29,200 copies distributed monthly – to every rural mailbox in Canterbury and the West Coast.
October 2014
INSIDE Where to from here for wool Page 3 Family businesses dominate awards
Page 8-9 Sustainable farming with an eye to the future
Page 10-11 Showing animals a passion
CONTACT US Canterbury Farming 03 347 2314
by Kent Caddick
The wool industry is pondering its future path following the rejection of a proposed wool levy aimed at providing funds for the promotion of the industry. Around 12,300 farmers voted in the postal ballot which was around 47% of the eligible voters, with just over 57% rejecting the proposal. The plan had been to use the levy to raise around $4.2 million with the bulk of those funds, $2.7 million being tagged to raise the demand for wool. Chair of the Wool Levy Group which facilitated the vote, Sandra Faulkner, said they were pleased with the voter turnout. “Growers have elected to operate in a purely commercial environment and there will be some disappointment that this continues to see our $700 million wool industry without an independent, internationally recognised, non-commercial voice.” She said the result indicated there was greater appetite for levy funded activities from smaller sheep farmers than larger enterprises. However wool industry veteran John Betts, the founder of Yaldhurst Wools Ltd, said he didn’t think that was the case. “Farmers are tired of being asked to dip into their pockets to fund these types of promotional organisations.
“At the end of the day all they want to be able to do is to get a good price for their product and be paid promptly without someone clipping the ticket on the way through. “People always seem to be coming up with some scheme or other in the search for the golden fleece at the end of the rainbow.” Mr Betts, who has around 50 years’ experience in the New Zealand wool industry as a merchant and exporter, is a believer in the adage of ‘if it’s not broken why try and fix it’. He doesn’t think the New Zealand wool industry needs the type of promotion like that being proposed as part of the wool levy. “Internationally it is well recognised that New Zealand produces the Rolls Royce of wools and consequently it is in high demand. “Overseas buyers can always see what price New Zealand wool is fetching and know they are always going to get a top quality product which is often blended with inferior wools from Australia and South Africa.” He believed some of those who voted against the levy would have been burnt by the
Sheep farmers have again rejected a proposal to establishing a levy to assist with the promotion and development of wool
excesses of the now defunct Wool Board. However, Canterbury sheep farmer Jeanette Maxwell, said it was time to let go of the past. Mrs Maxwell, along with her husband Alister runs Rosehill Farm, a 300ha sheep and beef farm at the foot of Mt Hutt. While she was a member of the Wool Levy Group, she said she would have voted yes to the levy irrespective of her involvement and is hugely disappointed it was rejected. “What really summed it up for me was my 16-year-old son
who after hearing the levy had been rejected said to me ‘don’t they care about my future’. “The message this sends to young up and coming sheep farmers is no one cares about the future of wool as there is no investment in education, training and developing new technologies and better pasture in the wool sector. “Those who voted ‘no’ seem to be only concerned with what happens behind their farm gates but if the wool industry is to develop there needs to be some focus on
StructureWise
Limited
DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
You may not want to hang a tractor from your shed, but it would be nice to know you can! TM
• • • •
Commercial, rural or storage buildings From design to completion or supplied (Kitset) Steel, timber or concrete materials Sustainable materials, made in NZ
Station Street, Leeston / www.structurewise.co.nz / Ph 03 324 3392
what is happening beyond the gate. The co-ops and bigger enterprises have a product to push rather than finding ways to create the best product to take to market both nationally and internationally.” Mrs Maxwell hopes that with Beef + Lamb’s commodities levy coming up for review they may be able to take a more holistic approach to sheep. “If they were to look at changing from a meat levy to a sheep levy it could be used to promote the fibre as well as meat.”