Data sharing initiative wins national award for saving farmers time
The work Fonterra has done with Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd, LIC and Ravensdown to save farmers time through better data connections has been recognised with a national award.
Ravensdown’s 2021/22 Annual Results, announced yesterday, include an overall Group profit of $95 million.
The results also include an underlying profit of $68 million in the core fertiliser business, before taxation and rebate.
Chairman, Bruce Wills called it one of Ravensdown’s “best ever results”, achieved in a year dominated by volatile pricing and global supply challenges.
Total fertiliser sold was slightly up at 1.22 million tonnes, and revenue at $922 million was up $210 million on last year, reflecting the rising price environment that dominated the year.
“The rapidly rising international prices makes fertiliser hard to budget for our farmers. To help them, Ravensdown focussed on product margins and yielded a FY22 group margin percentage lower than last year.”
Chief executive Garry Diack says Ravensdown’s fundamental belief is that this cash is better in use on-farm than in the company’s hands.
“Consistent with out cooperative values we have positioned the balance sheet for another challenging year in 2023 with $347M of stock in store – providing confidence to customers for spring.”
Ravensdown Shipping Services provided a $26 million boost to the Group’s bottom-line performance.
“The volatility of the market is not going away, and we need the capacity to capitalise on procurement pricing opportunities, and we need to continue investment in technological support to reduce New Zealand’s fertiliser footprint. The need for a capital buffer for the increasing risk a cooperative structure faces, compels a conservative approach to shareholder rebate for 2022,” says Diack.
Given this year’s performance and next year’s challenges, a shareholder rebate of $25 per tonne has been declared.
The year at a glance
Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.
Within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, conservatively valued at $150 billion in farming assets.
Boutique Waikato cheese producer Meyer Cheese is investing in a new $3.5 million facility, designed to boost capacity and enhance the company's sustainability credentials.
OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.
Compensation assistance for farmers impacted by Mycoplama bovis is being wound up.
Selecting the reverse gear quicker than a lovestruck boyfriend who has met the in-laws for the first time, the Coalition Government has confirmed that the proposal to amend Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) charged against farm utes has been canned.
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