Meat and Wool service worth a vote

M&WNZ is working hard to muster farmer support for its plan to increase the compulsory sheep and beef levies (but decrease the wool levy) that fund the organisation reports Stuff.  In tough times, when other  farmer bodies also have their  hands out for funding help, I sense  a resistance to paying more, particularly for work they feel is someone else's responsibility. Whether this will be translated into a rejection of the levy proposal, which farmers have till the end of the month to vote on, is hard to tell. It may just be reflected in a low turnout. But this would be just as damaging, even if the majority voted yes, as it would give the Government pause in approving the new levies. The disgruntled are being given voice by a small but active group of farmers. I suspect that what will be their undoing, and Meat & Wool's salvation, is that their proposals for an alternative, slimmed down organisation go too far. The levies fund activities known as "industry good" - work of benefit to farming that would not otherwise be done by other organisations. It covers a wide field - from providing funding for research into animal diseases to getting information to farmers that will improve their performance, to administering the valuable export meat quotas, to encouraging the growth of leadership, to promoting the sale of beef and lamb. The levies are skimmed from the sales of sheep, beef and wool to processing plants and although last year it amounted to $32.3 million, it was not enough to fund Meat & Wool. A further $5.6m was needed, most of it coming from a $90m reserve held by its parent body, the Meat Board. Meat & Wool has to get farmer approval for a new levy every five years, and now, five years after it was first formed with a strongly favourable vote, it is putting up a new proposal. This time it appears the support is less enthusiastic. Fewer than 2000 of the 50,000 levy-payers on the books, which includes lifestylers, attended 55 consultation meetings when a draft proposal was taken around the country.The final proposal is for the increase in the meat levies, and the fall in the wool, to be phased in over the next five years. A farmer with an output of 3400 sheep, 100 cattle and 15,000kg of wool would be levied $2510 in the coming year, increasing to $2950 after five years. This compares with $2507 last year. What is upsetting a small group, led by Hawke's Bay ram breeder Robin Hilson and Southland farmer Murray Turner, is that half of the meat levy money goes into marketing. This covers such activities as promotion of beef and lamb domestically and overseas and in lobbying to improve market access. These farmers say promotion should be by meat companies and lobbying by the Government.