New Zealand lamb - how do they do it?

bankrupt

bankrupt

Member
Location
EX17/20
SillyPhily said:
I spent a year on a crop farm on the canterbury plains, i would hazard to guess with an irrigation system it's a better place to farm than 99% of the uk would be. About 2-3ft of sandy silt then bottomless river gravel but enough water to put out 100mm/week on the whole farm.
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Very nice while it lasts, SillyPhily, but the Canterbury aquifer's being rapidly eroded.

This is only too typical of the huge level of agricultural production which has been brought forward from the future due to the current Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP).

Net result of this over-investment of cheepo funds in new production facilities has been the rapidly falling prices seen, for example, for all the extra beans (from South America), wheat (from Eastern Europe) and milk (from the Canterbury Plain, again).

So ZIRP reduces everyone's trading margins and, simultaneously, puts up the cost of land.

Brilliant! :banghead:

Obviously, the downside arises as soon as the water runs out.

Very good news, probably, for the next, or next-but-one, generation of farmers in the UK.
 
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D

digger64

Member
Ysgythan said:
"Deere" doesn't rhyme with "on"

I don't disagree with your points, but am tired of this notion that NZ is THE only model to follow and can't be criticised by any means.
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You are right I get alot beef cattle ideas from the us can and oz but mainly the us - google leachman or drovers see what you think
 
D

Doing it for the kids

Member
davieh3350 said:
We've got 15...Ish times more people on our door step to sell to, without needing to ship it all the way around the world.
Need to start doing a bit more marketing and pushing it ourselves rather than sitting moaning about the supermarkets and how New Zealand are so lucky because their grass grows non stop all year, it only ever rains when they want it and there's no red tape there.
Why don't we have a go at the Dutch for filling the supermarket shelves (and a butcher not far from here) with their pork too.
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So how do the Dutch produce so much cheap pork. Hard to find British bacons in supermarkets, really have to rummage...
 
Jackov Altraids

Jackov Altraids

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
I think the simple answer is that we all do the best we can [or at least think so].
The difference is that with loss of subsidies in New Zealand, they had to know they were doing the best they could.
It is the vagaries of international trade and ever changing conditions as to how competitive any country's produce is at any time. As an island nation, the supermarkets are very aware that they can import goods at a higher cost to save money by depressing home grown prices. We don't really compete against our good southern hemisphere friends as much as traders play us off against one another.
At the end of the day, we are all limited by what we have outside our own door.
 
Bury the Trash

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
bankrupt said:
Very nice while it lasts, SillyPhily, but the Canterbury aquifer's being rapidly eroded.

This is only too typical of the huge level of agricultural production which has been brought forward from the future due to the current Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP).

Net result of this over-investment of cheepo funds in new production facilities has been the rapidly falling prices seen, for example, for all the extra beans (from South America), wheat (from Eastern Europe) and milk (from the Canterbury Plain, again).

So ZIRP reduces everyone's trading margins and, simultaneously, puts up the cost of land.

Brilliant! :banghead:

Obviously, the downside arises as soon as the water runs out.

Very good news, probably, for the next, or next-but-one, generation of farmers in the UK.
Click to expand...
well spotted but i have a gut feeling water use is going to be a world wide major issue for the future generations.
 
SillyPhily

SillyPhily

Member
Location
Wexford, Ireland
bankrupt said:
Very nice while it lasts, SillyPhily, but the Canterbury aquifer's being rapidly eroded.

This is only too typical of the huge level of agricultural production which has been brought forward from the future due to the current Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP).

Net result of this over-investment of cheepo funds in new production facilities has been the rapidly falling prices seen, for example, for all the extra beans (from South America), wheat (from Eastern Europe) and milk (from the Canterbury Plain, again).

So ZIRP reduces everyone's trading margins and, simultaneously, puts up the cost of land.

Brilliant! :banghead:

Obviously, the downside arises as soon as the water runs out.

Very good news, probably, for the next, or next-but-one, generation of farmers in the UK.
Click to expand...
This was very close to the rakia river , no well required and a 7ha pond to fill up on winter rainfall.(y) Recharge of water strictly controled to river flow over the summer, but enough water stored for 3 months of 80mm/week requirements.

Just to edit, the west cost/southern alps get up on 2.5m of rain vs 550ish mm being the norm on the east coast of the south island, i'm sure they would work out a way to get the water to the places they can use it most effectively. In the rackia gorge/arthurs pass one of the kiwi water people mentioned there was a few lakes to store water and they were looking at using dams, though it would need to be fairly fooking substantial as that's a likely zone for a big earth quake.
 
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Bury the Trash

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
SillyPhily said:
This was very close to the rakia river , no well required and a 7ha pond to fill up on winter rainfall.(y) Recharge of water strictly controled to river flow over the summer, but enough water stored for 3 months of 80mm/week requirements.
Click to expand...
control of use will be the key to all, i guess as even aquifiers need rainfall to fill.
 
D

d williams

Member
GTB said:
It's on my 'to do' list. I wish I'd gone when I was young but I didn't have time then. :rolleyes:

Trying my best to persuade my sons to go but they don't have time either.:rolleyes:
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Make time be a good investment for the farm and maybe your pension as I think most generation have to buy their parents out you see some lovely houses on the lakes with retired farmers in at an age when they've plenty of energy to enjoy it
 

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