WE ARE – again – at that moment in the electoral cycle where we get to choose who will be in Government for the next term.
IT SHOULD be a matter of concern to us all to hear, increasingly frequently, comment that the New Zealand Animal Evaluation Unit (NZAEU) Breeding Worth (BW) index is meaningless, or irrelevant, to large sections of the dairy industry.
FEDERATED FARMERS' election manifesto released last week is a refreshing change from the past and reflects the more professional approach to lobbying by Bruce Wills and his new board members.
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH of the dairy industry is achievable if farmers can demonstrate they are efficient users of natural resources and continually improve their practices to meet community expectations.
IT'S EASY to rubbish surveys and simply say the questions asked gave the answers the surveyor wanted. Or that the sample size was too small, or that it was biased to one section of the community or another, or some other demographic factor.
IN EQUITY partnerships or sharemilker-and-manager situations there can sometimes be tensions between the parties. How is it best to manage these relationships?
WHAT WAS the Prime Minister thinking? This is what Fonterra farmers are wondering as the possibility emerges again of a float of the co-op shares. Fourteen months after Fonterra farmers voted overwhelmingly to keep 100% control and ownership of their co-op, Prime Minister John Key has put the cat among the pigeons. During a parliamentary question-and-answer session, Key announced his preference for a float of Fonterra. However, he has since pointed out to Dairy News that the Government is not about to impose a capital structure on Fonterra. It's a personal view, he says. But the PM's preference for floating one of the country's best assets will worry farmers, especially at a time when the farmers themselves are preoccupied with TAF (trading among farmers). The idea of handing power to investors, by their purchase of units in a proposed Fonterra Shareholders Fund, could raise in farmers' minds a suspicion that there is a hidden agenda on TAF, with the Government part of the plot. For Fonterra farmers, the bottom line – 100% ownership and control – is non-negotiable. This message has been clearly relayed to the Fonterra board and the Fonterra Shareholders Council. Key and Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden discussed TAF during a recent meeting. Fonterra farmers now need assurance from the board that 100% ownership and control is still the bottom line. The PM's comment will raise more doubts among Fonterra shareholders about ownership issues. The next round of farmer meetings on September 25 will shed more light on TAF details, but clearly some Fonterra farmers are concerned. The Fonterra board may argue that the industry is in an election season (for director and council seats) and that no more than politicking is involved in the lobby groups popping around the country. But Dairy News believes there is genuine fear among some Fonterra shareholders that TAF could spell the end of 100% ownership and control. The board and the council must reassure farmers this will not be so. Leaving these farmers concerns to fester will not do the co-op any good.
AMONG OUR dairy exporting competitors, only the European Union has an ETS and agricultural gases are not part of the EU scheme.
ANDREW FERRIER went on the offensive at the recent Climate Change and Business Conference in Wellington, delivering a great speech to an audience that included some important people.
THE GENERAL election looms and already the political parties are promoting policies they hope will appeal on November 26.
