The best farmers are not farming as we know it

[Poorbuthappy]

wouldn’t know ?

fat lambs here are worth big money & Australian fine wool is considered the best in the world by the Italian fashion industry, so I’m not sure where you get your information ?

tbh, when I lived in the UK, I always preferred NZ lamb to UK

An Ozzy guy on a WhatsApp group I'm on is saying they're giving their lambs away?

 

[lloyd]

An Ozzy guy on a WhatsApp group I'm on is saying they're giving their lambs away?

His name isn't 'Roy' by any chance.

 

[yoki]

Yes, but back then the British Empire probably controlled the bulk of banana growing land in the world

Indeed, I guess the main point was that we were growing bananas in the UK 200 years ago.

Which begs the question, do we rely on imports so much because it's the way it has to be, or because it's the way the rich and powerful want it to be?

 

[yoki]

Nothing much is sweeter than that still get a kick out of growing veg and meat for my people.

One thing I don't worry about anymore are potatoes, Dad used to have half the garden in spuds but it seems like such a waste of space when you could grow more "expensive" bits and pieces instead.
As it turns out most of the crew would rather not have spuds and eat more meat which is fine by me, the more they eat the more meat I get to cut up

I have a book simply called "sufficient" ( by Tom Petherick, highly recommended if you fancy getting in to home growing) and it suggests limiting your potato growing to "earlies", as you'll buy better maincrop than you'll probably manage to grow and your efforts would be better directed elsewhere.

Earlies are the opposite however and you'll generally grow much better than you'll buy, which I've certainly found to be the case myself.

 

[Kidds]

Have to say I am very surprised at the size of the UK wheat crop compared to the Australian crop, or vice versa.
I've seen the areas in Australia and they are immense as are the road trains, railways and depots where it is all stored/gathered together.

 

[stewart]

Ironically the cavendish banana, which accounts for almost all bananas traded around the globe, was bred in the UK in the 1800's.

In snow covered Buxton, albeit in a glass house. It should have been called the Paxton not Cavendish.

 

[stewart]

Not good but as we would not be allowed to do that in the UK it just
highlights another difference.
It's interesting the comments coming from NZ regarding UK lamb prices
as not long ago there was a lot of self congratulation regarding their own marketing
and how we could learn from them.

There's a lot to be learned from other countries around the world to those that have an open mind. In marketing agricultural produce the UK is worse than useless and could learn from the Antipodes, growing the product is easy wherever in the world you farm, selling it for a profit is another matter entirely.

 

[livestock 1]

There's a lot to be learned from other countries around the world to those that have an open mind. In marketing agricultural produce the UK is worse than useless and could learn from the Antipodes, growing the product is easy wherever in the world you farm, selling it for a profit is another matter entirely.

The government takes care of the marketing to some degree and the chain from the farm to the consumer in fact. You call that subsidies in other countries than your own

 

[stewart]

The government takes care of the marketing to some degree and the chain from the farm to the consumer in fact. You call that subsidies in other countries than your own.

Do you rely on the UK government to pay for and carry out your marketing, along with the chain to the consumer? If so that could explain why it is so useless.

I pay for my own via our marketers, who are not government owned and believe me it's expensive but effective.

 

[livestock 1]

Do you rely on the UK government to pay for and carry out your marketing, along with the chain to the consumer? If so that could explain why it is so useless.

I pay for my own via our marketers, who are not government owned and believe me it's expensive but effective.

I do my own marketing the government does charge us a levy which is supposed to help us find new markets which is debatable
You get most of your marketing done for you by your government that includes them finding markets for your products and it goes right through the chain including slaughter and transport infrastructure which is something we would also benefit from in this country if our government was in the mind to be backing agriculture.
If we had that you would call it a subsidy

 

[stewart]

I do my own marketing the government does charge us a levy which is supposed to help us find new markets which is debatable
You get most of your marketing done for you by your government that includes them finding markets for your products and it goes right through the chain including slaughter and transport infrastructure which is something we would also benefit from in this country if our government was in the mind to be backing agriculture.
If we had that you would call it a subsidy

Do you do your own marketing for just your own produce or collectively with others?

Our marketing is not done by the government, they do trade deals around the world that open markets for us or make tham more advantageous, every government does or at least should do that, that is somewhat different to receiving a cash payment as paid in the EU and UK, which is a subsidy.

There are no payments (subsidies) paid through the chain be that the slaughter chain, manufacturing chain, packing chain or transport, all the above is paid for by the primary producer, last year promotion alone accounted for around 12.5% of my turnover.

 

[livestock 1]

Do you do your own marketing for just your own produce or collectively with others?

Our marketing is not done by the government, they do trade deals around the world that open markets for us or make tham more advantageous, every government does or at least should do that, that is somewhat different to receiving a cash payment as paid in the EU and UK, which is a subsidy.

There are no payments (subsidies) paid through the chain be that the slaughter chain, manufacturing chain, packing chain or transport, all the above is paid for by the primary producer, last year promotion alone accounted for around 12.5% of my turnover.

I market some myself which I advertise myself and sell the rest is through auctions with relations built up by customers
My auntie lives in NZ she tells me about how your system works it’s a fantastic system to have your government paying for so much for you. She says that it hasn’t got to appear as a subsidy as it will affect your exporting ability? She also has told me your lamb is much cheaper sold in this country than it is at your home, is that correct? That shows how much it’s subsidised.
Over here it’s the opposite our government wants cheap food so we don’t have that luxury

 

[stewart]

I market some myself which I advertise myself and sell the rest is through auctions with relations built up by customers
My auntie lives in NZ she tells me about how your system works it’s a fantastic system to have your government paying for so much for you. She says that it hasn’t got to appear as a subsidy as it will affect your exporting ability? She also has told me your lamb is much cheaper sold in this country than it is at your home, is that correct? That shows how much it’s subsidised.
Over here it’s the opposite our government wants cheap food so we don’t have that luxury

Marketing some yourself and selling the rest through auctions may work well for you as an individual, it isn't however a great way of marketing for the industry in general, hence my comment on how useless marketing is for agricultural produce in the UK.

Is your Auntie involved in a primary industry? the information she has given you on the government paying for marketing is completely wrong, they do trade deals that are beneficial to New Zealand as a whole, from which we benefit, but there are no payments (subsidies ) paid into the supply chain, that is all paid for by the primary producer, as it should be. There are no subsidies.

NZ lamb is cheaper in the UK than here mainly because we are a high cost country and have to pay the world market price ( plus some ) and we have GST on food. I did buy a few legs of lamb last week for $20 a piece, £10.

 

[FonterraFarmer]

I do my own marketing the government does charge us a levy which is supposed to help us find new markets which is debatable
You get most of your marketing done for you by your government that includes them finding markets for your products and it goes right through the chain including slaughter and transport infrastructure which is something we would also benefit from in this country if our government was in the mind to be backing agriculture.
If we had that you would call it a subsidy

I wouldn't trust the government to do the marketing or even be proactive in marketing and exports, our previous government would have struggled to organise a root in a whóre house!!!*






*I wouldn't normally phrase it like that but to keep it simple and had to keep it to no chance for misinterpretation left no other option.

 

[livestock 1]

Marketing some yourself and selling the rest through auctions may work well for you as an individual, it isn't however a great way of marketing for the industry in general, hence my comment on how useless marketing is for agricultural produce in the UK.

Is your Auntie involved in a primary industry? the information she has given you on the government paying for marketing is completely wrong, they do trade deals that are beneficial to New Zealand as a whole, from which we benefit, but there are no payments (subsidies ) paid into the supply chain, that is all paid for by the primary producer, as it should be. There are no subsidies.

NZ lamb is cheaper in the UK than here mainly because we are a high cost country and have to pay the world market price ( plus some ) and we have GST on food. I did buy a few legs of lamb last week for $20 a piece, £10.

She and her husband works for a computer firm so they work in IT. They are business people.
Im not sure what you are getting at saying is wrong for me to sell some of my lamb/sheep meat privately and some through an auction. In this country auctions are the only hope of getting a realistic price for stock otherwise we would be getting much less and I don’t see why selling privately is bad for business. Do you sell through your government routes?
There’s hundreds of payments for you available. Is it millions of dollars or billions of dollars?
You are well subsidised
I’ve been night lambing here because every lamb and calf counts hardly the example of a subsidised business

 

[livestock 1]

I wouldn't trust the government to do the marketing or even be proactive in marketing and exports, our previous government would have struggled to organise a root in a whóre house!!!*






*I wouldn't normally phrase it like that but to keep it simple and had to keep it to no chance for misinterpretation left no other option.

Yes similar here we pay a levy on prime finished stock which we have no choice in its a levy, from a youngster I was under the impression it was there for marketing but it’s doubtful what it does for us. In some cases it works against us they have said they aren’t keen on advertising because it doesn’t deliver enough back apparently.
Maybe they mean it doesn’t deliver enough back to them.

 

[stewart]

She and her husband works for a computer firm so they work in IT. They are business people.
Im not sure what you are getting at saying is wrong for me to sell some of my lamb/sheep meat privately and some through an auction. In this country auctions are the only hope of getting a realistic price for stock otherwise we would be getting much less and I don’t see why selling privately is bad for business. Do you sell through your government routes?
There’s hundreds of payments for you available. Is it millions of dollars or billions of dollars?
You are well subsidised
I’ve been night lambing here because every lamb and calf counts hardly the example of a subsidised business

As they are not involved in a primary industry it explains their lack of understanding how agricultural marketing works in NZ if they are from the UK it further explains it.

I am not saying it is wrong for you to sell your sheep/lamb privately, with the rest through the auction system, if it works for you as an individual then that's fine. It is not however conducive to marketing volume, this is better carried out jointly with others in a co-operative manner, as opposed to being in competition with each other.

Our sales are all through a marketing company which I am a shareholder in, the share investment is significant as are the costs associated with shipping, promotion etc

Where do you get the idea from that hundreds of payments amounting to billions of dollars are available to us, that is not reality, NZs main exports are from primary industries we have only 5 million people here, there just isn't enough tax take to afford to pay anything out to agriculture, horticulture or forestry, we receive no subsidies.

Good luck with the lambing, I hope it goes well.

 

[lloyd]

There's a lot to be learned from other countries around the world to those that have an open mind. In marketing agricultural produce the UK is worse than useless and could learn from the Antipodes, growing the product is easy wherever in the world you farm, selling it for a profit is another matter entirely.

let's face it NZ agriculture has got away with a lot of practices that would create
public outrage in the UK so a bit like comparing apples with pears.

 

[livestock 1]

As they are not involved in a primary industry it explains their lack of understanding how agricultural marketing works in NZ if they are from the UK it further explains it.

I am not saying it is wrong for you to sell your sheep/lamb privately, with the rest through the auction system, if it works for you as an individual then that's fine. It is not however conducive to marketing volume, this is better carried out jointly with others in a co-operative manner, as opposed to being in competition with each other.

Our sales are all through a marketing company which I am a shareholder in, the share investment is significant as are the costs associated with shipping, promotion etc

Where do you get the idea from that hundreds of payments amounting to billions of dollars are available to us, that is not reality, NZs main exports are from primary industries we have only 5 million people here, there just isn't enough tax take to afford to pay anything out to agriculture, horticulture or forestry, we receive no subsidies.

Good luck with the lambing, I hope it goes well.

 

[livestock 1]

There’s 13 million there that’s just for starters you aren’t paying for that
The first thing we hear is how you do it all the second thing you say is oh we get no subsidies
Gets a bit boring after a while you have that many subsidies you couldn’t count them all