Ongoing drought is bleeding us dry – Rhea Dasent:
We are living through exceptional times, and the drought of 2020 is one of the exceptions – and not in a good way.
Businesses affected by the coronavirus lockdown understand how farmers feel about the drought.
Being unable to trade due to external influences puts you not just on the back foot, but several feet behind, for the rest of the year or even longer.
Tourism businesses rely on a good summer with lots of customers in order to have the income to get through the low winter season. Farmers have good and bad seasons too, and hope that it all evens out.
But the lockdown and this drought have taken the usual seasonal ups and downs to a whole new level. . .
Overseas markets holding up – Allan Barber:
In a recent conversation, Alliance CEO David Surveyor described world red meat markets by comparing them to traffic lights. Contrary to the evidence earlier in the year, when buyers stopped buying because of Chinese New Year closely followed by the Covid-19 shutdown, China has emerged as the brightest light with the traffic lights firmly set on green. The composition of Chinese orders has changed since the virus outbreak with retail and online sales growing considerably, while there are signs of hot pot outlets starting to reopen.
Silver Fern Farms’ Simon Limmer agrees with this assessment, although he cautions against assuming there won’t be a risk of a market reversal at some point. For the time being China is a saviour, in spite of meat exporters’ wish not to put too many eggs in the same basket. This is not a time to pick and choose though. The rest of Asia is also quite strong with demand for grass fed beef holding up well in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and South East Asia. . .
Changing patterns in food supply must be addressed – Anna Campbell:
I have been reading and listening to reports and podcasts on the impact of Covid-19 on food supply and buying patterns.
It is interesting to note that most of these trends were identified as trends before Covid-19, but the pandemic has massively shifted the dial in terms of the pace of change. We are likely to see many of these shifts sustained in the Covid-19 recovery and beyond.
1. In the United States, Covid-19 has increased the dominance of the large food players such as Walmart and Amazon (which owns Whole Foods). Small grocery chains and independents, before Covid-19, made up 40% of the grocery sector — this is rapidly shrinking. Workers within the large chains are negotiating higher pay and, in general, profit margins on grocery products are decreasing. This will make it harder for small players to compete, especially without the benefits of robotics and artificial intelligence systems. . .
Four Dairy Women’s Network Regional Leader finalists:
Grassroots dairy farming leadership efforts from throughout New Zealand are represented by the four finalists in the Dairy Women’s Network new DWN Regional Leader of the Year award.
The finalists are spread from the north of the North Island where Sue Skelton is farming south west of Whangarei near Waiotira to Jessica Goodwright who is sharemilking in Drummond in Central Southland.
Mid-Canterbury farmer and personal development coach Tania Burrows and North Canterbury contract milker Rebecca Green are the other two finalists that represent over 70 volunteer Dairy Women’s Network Regional Leaders spread throughout the country. . .
High yields in difficult season a credit to NZ’s arable farmers:
Yields for the 2020 harvest are up 16 percent across the board when compared to 2019, the latest Arable Industry Marketing Initiative (AIMI) survey shows.
Particularly encouraging was the fact fewer hectares were planted in total this season compared to last (98,090 ha vs 104,000) yet tonnes harvested were substantially up (873,080 vs 796,700), Federated Farmers Vice-Chairperson Grains, Brian Leadley, said.
“This is in despite of a severe early season hailstorm, flooding in some regions and some pretty variable weather. It just highlights that our arable farmers are world class,” Brian said. . .
Muttonbird hunters expect prices to go up as season cut short by lockdown – Te Aniwa Hurihanganui:
Eager muttonbird hunters are hoping to get a flight out to the Tītī / Muttonbird Islands as soon possible, with alert level 3 now opening a small window of opportunity to gather the delicious tītī before the season is over.
Muttonbirds are in hot demand every year, but with alert level 4 putting the season on hold, hunters now have just two weeks before the birds leave the island in early May.
Tony McColgan from Invercargill usually collects up to 2000 birds a year; he thought the season was over when the lockdown began. . .
Investing in cows grows wealth in dairy – Samantha Townsend:
It might have taken the Nicholsons 30 years to put their name on the mortgage but it was an investment well worth the wait for the next generation.
Megan and Geoff Nicholson started their dairy journey as lease farmers in 1989 having moved back to her home town of Taree from the United Kingdom where they met.
“Geoff was from a beef, sheep and cropping farm but neither of us had particular dairy experience but we decided to give it go and loved it ,” Mrs Nicholson said. . .
Homepaddock 