Bank helps clients reduce emissions
Rabobank says climate change creates both risks and opportunities for the bank and its clients and that the food and agriculture sector needs to recognise the potential for both.
Obtaining premium prices to pay for higher costs of production is the next challenge for farmers, says Rabobank dairy analyst Emma Higgins.
New Zealand dairying has for years seen environmental regulation tightening and that is forcing higher cost of production onto farmers, says Higgins.
“The real key issue here is trying to obtain a premium for our products now that will pay for those higher costs of production,” Higgins told the Rabobank Farm2Fork seminar in Sydney on March 28. She took part in a panel discussion on whether farmers are ready for change, particularly over sustainability issues.
NZ dairy farmers are very conscious of animal welfare and environmental sustainability issues and adopt many technologies, she says. But taking sustainability to another level and thinking about true business sustainability is the next challenge facing NZ farmers, Higgins says.
No amount of money will solve some of NZ’s environmental challenges, particularly in parts of Waikato and Canterbury.
“We are ‘tapped out’ in terms of resources… NZ is on the precipice of transformational change in agriculture.”
Farmers are considering what alternative land use is available to them — perhaps diversification into some sort of cropping arrangement.
“Or it could be getting [totally] out of dairy and moving into something a bit more innovative, e.g. sheep milking with its lighter environmental footprint and perhaps less onerous social licence to operate. In dairy that pressure is there and we have seen that play out in a number of ways.”
Dairy companies are trying to lead in managing some of the issues on social licence to operate, she says.
Farmers seeking to act on sustainability must ‘walk the talk’ on value adding and brand development.And NZ must adhere to its provenance story.
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
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