Survival begs for a change

When Richard Gorringe knew he would be talking to Business Day, he rang around his mates - a dozen farmers like him in their 40s or younger. What were the big issues and what were their views on them, he wanted to know. The answer: three - the parlous state of the meat industry, the parlous state of the wool industry and the way farmers were being forced to be environmental world leaders. To these he added a fourth - land access, a sore point with him because his farm backs on to the Ruahine Forest Park at the head of the Kawhatau Valley near Mangaweka. Mr Gorringe is quietly spoken and outwardly calm and it is only a change in his speech - the words suddenly being delivered quick-fire - that indicate the frustrations shared by his hill-country farming friends. "Everyone tells us the world is short of protein. They say that means our future is safe. I can't say I'm filled with confidence that they are right." A niggling dissatisfaction with the meat and wool industries has turned to anger as two years of low lamb prices and a debilitating drought have highlighted shortcomings. "You can accept such seasonal ups and downs if you feel the system is basically sound, but it's not." This is what he and his friends think: * Meat: The industry is dysfunctional, with too much competition within NZ and in overseas markets. Silver Fern Farms made a well-received plea for farmer loyalty and then ruined it by not accepting beef contracts when market prices fell. The failure of PGG Wrightson to buy into the industry was a blow to farmers' hopes for industry rationalisation. One farmer thinks it is time the Government intervened and the message to the Meat Industry Action Group ginger group is not to give up, it is still needed. * Wool: The industry is blighted by middlemen and farmers have lost touch with the needs of the consumer. The farmers support the new Wool Partners International farmer-co- operative initiative. They would like to see control of the national wool clip in the hands of a single organisation that would, if the market was low, hold on to the wool till the market improved. When this was last tried, in the 1970s and 1980s, stockpiles topped 600,000 bales and took years to be sold, but farmers felt they made money and it was judged to be a success. * Environment: The Emissions Trading Scheme will drive many farmers off the land. The $60,000-a-farm average cost is money they don't have. Why should NZ penalise itself when other countries are doing nothing, especially the worst offenders such as China and India, the farmers ask. They are anxiously awaiting the changes the new Government has promised. * Access: Mr Gorringe is happy to provide access across his land to trampers and hunters, but wants them to ask permission first. He has a dead-end paper road on the farm that is a nuisance. He asks for more understanding from visitors, especially at lambing time.