pull of "earning $14 per hour as opposed to $14 per day", he said.
Additionally, there was the
Additionally, there was the pull of "earning $14 per hour as opposed to $14 per day", he said.
Who is paying for the health care? - certainly not their taxes.
Something doesn't add up here
Something doesn't add up here unless the $14 is a nett figure. Immigration NZ won't issue visas for migrant dairy farm workers unless they are being paid $45,000 pa. Given that the average weekly hours worked by a farm worker is 54 hours per week the gross hourly rate is around $16phr. That doesn't include any fringe benefits farm workers may get.
54hours? 54/7 = 7.7hrs per
54hours? 54/7 = 7.7hrs per day? Since my cows need milking 7 days a week, taking 2-3 hrs per time, twice every day. So these people expect minimum $45k, plus perks, while only working outside the shed 2 hours a day?
considering I got up to 42k, as 22% sharemilker (and had to provide much of my own gear)
Mist, I should have said
Mist, I should have said 108hours per 11/11.5 days. Farmers I know either have a 11 day on 3 day off roster, or 11.5 days on/2.5days off. 11/3 is quite common now in Southland and in parts of the Waikato where I have contacts. Any AgITO training days are in addition to these. So during the study period, the hours worked would be less.
I have never been convinced that contract/lower order sharemilking benefits anyone other than the farm owner ;-) There may be a good contract out there under these but I have yet to hear of it.
I found the variable/lower
I found the variable/lower sharemilking brilliant. Much of the management empowerment, without the massive financial gorilla on my back. Good opportunities to increase skills, farm equipment and start herdsize, and I should have started with an accountant then in prep for moving forward (but I hadn't planned to move to animal ownership, as I strongly dislike poobags).
The other massive bonus is it allowed a degree of freedom - admittedly I gained cash and freedom, at the cost of paid leave, sick days etc. However I could schedule my days (somewhat, due to a wheeler dealer boss) and that was critical to someone like myself coming off a sickness benefit. When I got tired or sore I could plan a break. I want a weekend off, I find and hire relief milkers. That simply wasn't an option as an employee - as an employee I had to put in 5:30am - 6pm, brekkie @ 8:30, lunch at 12am. or as the boss called it to his schedule. Didn't matter if my feet where playing up, or I was having a dizzy spell, the boss had scheduled stuff around his plans and that was that; there was never enough staff available to allow anything but critical failure to change the weeks plan.
When I was training it was often 12 on, 2 off. alternate weekends. but it was all hands, during spring July-mid Oct, and same for when winter feed came in. And you could only get time/weekends off if the relief milker was available, and the other person wasn't sick or missing.
But made good money, and ok lifestyle on lower order. On a small operation, not as much as your big farm managers make, but without the rat race, that a neighbour describes when he worked on the big seven down Cantabury. I think the lower order would be very sensitive to herd size, much bigger, and I'd have need more labour (thus not worthwhile), much smaller and it wouldn't have been worth the time. If the boss hadn't stuffed up the feed levels in that last year it would have been sweet! (but how can you tell someone in Aussi who is in a drought and tons of feed, that it's too wet and cold and they need to get more emergency suppliment ASAP.
But generally... to have these days off...there has to be enough labour available, and it has to be trustworthy and skilled wnough to handle the job... 2 months ago my contracted helper, on my first afternoon off in 9 months, change which paddock to put the herd in after milking. She had been shown how to identify the next paddocks, had been given the 4 next paddocks, they were supposed to go back into the paddock they came from...and she chose a different paddock entirely. The one which had the new balage, which was half what we expected from our first cut, and correspondingly expensive as the contractor charged the minimum rates the yield was low, but that paddock was 2 weeks away from grazing so no fences had been put around the balage, and even the road gate for the contractors hadn't been locked and was only ajar. When I got back the cows had ripped open the tube in many places, a couple died a week or so later from bowel obstructions. 25% of my winter feed, unpaid for...gone. From someone who had been shown what to do, and had been operating unsupervised for 6 months....I step away for half a day and....staff happens.
Good to hear you had a
Good to hear you had a positive experience mist. :-)
Although I must say never got
Although I must say never got close to the 71k or 74k "median average" wage Henry's talking about in the post just below this!!! But then neither does anyone I know!
... if that's the case I'm definately not charging enough on my rental places.
Figures from online job
Figures from online job website Seek show $71,658 was the average advertised wage in the region in November, up 11.8 per cent on January last year.
It rose faster than the national advertised wage but was almost $3000 behind it. The national wage was $74,579, up 5 per cent in the January to November period last year.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/8144749/Christchurch-wages-show-bi...
How to reconcile with Stats
How to reconcile with Stats NZ latest income survey?
In the year to the June 2012 quarter, there was no significant increase in:
Apparently no need: Dominion Post does it for me.
Kilbirnie residents Lorraine and Rapata Clay worry about what they will have left in their budget to cut back on, if basic living costs continue to rise.
Pft. They can still buy tools
Pft. They can still buy tools with their leftover cash. Haven't they been watching core inflation.
Something doesn't add up here
Something doesn't add up here unless the $14 is a nett figure.
CO none of it adds up over the long term - importing cheap previously under nourished semi-skilled labour is a recipe for disaster. More so now when the profits are certainly shifting off-shore with foreign shareholders and banks taking more than their fair share - the remaining domestic population is left with a higher proportion of ill educated under paid dross to service the needs of the nation.
SH, got it in one. We are
SH, got it in one. We are talking the same issue from from another dimension (another p in the puzzle)...
Here's some positive news
Here's some positive news chaps. :-)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/farming/8109003/An-inspiring-star...
I've met Tanagaroa Walker a
I've met Tanagaroa Walker a couple of times. He's a top bloke. Wants to get more young people on the path to farming and land ownership.
How many. Say 10,000 farms
How many.
Say 10,000 farms times 2FTE staff [?] times 1/5, equals 4,000 people.
The subtext is the farmers quoted do not wish to pay for skilled staff, and the skilled staff they say they have (or those prepared for poor conditions or to dip their head) see their working reward being wage and residency in NZ.
The National Dairy stats comment farms >1,000 cows show diseconomies of scale.... Something we are working on the maintenance of productivity with size and business system (as opposed to farming system).
Our observation is that the ex pat Europeans, (Brits and Dutcth etc) have a good handle on these...
The issue we are working with is sure contract milking and share milking delivers motivated folk (out sourcing), but does not gtee the business system to meet the "business criteria (waste, irrigation, fert. etc) being put atop us (if you do get the result, its difficult for the next along to see).
For a dairy farm, what kind
For a dairy farm, what kind of numbers are you looking at for 2 FTE.
That's what... 200-400 animals, plain seasonal low-med inputs. 90-150 ha total.
thus about 150,000 kgMS. 800,000k sales revenue.
so you're talking about 90,000 / 800,000 = 11% as wages. Not including any drawings. That's pretty heavy for dairying (doesn't leave much room for other costs, unless the landowners taking a hit in their yield).
It would also assume that the 45k is for a single worker, or a worker whose partner receives income elsewhere. (45k for family income these days is pretty harsh)
Yes, we were thinking of how
Yes, we were thinking of how many in as overseas workers, you're right number closer to 2,000, or 1 FTE.
The note re seek employment is new jobs being advertised, so the actual (of ppl working, and job types not being advertised) would be different we think.
Cheers & thanks for the thoughful posts over the break.
Henry, Southland Times ran an
Henry, Southland Times ran an article awhile ago on migrant workers on Southland dairy farms. Bruce maybe able to confirm it but from memory they said there were 2000 in Southland.
CO, I can't confirm an exact
CO, I can't confirm an exact number but 2,000 sounds about right. Dr Rupert Tipples, one of the few rural social scientists out there, of Lincoln is doing a lot of research on immigrant farm workers with a focus on Filipino's which both Southland and South Canturbury have many of. He and the DairyNZ crew will have the best idea of the actual numbers. Welfare and intergration are big concerns for his research.
Some workers come from overseas without any English or even a decent coat!
Winton has such a major population of Filipino's they now have a Tagalog section in the public library and their own church services which are strong indicators of a substantial community.
Regards
Henry, It all comes down to
Henry,
It all comes down to the GDT, which thanks to major drought in North America, China, parts of Russia, parts of South America and too much rain in Austrailia and the UK I would expect has a very tight supply side while having either static or increasing demand. Ergo, "where's the price surge?" Is the question I've been asking myself all year.
I know the NZD is outrageously high but still Fonterra make up most of the GDT from what I recall so should be able to get a good price for their co-op owners, the suppliers.
If we see a good rise then the 2,200 will only have the most indebted bled white and go back to sharemilking or get out of the game.
The school of 'my old man' reckons that the Government and other professional class peoples, banksters etc, still recall when farmers ran this country, way, way back in the days of massive sheep runs which were broken up by the Government and have been making sure that farmers have been disempowered ever since.
If the country was ran as a business as some here are advocating how about a industry levy body voting system like the Forestry Owners Association are advocating?
Simplified slightly everyone gets to vote, those that supply most of the export earnings on the production side get more votes by % of production. Suddenly those that actually produce are back in the decision making process in strenght and we no longer have an Ineptocracy governed by bribes to the urbanites in Auckland.
Regards,
Bruce
With the mob-rules the ballot
With the mob-rules the ballot box system and some of the broken thinking we see in this country amongst it's janitorial services (who think themselves "leaders" and "those running the country"), I'm thinking it's not going to be over until it's Ethiopea (going from green jewel/food bowl of Africa to one of the worlds hungriest and poorest nations) all over again. The politican ruling system is sliding more and more away from First World (business orientation) to Third World (governance by the few 'for the people', all property and people deemed to be property of the nation).
I'm part way through transferring real assets overseas, and working on develop there. Just hope I can get my own heiny out before they seal the borders.
"Much like the young guns
"Much like the young guns coming up that won't hold off for the market to drop before purchasing their first herd, too many brought land & plant in the upside of a very big bubble.
Those that can profit by it will always try to make a mastitis riden twelve year old out to be a high production R4"
Heh.
Bruce that is what is known as my target market.
I pick-up spare animals from quality herds in the area (but won't touch "yards quality" dogs). Keep them through a full winter and season, milking them to cover the costs and pay the wages (in theory).
Then the following year I've got a better than average 3-7 yr old, without mastitis, that isn't a kickng/jumping manic, in calf; ready to sell to such people as you describe. They aren't the bestest animal but they do have good breeding and full LIC genetics&history, and well above average, for 1500-1800/head (which is a lot less cost than a top end animal when times are tough)
How are the BCI scores?
How are the BCI scores?
At purchase, for me 3.0 -
At purchase, for me 3.0 - 3.7, although I frown at the lighter ones because it normally means the supplier has pushed them too hard before selling and continued production will be compromised (which in turn impacts my Herd Test averages).
At sale, 31 May (with up to a weeks free grazing until trucks are available - and thats a nicety not to be abused). minimum 4.8, topping around 5.7. I like to have a bit of extra condition on them for the trip, and often they lose a little in a new area/new herd, and after that date you cant put on more condition, you just get fat calves. They're wintered on most hilly country, so they're not just flab either. Dryingoff is progressive through feb-apr, with blanket treatment using long acting dry cow thearpy. There are occcasionally half dozen which were the lighter ones on-delivery (the 3.0s mentioned before) and they get dried off after mating, and so they tend to be the fatter ones on sale day, but no unmilked/unhandled carry overs. No three titters, and nut jobs tend to get culled pretty early in the piece. I normally use a pour-on that has an expiry date a couple of weeks after sale to reduce parasite issues and transferrence.
I put everything that's in-calf, that has no know problems, aged 3-7 through to the agent, including copies of latest herd test (others available on request). The customer then gets to select their preferred batch which is normally a minimum of 70% of the animals presented.
Last year we also did the 2 & 3 week of mating with sexed semen to increase the likelihood of heifers for herd expansion/sale, but this year there was a mix-up in communication and although we brought the sexed semen we had been told we didn't have it. So we'll do weeks 1-4 next year on saleable cows (I carry a few seasonal girls from those that didn't sell, that have high PW/BE, to use the milking platform seasonal growth, and sell those calves the following year just before mating).
As hopefully you noticed the business is trading cows and calves. These aren't just flops and dogs kept in the back paddock to sell to some sucker, we're trying to put a decent animal through solid agents with the commitment to having happy customers at the end of the deal. Which is a nice change in a world that frequently tries to pull a fast one or some scam.
I learnt the basics from a chap who used to be in used cars, and he'd buy everything as cheap as he could get it (your 12yr mastitis) and then sell them "as a herd". He made more profit than I do, but he's got a reputation now...
Sounds like a sound wee
Sounds like a sound wee earner.
Good idea to keep the quailty up. A good rep' is a realitively easy thing to keep, a bad one is a very hard thing to shake in rural circles I find.
Regards
As I always say, the
As I always say, the overheads will ruin just about any business.
The overheads keep spending. (Mr Key spent 1 million unbudgetted on his Police Protection Squad.......what a plonker, just a simple example...of someone with delusions of adequacy and profligacy, so used to skimming, it has become a way of life)
Any businesses must compete to pay the largesse taxes, rates, fees, con-sultants, Snivel Serpents inept spending, rules , regulations, energy costs wasted.....etc.
If No Zeal-and was run as a business, which it should be, it should be managing to live within a sensible BUDGET, like any normal family does.
Projections and spin and bullshit are NOT.....income.
Fiscal Cliffs and Stock Markets and FARMERS MARKETS are not fixed overnight by flim-flam and skimming Taxpayers.
Those winning are those creaming off the top. IE.. Poll-lies, Bwankers, Snivel Serpents, etc.
NOT THOSE PRODUCING WORTHWHILE PRODUCTS, WHICH WE NEED.
Name me one Despot Empire, where the ruling Parties are not creaming it, but their citizens in reality are being scammed.
Same as China, Same as USA, Same as Zimbabwe.
Same as just about any CORRUPTED nation, where the leaders have their hand in YOUR pockets and the Banks are pulling your STRINGS.
Dunno, SL. Key upping his
Dunno, SL. Key upping his police protection is possibly the smartest thing he's needed to do this term, especially with the way things are going.
Having spent most of the TIME
Having spent most of the TIME out of the Country JUNKETING and the next month on a Holiday in HAWAII... WHY, WHY, WHY does he need protection at all.
Is Airport Security, Royal Security, Armed Nations Security, not enough.
We even protect the Royal Family, when here, so why do they not RECIPROCATE. Invite OBAMA to STAY......let him FISCALLY be prudent...and SHARE....the bleedin costs.....
(Fiscally prudent does not come into POLLY-TICKS).
The average punter needs more security, at home in BED, if elderly.
If staying in a Caravan on a friends front lawn is not SECURE, then who do you think is to blame.
Those who put their Personal Security, at a million dollars EXTRA....which would have put 20-30 Police Recruits patrolling....or am I mistaken.
What we need in this Country is not more on the TAKE, we need more on the FIX.
And that he has never done. Nor has any politician sorted out any of the problems we face.
Collectively we could FIX most things. We are a NATION of 4 million people for CHRIST'S SAKE.
(And I am not even religious one bit, but I am not allowed to swear...tis the Season of GOODWILL......another STORY).
The Politicians have helped break and make BROKE No Zeal-and, in my lifetime.
And they are spending like it is going out of FASHION...on CRAP.
And this was just one example I used to demonstrate the WASTE on the waste of space that he and his ILK really are.
There is no gain from SPENDING 1 million extra.
But there is a gain from INVESTING one million, is you reverse the process, which is what we SORELY ....need.
And there we have NO ZEAL-and in a nutshell.
I would be poor as a Church Mouse, if following that scenario.
And most of No Zeal-and does.
I rest my case, my caps lock and my ...INCREDULITY.
Good points SL, but in JKeys
Good points SL, but in JKeys defence, a trip to Waitangi is coming up, got to be careful as there is a very real threat of ballastic mud pies.
or even real lead....im very
or even real lead....im very surprised someone hasnt gone for "glory"
regards
I think it's going to come to
I think it's going to come to that before the gravy train crowd in the TermiteDome take notice. Even then they're more likely to jump the wrong way. and thus history keeps repeating.
I am afraid that the Waitangi
I am afraid that the Waitangi boys have been bought orf, so they would not endanger the Golden Goose as he prances around glad handing some more Royalties.....that he has primed the Privy Purse (Mug Taxpayers).....to pay.
The shotgun effect of yore, is ensconced, but his ROYAL BETTERS would be down right livid if anyone PLUCKS the Golden Goose, before it has laid more bad eggs.
The Maori Party and other Royalty, would have kittens if the bucks stopped flowing their way.
The Kitty would soon dry up, if they did not support our DEAR (Note expensive) LEADER....in his endeavors at milking the system.
The Wait-hangi feast will still go ahead, no matter the Royal Proctection Squad.
His knibs has put pen to paper and settled the scores of old.
The Scores of new Residents will PAY....the scores of OLD beneficiaries....as they always have done.
"I am afraid that the
"I am afraid that the Waitangi boys have been bought orf, so they would not endanger the Golden Goose as he prances around glad handing some more Royalties.....that he has primed the Privy Purse (Mug Taxpayers).....to pay."
Royalities, SL, dude, Tuhoi just got their own country which no one seems to be politically incorrect enough to even criticise.
Damned Maori Party just got the price of tobbacco put up again as well.
Hurt my finger the other day. The scene A&E in Invercargill.
Nurse : So I take it you're a smoker?
Me : Yes, and don't even start. I know it all.
N: So you know it makes wounds take longer to heal?
Me :Yes. Do you eat meat? Let me tell you about how long it takes your bowel to process red meat. My Grandmother died of bowel cancer. I can tell you all about it. Kills alot of people, real nasty way to go, red meat is probably second to smoking in causing it.
N: No thank you. So you're a vegetarian?
Me: No. I'm going to tell you all about it anyway.
N: But it's the Southland way though isn't it?
"WHY, WHY, WHY does he need
"WHY, WHY, WHY does he need protection at all."
To answer your question... perhaps foreign folk can smell/spot a con/scam more quickly and are more disapproving than your average kiwi mushroom....in which case he might need even more.
The diplomatic protection
The diplomatic protection squad, well trained guys and gals they are, are powerless to stop an assassination as long as JK keeps shaking hands with the public.
That's just a tactical reality.
Therefore it's all just a showboat.
"Feed conservation volumes
"Feed conservation volumes are well down on normal after the slow spring and farmers will need to do their future feed calculations carefully so pasture deficit periods can be managed."
Thanks Tony. Because as we know farmers don't bother doing future feed calculations carefully. Not in bad years for survival, or in breakeven years to try and etch out a bit of favourable margin to show some return for a years slog...or in a good/great year to maximise production returns (without blowing it all on spendups).
I had a chat to a dairy
I had a chat to a dairy farmer who has been under 'management by the bank' but is currently just 'watched'. They have more than one farm. Chinese interests have offered them $22m for the farms as they would tie in nicely with the Crafar purchases. Offer was turned down as farmer doesn't want to sell. Their bank sold them Swaps which has caused their current problems. They thought they would supply another company and cash in Fonterra shares. Bank said no. So they are in the process of changing bank - apparently their 'new' bank is quite happy to accept them even though they are at the top end of the debt spectrum.
I bet it's Heartland?
I bet it's Heartland?
If right, shows the banks
If right, shows the banks have learnt nothing....
Other than to milk the farmerfolk and suck on the government teat.
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/o_brother.html
Bang! A rifle shot kicks up dust in front of the men.
CHILD'S VOICE
Hold it rah chair!
The front of the farm house shows only a harshly shaded front
porch and a dark screen door.
The screen door swings open and a child emerges on to the
porch and steps down into the sunlight, holding a gun almost
bigger than he is. The grimy-faced boy, about eight years
old, wears tattered overalls.
CHILD
You men from the bank?
PETE
You Wash's boy?
CHILD
Yassir! And Daddy tolt me I'm to
shoot whosoever from the bank!
He pokes his rifle at the three men, who raise their hands.
DELMAR
Well, we ain't from no bank, young
feller.
CHILD
Yassir! I'm also suppose to shoot
folks servin' papers!
DELMAR
Well we ain't got no papers.
CHILD
Yassir! I nicked the census man!
DELMAR
There's a good boy. Is your daddy
about?
THE BACK OF THE HOUSE
Wash Hogwallop, a sour-looking bald man, sits near a rusted
bathtub in a yard littered with ancient car parts and farm
implements overgrown with weeds. He is whittling artlessly
at a stick.
No Aj, moved from one Aussie
No Aj, moved from one Aussie bank to another. New bank is BNZ. The farm is cashflow positive and equity negative.
Must be a good
Must be a good operator/operation.
Are we talking a good lender
Are we talking a good lender or a good borrower.
Maybe Mr Jones below should run round and have a chat with the lending / credit department. Cause it seems they have no idea of who he is................:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/8141475/Climbing-prices-picked-t...
Rising dairy prices are likely to continue to help farmers pay off their debts in the first half of this year, but the heavily leveraged sector still looks vulnerable to price swings and the high New Zealand dollar.
That is according to Mike Jones, a market strategist at BNZ, commenting on the latest Fonterra online dairy auction, where the GDT-TWI Price Index rose 2 per cent......................................
No equity eh, not a jot, less
No equity eh, not a jot, less than zip, its in the minus category. Considering this will be based on a valuation that is always subjective as you struggle to find otherwise unless it is freely on the market, and willing buyer willing seller etc etc, then the equity thing can mean little.
But I do have to comment.....however I am so gobsmacked I dont really no what to say. BNZ eh....wow, ok. In the history of this crazy nz farming finance thing, nobody got financed with negative equity. They always cover their asses. So what is new, why would they do that?
So what is new, why would
So what is new, why would they do that?
Possibly for the same reason they (BNZ) lent this oufit money.
Nitschke is facing bankruptcy as BNZ chases him for $841,942.
ie.... they are dumb buggers
ie.... they are dumb buggers Stephen? Nah cant be.