Posts by Farmer Green
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
If you need a discussion of the downside of seasonal dairying from a purely economic perspective this may be helpful :-
http://www.xcheque.com/blogs/item/5664-why-australia-wants-flat-milk-production
I think that by now , the environmental and social effects are pretty damned obvious.
-
O.K.I’m a little off topic , but if Pike River is an opportunity to understand what went wrong , then I submit that the latest Fonterra announcement presents a similar opportunity.
I hope that it’s O.K. for me to keep banging on about this, but it’s essentially a reply to Jack Harrison who was asking what should be the policy response /settings to a situation, which is arguably becoming a national disaster.
So I’ve tried to set out the policy settings that have led to the Fonterra situation, and I’d leave it to the politicians to carry out the necessary corrections . Yeah right.So here’s what I wrote in response to a comment at NBR (it’s paywalled) :-
” “Sadly Fonterra continues to show that they continue to be a badly run company.”
Farmer Brown begs to differ.
Fonterra is a very well run company , which responds rationally to the conditions in which it operates.
Those conditions amount to a protected environment.The two key components of that protected environment are the DIRA and the Fonterra Milk Price Manual.
It is perfectly evident that the sole purpose of these two documents, one of them a government statute that Jim Sutton was “heavied ” into having enacted, and the other a blatant piece of nonsense designed by Fonterra to make it very difficult for competition to get off the ground, is to prevent competition and to maintain a virtual monopoly on the use of the NZ milk supply.
The reason that Fonterra needs to have that monopoly, is because its business model is ’"throughput -driven”. We don’t need to go further into that.
There is a third component to the protection of the industry , and that is the initial exemption of agriculture from the provisions of the RMA , and the inordinately long time that it is taking to make the dairy industry compliant.
It is simply a fact that the spring-calving, seasonal dairy is the most environmentally damaging model that we could design.
The agronomic reasons for this are well known; again we don’t need to go into it here.It should be obvious that the way the bulk of the NZ dairy industry, i.e. Fonterra , is operating is a disaster , environmentally , economically and socially, for the whole country, but it is a perfectly rational response to the policy settings under which Fonterra operates.
It is entirely the fault of successive governments , through statute , and the failure of a powerless Commerce Commission to facilitate competition , that the dairy farmers can continue to operate in this way , to the national detriment.
Don’t blame Fonterra ; they have been permitted to get away with it.
Don’t worry about the dairy farmers; most will be fine.
It’s NZ that we need to be concerned about. ”
-
In further breaking news, the CEO of Fonterra , Theo Spierings did not say
" . . . we can become the undisputed world leader in exported cheese, yoghurt etc.. . . these are the products that deliver the greatest premiums and for which a growing middle class is ever hungrier . . "
Oops ! Stupid me!
Of course Theo Spierings did not say that ; it was the Dairy Australia chief executive Ian Halliday who said that.
What was I thinking?
Sorry about that!
-
Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
at $4 every dairy farm will be in the red.
There will be a few with cost of sales below $4; they will be the ones with less than one cow /acre; no nitrogen fertiliser used ; no "dairy support" purchased; no irrigation; and likely to be family- operated.
Of course if they have no reserves of feed or money , then their fortunes will be very much at the mercy of the weather. -
Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to ,
No need to apologise to me. Now that the truth about fats is coming out , I'm phasing out all the " low-fat" products that I used to make.
Eventually people will learn that "full-fat" milk contains only 4% fat, and that removing that minimal fat content effectively removes the Vit A and D. Then adding skim milk powder to improve the palatability simply increases the lactose.Your practice also means that you get a lowered protein %.
-
Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to ,
, frontera argued that our domestic milk prices where based on the international market.
Fonterra offers quarterly contracts. I'll let you know what the wholesale price does.
Naturally the winter price is much higher than the spring price.But wait!
"winter price is much higher than the spring price."What is wrong with this picture? :-)
-
Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Chris Waugh,
All the comments to that article are very interesting.
Uh-oh a dairy farmer has posted a comment.
Time for farmer brown to have another go ; I wonder if he will get moderated. -
Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Greg Dawson,
It’s not clear where the payout would end up if the 30% uplift doesn’t come through,
One of the trading banks has published a figure of $4 , based on the current GDT auction prices.
-
Hard News: The humanity, in reply to CJM,
Mary Wilson did that on Sunday morning.
I think that was the most petulant, juvenile and hysterically unhinged thing I’ve ever heard on RNZ.
Wilson was out of control like some 16 yo whose party has been cancelled and has to spend the next three weeks grounded.Really? That is not her default setting ?
Well I'll be ...
-
Brian Edwards take. Everyone seen this?
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/some-acting-experience-advantage-not-required-ck-162882#comments