$17.8m dividend for LIC farmer shareholders

The co-operative says it will return $17.8 million in dividend to shareholders, equating to 12.5 cents per share. This dividend will be distributed on 20 August.

“The LIC board is proud to present another strong result to our farmer shareholders for the fourth consecutive year,” says chairman Murray King.

He says the result is in line with the co-operative’s market guidance and a credit to shareholders for their support of significant initiatives.

He says LIC has seen good growth across core business areas for the 2020-21 financial year, but especially in the cooperative’s genetics range which sees genomically-selected bulls used to fast-track genetic gain and deliver value on-farm through increased productivity and efficiency.

“That value combined with a solid dividend makes this result a win-win for our farmers. It also means we can continue our work to invest in products, services and technology that drive long term and sustainable customer value.”

LIC’s genetics range accounted for close to half of the co-op’s artificial breeding (AB) inseminations (41.3%), more than double the amount from three years ago. This, the company says, is predominantly from the Forward Pack and A2/A2 bull teams.

It also includes sexed semen, which experienced significant growth with triple the number of straws sold on the previous year, going from 33,804 to 110,125.

“This growth will have a significant impact on-farm this spring and deliver a huge amount of value to our farmers, with more high quality heifer replacements and fewer bobby calves. We’re expecting this to be even greater next year with sexed semen orders likely to almost double again,” King says.

Meanwhile, the number of traditionally daughter proven bulls used for AB continued to decline, down 40% from three years ago.

King says this shift reflects growing farmer confidence in LIC’s proprietary genomic work and a willingness to adopt new tools and solutions to help them meet sustainability goals.

“LIC exists to deliver superior genetics and technological innovation to help our shareholders sustainably farm a profitable animal. We have a fundamental role in helping New Zealand’s dairy farmers reduce their environmental footprint and we are committed to providing solutions to help them meet climate targets.

“We’ve invested heavily into genomics for our farmers because the DNA of our dairy herd can do a lot of the heavy lifting to help meet our sectors’ climate goals.”

Results highlights

• Net profit after tax (NPAT): $22.9 million, up 31% from $17.5 million last year

• Total revenue from continuing operations - $249.0 million, up 3.4% from $240.9 million last year

• Underlying earnings: $22.3 million, down 1.9% from $22.7 million last year after a one-off tax benefit in prior year

• Strong balance sheet with no debt at year end: Total assets $382 million, 0.5% increase $379.9 million last year

• Dividend: $17.8 million - 12.51 c per share, representing 80% of underlying earnings