Word of the day

Forficulate – to experience a creeping, tingling sensation; forked; resembling scissors; furcate.

Sowell says

Of all ignorance, the ignorance of the educated is the most dangerous. Not only are educated people likely to have more influence, they are the last people to suspect that they don't know what they are talking about when they go outside their narrow fields.

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) September 21, 2019

Rural round-up

Growers warn of jobs losses unless immigration decision comes soon – Esther Taunton:

Thousands of Kiwi jobs could be lost unless the immigration minister moves quickly to approve overseas workers, strawberry growers say.

Cabinet is expected on Monday to decide how many additional seasonal workers will be allowed into New Zealand under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme. The scheme sets the number of workers that can come into the country on a short-term visa, to work in the horticulture and viticulture industries. Growers are frustrated at the late stage of the year the decision is made.

Waikato-based Strawberry Fields was staring down the barrel of a “tragic” season, managing director Darien McFadden said.      . .

Farmer lobbying for river protection after collecting 400kg of rubbish from it – Katie Todd:

A Hororata farmer is lobbying for better protection of the Selwyn riverbed, after plucking more than 400 kilograms of rubbish from it in a few hours.

Deane Parker said the trailer-load he and his sons gathered on an afternoon in late August included an “amazing” amount of RTD bottles, along with computer monitors, furniture, plastic and household items.

He’d been concerned by the amount of rubbish building up around the end of Hawkin’s Road, which backs onto the river, and said Canterbury Regional Council quickly and gratefully collected his haul. . .

Generational timing a spark of hope – Alan Williams:

Indications the Government will allow a generation for freshwater improvement work to reach required levels gave hope to farmers in Timaru on Thursday night.

The devil will be in the detail but the comment from Environment Minister David Parker pointed to a more realistic time frame and away from short-term thinking, Fairlie farmer Mark Adams said after the meeting.

“If we can stop the degradation now and have 30 years or 25 to 30 years to get our water back to 1990s levels that’s very important and pragmatic.”

The longer time frame means farmers can play round with it more and have discretion to tinker. . .

Limited visibility in the lambing paddock this morning. A bit of fog around. pic.twitter.com/co3QalUCMZ

— Sharon Paterson (@Dayzie72) September 21, 2019

Manawatū ram breeder Kevin Nesdale rewarded for a hard life’s work – Sam Kilmister:

A former Manawatū rugby player has been lauded for his life of accomplishments off the rugby paddock.

Kevin Nesdale holds the record for playing 63 consecutive 80-minute games for Manawatū, but it’s his global success in another field that was celebrated at a community awards ceremony on Thursday.

Nesdale, also known as KJ, became the largest ram breeder in New Zealand and genetics from his Kimbolton farm are sold around the world.

Born into a family with seven brothers, Nesdale says he could just about could shear a sheep before he could walk.  . .

 

Plenty of California eyes on Taste Pure – Alan Williams:

Most California people tuning in to Beef + Lamb’s Taste Pure Nature promotional video are watching it to the end.

The figure of just over 50% is double the industry average and exciting progress, Red Meat Project global manager Michael Wan said.

In six months more than five million views were counted.

Anecdotal evidence is the combination of the video, extensive digital advertising, social media and use of influencers to boost in-store promotions are proving useful for the brand partners, though actual sale details aren’t available, Wan said. . .

Come on little ones, it’s time for breakfast. Always good to train them to the call and get them to follow, right from when they’re weaned 😃 pic.twitter.com/KuVaiuex0r

— Fiona (@YonBaker) September 21, 2019

World’s first farm incubator launched :

An initiative of Cultivate Farms, Cultivator matches the next generation of aspiring farmers with farm investors to own and operate a farm together.

Sam Marwood, Cultivate Farms Managing Director says Cultivator has a farm investor ready to back the best aspiring farmer to co-own a farm with them.

“The Cultivate Farms team have met with hundreds of aspiring farmers whose dreams of owning and running their own farm have been squashed, because they don’t have access to the millions of dollars needed to buy a farm,” Sam said. . . 

Visible Farmer

3/5s of not very much

Steven Joyce gives the government some much-needed advice:

It was confirmed this week that New Zealand is now running at little more than half speed.

From growing at rates of 3½ to 4 per cent three years ago our economy at the end of June was only 2.1 per cent larger than it was the previous June.

That’s a problem firstly because our population is growing at about 1.6 per cent a year, so if our economy grows at 2 per cent then the amount of additional wellbeing per person (to coin a phrase) is three fifths of not very much.

Not very much is far less than we need for economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing.

The second problem is that our terms of trade (the prices of our exports versus our imports) are still very strong so we should still be cranking along. It’s a problem if we are slowing down when the world really wants to buy what we are selling. What happens if the world actually falls out of bed?

What happens is recession and maybe even depression.

The government has been quick to blame the world economy for our lower growth rate this week, but our terms of trade put the lie to that.

The third problem is that there is no sign of anything on the horizon that will lead to much of an upturn, and in fact all the signs are that we are going to slow further. Our businesses are in a funk because of what is known as regulatory overhang. In short, they are too fearful to invest because the government is making lots of rule changes that could mean they don’t get much of a return for the risk they take.

It’s not just farmers, other businesses are too scared to invest.

The government for its part seems inclined to shrug its shoulders and say “nothing to see here”. They observe we are still growing (slightly) faster than Australia so what’s the problem? That story is likely to change in the next six months as Australia’s tax cuts come through and their housing market picks up. Anyway weren’t we trying to grow a lot faster than Australia so we could close the income gap with our cousins across the Tasman – what happened to that ambition?

This government has no ambition for growth, only for regulate, tax and spend.

The fourth problem is that lower growth means less to go around. If we were still growing as fast as we were then in real terms our economy would be around $5 billion bigger this year than it is. That means more money for higher pay and more jobs, and of course about 30 per cent of it goes into the government coffers – which would pay for a lot more cancer drugs, teachers or electric vehicle subsidies.

How hard is it to join the dots between higher growth and more for essential services and infrastructure?

So what to do? Well if I could offer some gratuitous advice to the Finance Minister I think he should be working on baking a bigger cake, and I think the recipe is pretty straightforward. Its time to rein in some of his ministerial colleagues who are wreaking havoc with business confidence.

For example he should suggest the Minister of Immigration sort out his portfolio so that horticulturists can find seasonal workers and the international education sector can get up off its knees. He should tell the Minister for the Environment to come up with a more reasonable plan for water quality improvements and methane emissions reductions so farmers step back from the cliff edge, and the Minister of Education to stop stuffing about with the apprenticeship system.

He should encourage the Reserve Bank Governor to be less heroic on bank capital requirements, persuade his colleagues to do a backtrack on gas exploration now it is proven the ban is simply value destroying and does nothing for climate change, overrule the Greens to permit some gold mining, and stop taxing tourists more so the tourism sector starts growing again. He should cancel the return to industry-wide pay bargaining given that NZ First are never going to vote for it anyway, tell the Transport Minister to get on with building at least some of the stalled roading projects, particularly given that light rail is years away, and reverse at least one of the petrol tax increases.

Then he could watch the economy recover and start thinking about how he’s going to allocate the increased government revenues. And New Zealand will be in much better shape if the world economy does get worse. . .

He won’t of course and nor will he see that it’s the poor and the struggling middle that will be hurt the hardest by policies which hamper growth.