So New Zealand farmers; how do you make it pay?

bluebell

Member
A polite question, questions to our New Zealand forum friends, how come we cant make it pay and you can ? please some facts and figures, also how much is agricultural land at the moment and is there many farms for sale, because here with all the moaning about the poor, or negative profit in UK agriculture, and i moan as much as many, the fact is not a lot of farms, land are for sale, look at a farmers weekly from the 1980s-1990s and see the pages of land farms for sale then?
 
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bluebell

Member
what i maybe should have said is , from the question asked about the price of newzealand lamb here how can it be cheaper than homegrown ? what costs add up ? because another question on this forum was asking a similar view and it got me wondering ? on another point do medicines, vaccines, wormers etc are they priced cheaper in newzealand to the uk?
 

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
A polite question, questions to our New Zealand forum friends, how come we cant make it pay and you can ? please some facts and figures, also how much is agricultural land at the moment and is there many farms for sale, because here with all the moaning about the poor, or negative profit in UK agriculture, and i moan as much as many, the fact is not a lot of farms, land are for sale, look at a farmers weekly from the 1980s-1990s and see the pages of land farms for sale then?

they don't is the short answer....nz as a farming blueprint for the world is a myth IMO

1/ until covoid they were getting more than us
2/less regulated
3/more indebt.....circa £30 billion IIRC as opposed to uk £18 billion
 
If you go on any farming forum anywhere in the world you will see the exact same complaints as you do here.

It's a global marketplace with a lot of players, lots of external factors at play and increasingly volatile prices. In many, many, markets a lot of family or smaller units have gone out or been absorbed. It is the same as it always has been. People get good, get big, change what they do or do something else.

Many many other industries have experienced the same unfortunately. Throw in the low returns, the increasing regulation, the dearth of skilled indigenous labour etc,etc,etc... it's happening and has happened for decades all over the world.

Even in Europe, where subsidies have been at play for decades, there are an awful lot of very large corporately operated farming enterprises and an awful lot of farms where the owner goes out to work another job and does the farming part time- and they do this because they have structured their businesses this way.
 

Wooly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Romney Marsh
My Nephew farms sheep in NZ.

Part time job with 6000 ewes, on top of a hill with just a dog and stick. No sheds, no machinery !

He came across for my Sons wedding in October. I mentioned the sheep must soon be lambing and he said they started just before he came to the UK and they would be fine until he got back !! What dies just gets rolled into the creek.

When you remove all those costs, you should be able to make a living.
 
My Nephew farms sheep in NZ.

Part time job with 6000 ewes, on top of a hill with just a dog and stick. No sheds, no machinery !

He came across for my Sons wedding in October. I mentioned the sheep must soon be lambing and he said they started just before he came to the UK and they would be fine until he got back !! What dies just gets rolled into the creek.

When you remove all those costs, you should be able to make a living.

He has 6000 ewes and considers it a part time job.

Says it all.
 

Shep

Member
He has 6000 ewes and considers it a part time job.

Says it all.
If I could bugger off and leave them lambing, come home and roll the dead ones into the river, I'd consider it a part time job too. Do you think I'd get away with that in the UK?
Herein we are seeing the difference between the two. Also scale comes into play, I couldn't find enough rentable land to put 60 ewes on never mind 6000!
Even 600 would be a considerable flock here, but you'd have to fight tooth and nail to insure as many as possible survived, because you have 90% less than the part time kiwi and if you wanted to dump a few in the creek, you would have a job staying out of jail.
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
what i maybe should have said is , from the question asked about the price of newzealand lamb here how can it be cheaper than homegrown ? what costs add up ? because another question on this forum was asking a similar view and it got me wondering ? on another point do medicines, vaccines, wormers etc are they priced cheaper in newzealand to the uk?


Is NZ lamb actually cheaper than ours?

Or is it a case that the supermarkets pay a bit more to get it here, then sell it on their shelves a bit cheaper (loss leader) to drive down the UK industry?


It's what the attempted with the Polish beef at the start of this virus...
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
To a certain degree it costs as much too keep 10 sheep as it does too keep 100 sheep... in New Zealand it’s probably more it costs as much to keep 1000 sheep as it does too keep 10,000 add too that there relaxed attitude towards losses and deadstock and checking stock, when they are lambing I bet they ride round once a week picking the dead ones up then after that it’s see you in 3 months when we start weighing lambs... if they even weigh lambs? They maybe just gather them in and know at 16 weeks old they will be somewhere near and send everything that looks near...
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,292
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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