Greenpeace a charity?
OPINION: Should Greenpeace be stripped of their charitable status? Farmers say yes.
OPINION: Federated Farmers' latest farmer confidence survey results won’t surprise too many people.
Falling interest rates, rising incomes, stabilising farm input prices and more favourable farming ‘rules’ have all played a major role in that improvement.
It’s incredibly satisfying to see farmer confidence rebounding so strongly – to its highest point in over a decade and the largest one-off lift in farmer confidence seen to date. This is a cause for celebration.
However, the results are coming off a pretty low base. And as Federated Farmers points out, farmer confidence is now in positive territory, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
Farmers can’t control either interest rates or the farmgate milk price, so Federated Farmers and other industry organisations are using energy on what they can influence – making sure farming regulations are practical, affordable and fair. This means keeping the Government honest.
Not all decisions made by the Government help farmer confidence. For example, the recent Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) announcement by the Government hasn’t gone down well with farmers as it would mean more pine trees on productive land. The Feds’ survey was carried out before the latest NDC announcement and one can bet that this almost certainly would have taken some of the gloss off the results.
Government rules and regulations have a significant impact on farmers’ costs and these costs really can make or break a season and have a significant impact on a farmer’s confidence to keep investing in their busi-ness.
Farmers have a simple message to the Government: “As a country, we’re never going be able to regulate our way to prosperity, but with the right policy settings, we might just be able to farm our way there”.
Among the regular exhibitors at last month’s South Island Agricultural Field Days, the one that arguably takes the most intensive preparation every time is the PGG Wrightson Seeds site.
Two high producing Canterbury dairy farmers are moving to blended stockfeed supplements fed in-shed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to boost protein levels, which they can’t achieve through pasture under the region’s nitrogen limit of 190kg/ha.
Buoyed by strong forecasts for milk prices and a renewed demand for dairy assets, the South Island rural real estate market has begun the year with positive momentum, according to Colliers.
The six young cattle breeders participating in the inaugural Holstein Friesian NZ young breeder development programme have completed their first event of the year.
New Zealand feed producers are being encouraged to boost staff training to maintain efficiency and product quality.
OPINION: The world is bracing for a trade war between the two biggest economies.
OPINION: Should Greenpeace be stripped of their charitable status? Farmers say yes.
OPINION: After years of financial turmoil, Canterbury milk processor Synlait is now back in business.